Olivier Theyskens Quotes

We always see the point of an iceberg. So I've always accepted the idea that people - they don't necessarily know everything I am.

Our eyes reflect light. Better that the lips are more like a rose petal.

The only shoes that look futuristic are Crocs, but they would be terrible to use in a futuristic movie.

I could live naked... I love it.

I am interested in the idea of 'taste.' And by 'taste,' I mean opinion, inspiration and the craft of creating a personality through fabric and design.

I think the relationship is very tenuous between fashion and art. Many designers have built relationships with artists, which is not something I personally did. But it's true, sometimes you see artists working for a designer or a brand on some specific project or taking care of their environment and making an amazing store.

Knitted fur is so modern and light, it makes this retro shape cool again.

The aim of being a good designer is to have an influence. If you design furniture or lifestyle, you should influence the way people evolve globally. It's good to have an influence.

I don't think couture will die. But it should have no pretension that it will conquer the world. It's not something that will disappear because all you need is a thread and a needle to start making something couture.

When I was young, watching historical movies made me feel absolutely sublime. But the first few times I visited costume museums, I was really disappointed because it was not at the level I saw in movies. It was not the level of the image I'd imagined.

I am more used to seeing my work like a big collection, and only part of it is being shown.

My sense of designing is a mix of intuition and intellectual control.

For a long time I have been thinking about affordable fashion - you can be disappointed when not so many people can wear your stuff.

I would love, just once, to do costumes for a movie. I almost did some theater, but it is very different from what I am used to doing as a fashion designer.

With couture, you feel obligated to design something modern each season, but with Theyskens Theory, I don't question anything. I'm thinking of what I'd like to wear.

When Princess Diana got married, I was a very little kid, I think. I remember her dress, and I found the dress amazing when I was a kid.

Art is the way people see things, and I think it's great when individuals can find in fashion something they truly believe is artistic

I don't like to go beyond modernity because you think girls might be like that in five years, but in five years what I see now is going to be old; we are always going to go somewhere else. You have to bring a few novelties within what will remain.

When the economy changes, it's not like you want to start eating bad-tasting chocolate.

I haven't made many wedding dresses. It's a dress very, very important for the girl; it's important to know the person, I believe, but at the same time it should be a shock to the person - the person should be shocked to be suddenly revealed. That's the work of a designer sometimes, to propose an ID of look.

I really hated school. I had the feeling I was losing a lot of time.

My mother loved fashion and always had a great aesthetic. But she also considered the cost of it, with the kids, that it wasn't something to allow herself. It also probably nourished my passion and my will to make fashion, because I've always felt that, because of having a big family to take care of, she sacrificed a bit of her femininity.

What is funny is when you do a futuristic movie, you immediately get to be fashionable because you're creating something that doesn't exist.

People who don't know me sometimes call me 'Mademoiselle.'

In fashion, we don't often know the prices. We don't have time to go into the stores.

I rarely stay at home when I'm in New York. I'm always doing things. It brings you so much energy.

I didn't understand the advantages of staying active until I was about 27.

Even during the golden age of fashion, you had haute couture houses where the designers didn't have money.

I love to see what they [Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton] wear but I am not interested. It’s not natural. If you are a girl dressing up in the morning thinking about the whole world having a point of view on what you are wearing, it takes the pleasure out of getting dressed.

The aim of being a good designer is to have an influence. If you design furniture or lifestyle, you should influence the way people evolve globally. It's good to have an influence. I feel like people on the street today probably dress better than they did in the '50s.

When I started at [Nina] Ricci, I did street wear for very cool, young girls but the price point was for the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman next to Carolina Herrera. My cool girls cannot afford it.

I see the city as an organism, shaped through time by the little humans having habits and doing millions of stuff in and out of it.

Historical costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries look so complicated, but when you see the patterns, it's very systematic. I've always been impressed by how the patterns economize the fabric.

As a designer, I'm not a guy that can be put in a niche.

I've admired historical clothes like Victorian gowns since I was a child, and it's what motivated me to go into fashion.

When other boys dreamt of going to the moon or becoming doctors, I wanted to be a designer.

Everything I have is ready to wear, but I have the ability to have different options within the same brand. I have the Theyskens' Theory collection where it's a personal approach to how I build the collection where I fuse more fashion-y ideas and it has my name on it. So it's really something very research- and labor-intensive. And then I have the Theory brand where I infuse all points of view about fashion at large, and it's more global. It's really about making something succeed. You have an instant relationship with stores, and with sales teams, and people that are in the place.

I am not a designer that buys vintage to be inspired.

What is sure is that the satellite view of our world and its evolution is now a common reality.

I love to be in New York. And I think anybody who's a designer, who says they're doing an urban collection, thinks about the streets of New York. I cannot do an urban collection thinking of Bangkok. Or Mexico. To me, it's totally instant, totally connected with what attracts me these days. But this resurgence of a modern, cool way of being dressed is something that stimulates me and is totally right for me. Even now I don't like to show something that is some futuristic utopia.

Making clothes that everybody can wear is also something that stimulates me a lot, because I have this edgy, fashion-y part, but I am also totally involved with a brand that is about how people dress, and what they want. And it's a whole other look you can have on the street. It's exciting because it speaks to the other part of my job and what my passion is. A designer wants to make something useful for as many people as possible.