Traditional Design Quotes

Some people have a concept of design: that it should be without the maker. I have been educated in this way, the traditional way. But I am not naive. I know that we make my things, and that people want them. I am signing them - and I am winking at them.

My inspiration for interior design is more historical than traditional.

Everyone is aware that most of the built environment today lacks a natural order, an order which presents itself very strongly in places that were built centuries ago.

I like stuff designed by dead people. The old designers. They always got it right because they didn't have to grow up with computers. All of the people that made the spoon and the dishes and the vacuum cleaner didn't have microprocessors and stuff. You could do a good design back then.

In fact, the public will accept any city plan and skyline provided that its architecture is traditional.

My mom decorated with lots of antiques. I never liked it when I was a little girl - I wanted to live in a modern house. But now I love it.

I got my first Charvet knit tie when I was 15. I actually stole it from my father. I love them because you can wear them day to night. They're French and preppy and have been around since the 1800s.

I don't have a traditional design background, but it's inherent to me. My father was in the fabric industry, and even my grandfather and my great-grandfather were lace manufacturers.

If you go to old houses on Long Island you will see painted Chinese wallpaper, which was big in the 18th century. Throughout history, notable, established families have always tried to link to the 18th century.

Bass Weejuns are the Cordovan black or brown penny loafers originally called Norwegian Loafers, hence their name. Worn without socks in the spring and summer, they must be kept to a high-gloss polish and should become burnished with wax over time until they have a fine patina.

I'd say I play on old world couture as opposed to modern day bridal; there's something very timeless and appealing in that.

They used to tease me at the 'Oprah' show, 'Are you really going to do another white Shaker kitchen, with white subway tile and stainless steel appliances?' And my answer is, 'I can vary it a bit, but I'm never going to err from classic materials.'

I hate the polo collar.

What got me really excited about Tylko is the fact that it bridges the gap between tradition and technology. It expands the designer's ability to create a language, to create ideas, to create a set of proportions, a set of details, and to apply those across a really wide range of applications.

So much in design is presented as a big miracle when it's just a repetition of what's been happening for 80 years.

At the Museum of Roman Art, the logic of the forms is very much modern. But in spite of that, the idea of the construction could be related to a historical time.

I'm always working on our home, but I want to keep the old look to it.

My house is very traditional. And I love 'shabby chic.' It's a very homey-cosy vibe. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen, actually; maybe my kids will be doing their homework or that kind of thing when they get home from school. I love my kitchen.

The most enjoyable things are the old eighteenth-century terraces that are still standing, that domestic architecture.

I like wearing classic pieces with a modern twist.

My background was in graphic design, but when I was doing it, it was all hand-drawn stuff, not computers.

Vintage never fits the way you think it will.

I usually tend to stay toward classic things.

Writing generally, it may be said that in design, roof, and general aspect, Japanese Buddhist temples are all alike. The sacred architectural idea expresses itself in nearly the same form always.

Architecture should be rooted in the past, and yet be part of our own time and forward looking.