Alexander McQueen Quotes

You've got to know the rules to break them. That's what I'm here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.

The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today

Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.

There is no better designer than nature

People don't want to see clothes, they want to see something that fuels the imagination.

I think there is beauty in everything. What 'normal' people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it.

I use things that people want to hide in their heads. War, religion, sex; things we all think about, but don’t bring to the forefront. But I do and I force them to watch it

If you're lucky enough to use something you see in a dream, it is purely original. It's not in the world - it's in your head. I think that is amazing.

When I'm dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.

There comes a time in your life when you focus solely on what you believe is right, regardless of what everybody else is doing.

For me, what I do is an artistic expression which is channeled through me. Fashion is just the medium.

Fashion is self confident and fearless.

It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.

It is important to look at death because it is a part of life. It is a sad thing, melancholy but romantic at the same time. It is the end of a cycle - everything has to end. The cycle of life is positive because it gives room for new things.

Style is not about the clothes, it's about the individual

I am an avid follower of the news, and sometimes you just can't take any more war, any more disasters, and you want to remind yourself there's beauty in the world. I wanted to show a more poetic side to my work. It was all about... a feeling of sadness, but in a cinematic kind of way. I find beauty in melancholy.

Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I’m inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering. It’s so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to women.

I am constantly trying to reflect the way women are treated. It's hard to interpret that in clothes or in a show but there's always an underlying, sinister side to women's sexuality in my work because of the way I have seen women treated in my life. Where I come from, a woman met a man, had babies, moved to Dagenham, two up two down, made the dinner, went to bed. That was my image of women and I didn't want that. I wanted to get that out of my head.

I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.

Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.

I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.

For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.

It's almost like putting armor on a woman. It's a very psychological way of dressing.

There is no way back for me now, I'm going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed possible

I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil.

The reason I'm patriotic about Scotland is because I think it's been dealt a really hard hand. It's marketed the world over as . . . haggis . . . bagpipes. But no one ever puts anything back into it.

I find beauty in melancholy.

For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I'm getting there: I've found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.

You can only go forward by making mistakes.

If you're an open book, there's no allure.

British fashion is self confident and fearless. It refuses to bow to commerce, thus generating a constant flow of new ideas whilst drawing in British heritage.

Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual. When you see a woman in my clothes, you want to know more about them. To me, that is what distinguishes good designers from bad designers.

There's beauty in anger, and anger for me is a passion.

I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.

Beauty can come from the strangest of places, even the most disgusting of places.

I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition

Of course I make mistakes. I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.

Menswear is about subtlety. It's about good style and good taste.

There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance.

It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance.

I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.

When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there’s a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off.

People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don't see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality.

Women should look like women. A piece of cardboard has no sexuality.

If you ask any lady they want to be taller, they want to be slimmer, you know, and they want a waist. I'm not here to make people look like a sack of potatoes.

It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things.

Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual.

There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.

I think there has to be an underlying sexuality. There has to be a perverseness to the clothes. There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance. It's like a Story of O. I am not big on women looking naive. There has to be a sinister aspect, whether it's melancholy of sadomasochist. I think everyone has a deep sexuality, and sometimes it's good to use a little of it-and sometimes a lot of it-like a masquerade.

As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.