Balenciaga was my religion. Since I'm a believer, for me, there's Balenciaga, and the good Lord.Collection: Religion
I haven't really got a green thumb, but I love gardens and their architecture.Collection: Architecture
You never finish learning.Collection: Learning
You have to know when to stop - that's wisdom.Collection: Wisdom
Fabric is the most extraordinary thing; it has life. You must respect the fabric.Collection: Respect
Like in great painting and architecture, in couture, to make clothes you must eliminate, eliminate, eliminate to obtain the true sense of a line. You see, the more you add, the more you load on, the more it's mad. You must try to have just the silhouette, which is an intelligence in clothes.Collection: Intelligence
It's the most beautiful job in the world to give happiness to people.Collection: Happiness
It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can't help but be sensitive to that.
People say I am a classic designer. I don't try to be classic, but I do try to be simple and elegant.
To be a couture designer is not only to create dresses but to adapt your line to your private customers. It is why couture is expensive. You are like a doctor.
If you want to express yourself, it is difficult to be by yourself. You must have people around you who understand the same music. It is like being the chef d'orchestra. They need you, but you need them desperately.
Each of my garments is something special in itself. You give all your energy to each piece, to each creation, and I have no favourite. I love all of them equally.
Of course everyone dreams of living in the 17th or the 18th century because of the costumes, but there were so many incommodities.
Mine is one of the most beautiful professions in fashion: making others happy with an idea... I am happy because I did the job I dreamt of as a child.
I had this creativity always with this will for perfection, and I always said to myself, 'Look for what's best.' 'That's your goal, your driving principle.'
If I had to start over, I'll do the same thing: street clothes are the future; the client can choose two or three things and combine them as she wants.
When you are a designer, what's important is to be aware of things. Everything should lead to an idea, a line to follow, a movement.
I don't think I am avant-garde. I made a lot of creations and created harmony with my fabrics, but I was not like Balenciaga, for example, although he was, of course, a great inspiration.
My grandmother had a cupboard where she kept her collections and textile samples of all sorts of things. When I had good grades, I could take out one piece of work to look at.
When you see the best of the best - when you see a Matisse or a Picasso - what interests you is the creativity and harmony.
I love to dance, and I love to see people dance. It is good exercise. It gives you a kind of energy.
Balenciaga taught me everything I know. He taught me to care for the details, that it was not necessary to sew on a button where it had no use or to add a flower to make a dress beautiful... no unnecessary detail.
In the early '50s, it was still the time of Christian Dior's New Look. Every dress was big and important, and I thought I must do something completely different. Women needed something for daytime that was wearable.
Always I remember when I am young, I ask my mother, 'I really want to be a dress designer.' In that time, was quite difficult because, you know, my family always criticize me for it not to be a man's job.
You work around a body and adapt the clothes to your own customer, and this is the interesting part. This is why the haute couture exists: because in ready-to-wear, you have not too much fitting.
I had the fortune to evolve at a time when fashion was very important, and women dressed themselves very well. A woman who dressed very well also had a husband who would have beautiful collections of art and decorative objects.
As a student, I was more gifted in history and geography. Things like arithmetic were not my strength.