Fashion is not just about clothing; it’s a form of self-expression, a way of life. The world’s top fashion designers have used their innovative minds to revolutionize the fashion industry and shape how we dress today.
Here are the 100 inspiring quotes from some of the best fashion designers that can ignite your love for fashion even more.
Inspiring Quotes from the World’s Top Fashion Designers
- Coco Chanel: “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.”
- Yves Saint Laurent: “Fashions fade, style is eternal.”
- Giorgio Armani: “Elegance is not about being noticed, it’s about being remembered.”
- Christian Dior: “Simplicity, good taste, and grooming are the three fundamentals of good dressing and these do not cost money.”
- Alexander McQueen: “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.”
- Vera Wang: “A woman is never sexier than when she is comfortable in her clothes.”
- Ralph Lauren: “Fashion is about something that comes from within you.”
- Diane von Fürstenberg: “Style is something each of us already has, all we need to do is find it.”
- Karl Lagerfeld: “Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.”
- Donatella Versace: “Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas.”
- Tom Ford: “Dressing well is a form of good manners.”
- Miuccia Prada: “What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language.”
- Oscar de la Renta: “Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself.”
- Stella McCartney: “I literally have meetings at eight o’clock in the morning, and I finish at nine o’clock at night. It sounds pathetic, but I don’t even have time to go shopping.”
- Marc Jacobs: “Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.”
- Betsey Johnson: “Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves, and of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys, they’d just walk around naked at all times.”
- Jean Paul Gaultier: “Elegance is a question of personality, more than one’s clothing.”
- Vivienne Westwood: “You have a more interesting life if you wear impressive clothes.”
- Michael Kors: “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.”
- Hubert de Givenchy: “The dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress.”
- Carolina Herrera: “Fashion is to please your eye. Shapes and proportions are for your intellect.”
- Mary Quant: “Fashion is not frivolous. It is a part of being alive today.”
- Anna Sui: “Clothing is the first step to building a character.”
- Paul Smith: “You can find inspiration in everything. If you can’t, then you’re not looking properly.”
- Christian Louboutin: “A shoe has so much more to offer than just to walk.”
- Rei Kawakubo: “Personally, I don’t care about function at all. When I hear ‘Where could you wear that?’ Or ‘It’s not very wearable,’ or ‘Who would wear that?’ To me, it’s the most annoying thing people can say.”
- Phoebe Philo: “The chicest thing is when you don’t exist on Google. God, I would love to be that person!”
- Alber Elbaz: “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.”
- John Galliano: “The joy of dressing is an art.”
- Pierre Cardin: “The clothes that I prefer are those that I invent for a life that doesn’t exist yet — the world of tomorrow.”
- Norma Kamali: “I love to take things that are everyday and comforting and make them into the most luxurious things in the world.”
- Olivier Rousteing: “Fashion is a revolution, not an evolution.”
- Elsa Schiaparelli: “In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous.”
- Valentino Garavani: “I know what women want. They want to be beautiful.”
- Claude Montana: “Fashion is like eating. You shouldn’t stick with the same menu.”
- Alexander Wang: “Anyone can get dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress in their days off that are the most intriguing.”
- Iris Van Herpen: “For me, fashion is an expression of art that is very closely related both to me and to my body. I see it as an expression of identity combined with desire, moods and a cultural setting.”
- Halston: “You are only as good as the people you dress.”
- Thierry Mugler: “Fashion is a movie. Every morning when you get dressed, you direct yourself.”
- Sonia Rykiel: “How can you live the high life if you do not wear the high heels?”
- Christian Lacroix: “Fashion is always of the time in which you live. It is not something standing alone.”
- Emilio Pucci: “Fashion is never in crisis because clothes are always necessary.”
- Zac Posen: “Fashion is about dreaming and making other people dream.”
- Manolo Blahnik: “Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.”
- Hedi Slimane: “Fashions come and go, but style is forever.”
- John Varvatos: “Style is timeless. It transcends generations – it’s enduring. If you’re thinking about fashion, it’s of the moment. And that doesn’t mean that it’s not important, but it’s not long-lasting.”
- Andre Courreges: “The woman who hasn’t at least a touch of rebellion in her soul is just a female.”
- Azzedine Alaïa: “Fashion will last forever. It will exist always. It will exist in its own way in each era.”
- Jeremy Scott: “I don’t understand how people can be bored with fashion.”
- Issey Miyake: “Design is not for philosophy—it’s for life.”
- Erdem Moralioglu: “It’s more interesting to have just a picture of a small detail – then you can dream all the rest around it. Because when you see the whole thing, what is there to imagine?”
- Tommy Hilfiger: “American fashion is about casual style.”
- Naeem Khan: “You have to keep moving forward, evolving, because the minute you sit back, you’re dead.”
- Martin Margiela: “I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.”
- Roksanda Ilincic: “My dresses are for women of all different shapes and sizes. Actually, the one I tried on yesterday was the one I designed for women with a bigger bust. And when I wore it, I looked flat-chested.”
- Balmain’s Olivier Rousteing: “My job is not just to design clothes but to also give a new vision to fashion.”
- Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen: “We’ve stayed really normal and down to Earth I think, and haven’t let the success thing go to our head.”
- Nicolas Ghesquière: “My work is more about trying to ask good questions and not trying to come up with big shows. Every fashion company is thinking of ways to get people to come into their stores and want to be part of their universe.”
- Anna Molinari: “Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.”
- Thakoon Panichgul: “In the end, the most important thing is to be true to yourself and those you love and work hard. I mean, work like there’s no tomorrow. Train. Strive. Really train and cultivate your talent to the highest degree. Be the best at what you do. Get to know more about your field than anybody alive.”
- Consuelo Castiglioni: “I’ve always thought of the T-shirt as the Alpha and Omega of the fashion alphabet.”
- Jil Sander: “Clothes could have more meaning and longevity if people think harder about what they wear.”
- Donna Karan: “Design is a constant challenge to balance comfort with luxe, the practical with the desirable.”
- Christopher Bailey: “The only way to do something in depth is to work hard.”
- Paco Rabanne: “With a suit, always wear big British shoes, the ones with large welts. There’s nothing worse than dainty little Italian jobs at the end of the leg line.”
- Hussein Chalayan: “The more that you work and that you learn, the more you have to say. That’s always been my philosophy.”
- Pierre Balmain: “Good fashion is evolution, not revolution.”
- Rick Owens: “Working out is modern couture. No outfit is going to make you look or feel as good as having a fit body. Buy less clothing and go to the gym instead.”
- Peter Dundas: “To me, my philosophy is the woman first, the dress second. It’s always about the girl, and it’s always for the girls.”
- Stefano Gabbana: “Luxury is the income tax of vanity. But it is so pleasant.”
- Haider Ackermann: “I’ve always tried to push myself technically and to push myself visually. That’s been part of the journey.”
- Antonio Berardi: “A woman’s never sexier than when she’s comfortable in her clothes.”
- Alberta Ferretti: “A dress is a piece of ephemeral architecture, designed to enhance the proportions of the female body.”
- Kate Spade: “Surrounding yourself with possessions that you really love can have a real impact on the way you live your life.”
- Sabyasachi Mukherjee: “The Indian bride wants to feel like a queen on her wedding day. I try to make that dream come true.”
- Elie Saab: “I like the idea of elegance and intricacy, but whether it is in a piece of clothing or a fragrance, the intricacy must appear as simplicity.”
- Narciso Rodriguez: “Really rejoice in being yourself. Have your own drumbeat.”
- Joseph Altuzarra: “Fashion is so subjective, and I think it should be playful.”
- Jason Wu: “I think you have to remember that expression is expression. You can’t censor people’s feelings, and people need to talk about what they feel.”
- Clare Waight Keller: “I think it’s really about the woman who wears it and how it makes her feel.”
- Tory Burch: “If it doesn’t scare you, you’re probably not dreaming big enough.”
- David Koma: “There is beauty in simplicity.”
- Neil Barrett: “The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years.”
- Gloria Vanderbilt: “I always believed that one woman’s success can only help another woman’s success.”
- Ulyana Sergeenko: “The past is romantic because it’s a distant, beautiful dream.”
- Phillip Lim: “Sometimes the simplest things are the most profound.”
- Jenny Packham: “Your dresses should be tight enough to show you’re a woman and loose enough to show you’re a lady.”
- Mara Hoffman: “I hope people remember me as a woman who danced her way through life with a little sparkle and a lot of gusto.”
- Fausto Puglisi: “More is more and less is a bore.”
- Patricia Field: “When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.”
- Thierry Colson: “The dress must not hang on the body but follow its lines. When a woman smiles the dress must smile with her.”
- Eudon Choi: “An elegant woman is a woman who despises you and has no hair under her arms.”
- Nicole Farhi: “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.”
- Hannah Weiland: “Always dress like you’re going to see your worst enemy.”
- Samantha Cameron: “Fashion has two purposes: comfort and love. Beauty comes when fashion succeeds.”
- Osman Yousefzada: “The fashionable woman wears clothes. The clothes don’t wear her.”
- Pamella Roland: “The hardest thing in fashion is not to be known for a logo, but to be known for a silhouette.”
- Jonathan Saunders: “You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.”
- Kit Willow: “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness, simply didn’t know where to go shopping.”
- Christopher Kane: “Elegance is not standing out, but being remembered.”
Above quotes truly encapsulate the world of fashion, showing self-expression, individuality, and imagination. Each quote reveals a different perspective on what fashion means and what it can represent, serving as a testament to the diversity and depth of this vibrant industry.
