Donna Karan
My mother was a working woman, and I was alone a lot. So I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom.Collection: Mom
Design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort so you can get on with the things that matter.Collection: Design
I love building spaces: architecture, furniture, all of it, probably more than fashion. The development procedure is more tactile. It's about space and form and it's something you can share with other people.Collection: Architecture
I design from instinct. It's the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut.Collection: Design
Design is a constant challenge to balance comfort with luxe, the practical with the desirable.Collection: Design
I've always been about the power of a woman - accentuating the positive, deleting the negative, whether you're talking her body, her voice or her leadership.Collection: Leadership
Age and size are only numbers. It's the attitude you bring to clothes that make the difference.Collection: Age
To me, design and style should work toward making you look good and feel good without a lot of effort - so you can get on with the things that matter.Collection: Design
Delete the negative; accentuate the positive!Collection: Positive
Everything in life... has to have balance.Collection: Life
I believe in comfort. If you don't feel comfortable in your clothes, it's hard to think of anything else.
Everything I do is a matter of heart, body and soul.
I'm a nature bug.
Evening is a time of real experimentation. You never want to look the same way.
We've come a long way. Power dressing now is designed to let the woman inside us come through.
I feel very strongly about dresses on every level - a dress feels like underpinning.
I'd rather promote New York than anything else in this world because New York to me means the world.
It's really easy to get colors right. It's really hard to get black - and neutrals - right. Black is certainly a color but it's also an illusion.
You don't have that much choice in your life, which is one of the big lessons I've learned. I was going to be a designer whether I wanted to be a designer or not.
I love skiing, I love the sun, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, I love my family and friends... and whatever I haven't done.
I think I was a nomad in another life.
I give Reiki, which is energy, but I don't tell too many people that.
When I first started designing, all women were dressed like men, and I said, 'Hey, guys, let's be women, put the two together - it's not either/or. Let's celebrate our bodies. Our bodies are different.'
It used to be only yoga, but now I do Pilates as well; I feel like I need the balance.
I'm truly, truly boring! I don't change. If people know me, I have not changed.
If it's a regular day, I won't wear any makeup, just leave my hair down and head out to the car.
Scheduling me is not easy, as most people know, because once I start, I don't stop.
Basically, I was a hippie and still am a flower child.
I'm really quite simple.
I wouldn't be who I am without my husband, who handled the business end of Donna Karan so I could be creative.
I live for what I haven't done.
Originally, back in 1992, DKNY started because I couldn't find a pair of jeans. I also wanted to dress my teenage daughter Gabby. So it was the perfect street wardrobe: jeans, anoraks, jumpsuits, boyfriend jackets, sweaters, skirts and dresses. Then DKNY grew into an entire lifestyle concept, including tailored clothes you wear to work.
I always thought what you wore underneath was as important as what you wear on top.
Business, numbers, negotiations, all that stuff I wouldn't go near.
I always thought I should have been a better mother.
My daughter Gabby very kindly once said that she thinks I was a better mother because I was doing a job I loved. I now think guilt is a universal part of being a mother. I used to think it was Jewish-mother guilt but now I think it is working-mother guilt.
I truly believe that philanthropy and commerce can work together.
When I started Donna Karan, people weren't really accepting the idea of the working woman.
Everything comes out of what works for me.
I start my day with a mind, body, soul practice - yoga, Pilates or meditation.
Women should always take care of themselves first. It makes you more equipped to take care of others.
I really feel that we need to scale back and get to what is important on so many levels.
If I weren't doing what I'm doing today... I'd be traveling around the world on the back of a motorcycle.
Its all about finding the calm in the chaos.Collection: Calm
I believe in the power of women. As nurturers, we have a unique ability to care and share and make the world a better place. Women Who Inspire are women who are making a difference.Collection: Believe
Every problem has a creative solution.Collection: Creative
My mind is always racing with ideas or things I should be doing.Collection: Ideas
I couldn't live without something that touches my heart. No one should.Collection: Heart
Personal Style comes from within. It's when the woman, her individuality and spirit come through. She uses clothes to express who she is and how she feelsCollection: Clothes