Top 57 Quotes & Sayings by Olivier Theyskens

I haven't made many wedding dresses. It's a dress very, very important for the girl; it's important to know the person, I believe, but at the same time it should be a shock to the person - the person should be shocked to be suddenly revealed. That's the work of a designer sometimes, to propose an ID of look.

My first collection was made from sheets that my grandmother, who lived in Normandy, had been collecting for a long time. There are a lot of flea markets in that part of France, and she knew what I liked.

When I started at Ricci, I did street wear for very cool, young girls, but the price point was for the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman next to Carolina Herrera. My cool girls cannot afford it.

I've admired historical clothes like Victorian gowns since I was a child, and it's what motivated me to go into fashion.

I didn't understand the advantages of staying active until I was about 27.

For a long time I have been thinking about affordable fashion - you can be disappointed when not so many people can wear your stuff.

I like to be lazy. I do like to be busy and really active, but when that's done, you can be sure I will be a lazy boy. I like to take time and relax and enjoy life.

When I was very young, I wanted to be a girl. I was jealous that girls got to be princesses and wear skirts. It tormented me. When I was 6, I even heard that you could change your sex, and I was very intrigued until the moment I realized that if I changed into a girl, I would be an ugly girl, and this is the last thing I wanted to be.

Personality is so important - when you dress somebody for a big party, it is good to feel that the person has an ease and naturalness with what she is wearing.

I always like to preserve my freedom. I've never really been attached to any place; that's probably why I kept moving. I like to evolve.

When I was young, watching historical movies made me feel absolutely sublime. But the first few times I visited costume museums, I was really disappointed because it was not at the level I saw in movies. It was not the level of the image I'd imagined.

Personally, I have had sometimes moments where I thought my idea behind the idea of a collection - the concept maybe - something that we don't see at the end on the catwalk, I think the way it was, the genesis in my mind, was probably artistic, an artistic approach.

I'm kind of obsessed with cool girls.

I see the city as an organism, shaped through time by the little humans having habits and doing millions of stuff in and out of it.

As a designer, I'm not a guy that can be put in a niche.

If you are a girl dressing up in the morning thinking about the whole world having a point of view on what you are wearing, it takes the pleasure out of getting dressed.

With couture, you feel obligated to design something modern each season, but with Theyskens Theory, I don't question anything. I'm thinking of what I'd like to wear.

I feel super lucky to be living in New York. I love the city, I love the energy. I always loved it. I had pictures of New York in my bedroom when I was young.

My sense of designing is a mix of intuition and intellectual control.

I rarely stay at home when I'm in New York. I'm always doing things. It brings you so much energy.

The only shoes that look futuristic are Crocs, but they would be terrible to use in a futuristic movie.

The aim of being a good designer is to have an influence. If you design furniture or lifestyle, you should influence the way people evolve globally. It's good to have an influence.

Personally, I am not so affected by my environment. What I build in the creative process is not necessarily connected to what I am physically in contact with. I am always observing everything, but it will not necessarily have a direct impact on what I do.

I am not a designer that buys vintage to be inspired.

What is funny is when you do a futuristic movie, you immediately get to be fashionable because you're creating something that doesn't exist.

People who don't know me sometimes call me 'Mademoiselle.'

Historical costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries look so complicated, but when you see the patterns, it's very systematic. I've always been impressed by how the patterns economize the fabric.

I could live naked... I love it.

A black dress is beautiful! It's a good choice. It could be the wrong choice at certain events or situations, but it's very rare that you see a girl who looks bad in a black dress.

Today there are more things you can wear for the same occasions. I still like this idea of the perfect suit, and I always love tailoring, but today you can have more things for this type of situation, clothes that have class and that are mixable, and that are super well cut.

In fashion, we don't often know the prices. We don't have time to go into the stores.

When Princess Diana got married, I was a very little kid, I think. I remember her dress, and I found the dress amazing when I was a kid.

I think the relationship is very tenuous between fashion and art. Many designers have built relationships with artists, which is not something I personally did. But it's true, sometimes you see artists working for a designer or a brand on some specific project or taking care of their environment and making an amazing store.

I really hated school. I had the feeling I was losing a lot of time.

Art is the way people see things, and I think it's great when individuals can find in fashion something they truly believe is artistic.

When other boys dreamt of going to the moon or becoming doctors, I wanted to be a designer.

I don't think couture will die. But it should have no pretension that it will conquer the world. It's not something that will disappear because all you need is a thread and a needle to start making something couture.

Our eyes reflect light. Better that the lips are more like a rose petal.

What is sure is that the satellite view of our world and its evolution is now a common reality.

We always see the point of an iceberg. So I've always accepted the idea that people - they don't necessarily know everything I am.

Even during the golden age of fashion, you had haute couture houses where the designers didn't have money.

It's interesting for me because in my work, a lot of times, I like to scrutinize the clothes and think what's going to make them look dated, and I do the same with vintage. In vintage, you want something unique and different, but at the same time, something that doesn't make you look like you dress like a grandpa.

I am interested in the idea of 'taste.' And by 'taste,' I mean opinion, inspiration and the craft of creating a personality through fabric and design.

My mother loved fashion and always had a great aesthetic. But she also considered the cost of it, with the kids, that it wasn't something to allow herself.

My mother loved fashion and always had a great aesthetic. But she also considered the cost of it, with the kids, that it wasn't something to allow herself. It also probably nourished my passion and my will to make fashion, because I've always felt that, because of having a big family to take care of, she sacrificed a bit of her femininity.

Knitted fur is so modern and light, it makes this retro shape cool again.

I love to see what they [Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton] wear but I am not interested. It’s not natural. If you are a girl dressing up in the morning thinking about the whole world having a point of view on what you are wearing, it takes the pleasure out of getting dressed.

Making clothes that everybody can wear is also something that stimulates me a lot, because I have this edgy, fashion-y part, but I am also totally involved with a brand that is about how people dress, and what they want. And it's a whole other look you can have on the street. It's exciting because it speaks to the other part of my job and what my passion is. A designer wants to make something useful for as many people as possible.

I don't like to go beyond modernity because you think girls might be like that in five years, but in five years what I see now is going to be old; we are always going to go somewhere else. You have to bring a few novelties within what will remain.

When I started at [Nina] Ricci, I did street wear for very cool, young girls but the price point was for the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman next to Carolina Herrera. My cool girls cannot afford it.

I love to be in New York. And I think anybody who's a designer, who says they're doing an urban collection, thinks about the streets of New York. I cannot do an urban collection thinking of Bangkok. Or Mexico. To me, it's totally instant, totally connected with what attracts me these days. But this resurgence of a modern, cool way of being dressed is something that stimulates me and is totally right for me. Even now I don't like to show something that is some futuristic utopia.

I am more used to seeing my work like a big collection, and only part of it is being shown.

I would love, just once, to do costumes for a movie. I almost did some theater, but it is very different from what I am used to doing as a fashion designer.

The aim of being a good designer is to have an influence. If you design furniture or lifestyle, you should influence the way people evolve globally. It's good to have an influence. I feel like people on the street today probably dress better than they did in the '50s.

When the economy changes, it's not like you want to start eating bad-tasting chocolate.

Art is the way people see things, and I think it's great when individuals can find in fashion something they truly believe is artistic

Everything I have is ready to wear, but I have the ability to have different options within the same brand. I have the Theyskens' Theory collection where it's a personal approach to how I build the collection where I fuse more fashion-y ideas and it has my name on it. So it's really something very research- and labor-intensive. And then I have the Theory brand where I infuse all points of view about fashion at large, and it's more global. It's really about making something succeed. You have an instant relationship with stores, and with sales teams, and people that are in the place.