The only way to do something in depth is to work hard. I like the irony in my work. I like the irony in my work. I love a black dress. Men don’t want another man to look at their woman because they don’t know how to handle it.
I get ideas about what’s essential when packing my suitcase. I was the first person to have a punk rock hairstyle. I like the body. I like to design everything to do with the body. I am not interested in the past, except as the road to the future. I love the 2000s because everyone started to love haute couture.
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion. I didn’t want to be a fashion designer, and for a good half of my career I didn’t like it. I always wanted to do other things. Every day I’m thinking about change. Jeans represent democracy in fashion. I love things that age well – things that don’t date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.
Men have got more of a discerning eye. They appreciate cut and details, things that aren’t so obvious. They like things that have cachet and gentlemanliness. That is the key of this collection, being yourself. Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way to live. I sometimes feel that a pattern is almost a fashion statement in itself. I do not have one theme for each season, I just try to make beautiful clothes all year round. People said making clothes inside out was not proper. I disagreed, because clothes that are inside out are as beautiful as a cathedral.
Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself. Awkwardness gives me great comfort. I’ve never been cool, but I’ve felt cool. I’ve been in the cool place, but I wasn’t really cool – I was trying to pass for hip or cool. It’s the awkwardness that’s nice. I think I’d go mad if I didn’t have a place to escape to. If you cut a painter’s hands off, he’d still feel the urge to pick up a brush. I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.
