Alber Elbaz
I don't go out to parties because I'd look terrible in pictures. My escape is television - it's like meditation to me.
At Yves Saint Laurent, I felt like the son-in-law - like I was part of the family, but not quite. When I was fired, I felt like the widow.
I spend my time backstage at the Lanvin shows, and when I come out at the end, all I see are people's eyes.
For me, Lancome was more than just a brand. There was something very nostalgic about the name, about the whole story.
The nature of fashion is family.
I don't think you can be a designer if you don't care.
I love women. I get along with women more than men, and I have more women friends.
I hate bridges. I'm always very insecure on bridges.
Fashion doesn't look good only on models; it can look good on different people of different ages and different body shapes.
I'm always looking for a story.
How do you stand out as a fashion ad campaign? By using people off the street; it does generate buzz.
I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection.Collection: Thinking
Elegant is not what you wear, and it's not about how you wear it, but it's more about who you are.Collection: Elegant
Style is the only thing you can't buy. It's not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It's something reflected from our soul to the outside world. An emotion.Collection: Price Tag
I feel more and more that the most beautiful people are the ones who are comfortable with themselves.Collection: Beautiful
Fashion is not about before, it’s not about after, it’s about nowCollection: Fashion
Pure, intense emotions. It's not about design. It's about feelings.Collection: Fashion
If it’s not edible, it’s not food. If it’s not wearable, it’s not fashion.Collection: Fashion
I like first class, but I don't like first class people - I prefer the people in coach. I like fine restaurants, but prefer the taste of McDonalds. I like to be perfect, but I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection. I know, I am a walking contradiction.Collection: Fashion
I'd rather be relevant than cool.Collection: Relevant
Fashion is about having a fantasy.Collection: Fashion
I think 'modesty' is a beautiful word today - and a beautiful attitude.Collection: Beautiful
Making them feel gorgeous and comfortable is my way of making women's lives easier.Collection: Way
Yves Saint Laurent gave women power, Chanel liberated them and when I joined Lanvin, I thought 'what do I bring to women? One day, I received an SMS from a friend in New York - she was in a taxi on the way to court to face her arsehole ex-husband, and she said to me 'Alber, I am wearing a Lanvin dress, and I feel so protected.' That to me was the biggest compliment I ever received. To have a 500 gram piece of silk make her feel protected - that made me very happy indeed.Collection: New York
Sometimes you don't really need armor to feel protected. Sometimes maybe you need just a chiffon dress to hug you.Collection: Hug
When a woman's clothes are in harmony with her emotions, she shines from within.Collection: Clothes
I think that we are in a very strange time, when everybody is thinking about what is going to happen, and everybody is kind of cleaning house a little bit. In the fashion world, we are doing something similar. We are taking the fake out and being a little bit more real and simple.Collection: Fashion
Fashion is like a fruit, you couldn't eat it a day before and you can't eat it a day after; it's just about todayCollection: Fashion
Wear flats. You're short. It's much cooler not to pretend.Collection: Flats
I love to travel inside my head, take journeys toward the unknown, meet new people, dream.Collection: Dream
Fashion doesn't look good only on models, it can look good on different people of different ages and different body shapes.Collection: Fashion
It was not the story of design or clothes, it was the fantasy of women that made me want to work in fashion.Collection: Fashion
Fashion is like life. It needs fear and uncertainty if you are to move forward.Collection: Fashion
I know amazing people in fashion who are anything but fake. They are very real and very sensitive. They are happy and sad. They are loyal friends.Collection: Fashion
In fashion, we have a reputation for being such a façade, fake people, but none of the fashion people who I know are fake.Collection: Fake People
With fashion, I barely finish one collection before I must start another.Collection: Fashion
The big room or big suite doesn't mean a lot to me. It is what the people do or don't do that matters.Collection: Mean
I don’t take drugs because if I did I’d love them–I’d be a junkie. And because I’m Jewish, I’d probably be a dealer, too.Collection: Drug
I have a problem to do a collection that is a secondary line. I mean, you don’t want to be the stepsister. You want to be Cinderella. Show me one girl who wants to be the stepsister.Collection: Girl
After every show, I say to Hania [Destelle, a friend], ‘They hated it.’Collection: Hated
What we want is clothing we think we can fly in. That's why I opened the show with flying dresses.Collection: Thinking
I'm not going into the cool club. It's not my address.Collection: Addresses
We are comfortable with formulas, but the best happens when the formula doesn't work.Collection: Formulas
I am very sensitive to the smells and sensations that are part of perfumes because they remind me of things: moments from the past, people, events.Collection: Past
All the young people in fashion worship the people who have been around a long time. I think it is about keeping something going through the generations. Take my work: Just because I'm not 20 anymore doesn't mean that people don't appreciate what I do.Collection: Fashion
I think that because I'm overweight, [my] fantasy was lightness. So I project my fantasy to the clothes, and now all I do is light, light clothes because it's the one thing I don't have. That is why I'm too afraid to lose weight because then I might make heavy clothes.Collection: Fashion
I am very much a people person. If I am in a beautiful place but I don't like the people, I am miserable.Collection: Beautiful
H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.Collection: Dream
The whole season thing is nonsense. It's either beautiful or it isn't. That's something I really learned when I started collecting dresses.Collection: Beautiful