Top 90 Quotes & Sayings by Yves Saint Laurent

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a French designer Yves Saint Laurent.
Last updated on September 17, 2024.
Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Henri Donat Mathieu-Saint-Laurent, referred to as Yves Saint-Laurent or YSL, was a French fashion designer who, in 1962, founded his eponymous fashion label. He is regarded as being among the foremost fashion designers of the twentieth century. In 1985, Caroline Milbank wrote, "The most consistently celebrated and influential designer of the past twenty-five years, Yves Saint Laurent can be credited with both spurring the couture's rise from its 1960s ashes and with finally rendering ready-to-wear reputable." He developed his style to accommodate the changes in fashion during that period. He approached his aesthetic from a different perspective by helping women find confidence by looking both comfortable and elegant at the same time. He is also credited with having introduced the "Le Smoking" tuxedo suit for women and was known for his use of non-European cultural references and of diverse models.

Good clothing is a passport to happiness.
I'm not deceived by people, because I don't pay attention to people.
Basic clothes are for all women, to last for decades and decades. They are the future and will never change. I am persuaded of that. — © Yves Saint Laurent
Basic clothes are for all women, to last for decades and decades. They are the future and will never change. I am persuaded of that.
I try to only be in agreeable circumstances.
The big difference between couture and ready-to-wear is not design. It is the fabrics, the handwork, and the fittings. The act of creation is the same.
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.
Poiret made clothes for individual customers, but I wouldn't like to make a dress just for its own sake.
Seeing Cubism paintings at the Beaubourg makes me very happy and, also, old films.
I just tried to be an artist in my own metier.
My favorite thing is a black sweater and skirt, which you can wear all the time by changing the accessories.
Fashions fade, style is eternal.
Dressing is a way of life.
Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.
I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
When I look at the five thousand garments and then all this music hall work, I ask myself how I could have done it all. I was a phenomenon! — © Yves Saint Laurent
When I look at the five thousand garments and then all this music hall work, I ask myself how I could have done it all. I was a phenomenon!
I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
When I was young in the 1960s, all the world watched the youth. Everywhere was the sensation of wanting to break the chains but to do something beautiful. It is my privilege to have beauty always near me.
I hate fashion. I don't have any fun doing it. A show terrifies me.
We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.
I'm constantly looking for perfection.
I wanted women to have the same basic wardrobe as a man. Blazer, trousers, and suit. They're so functional. I believed women wanted this and was right.
I'm very sure of myself - what I do and what I like.
I had noticed men were much more confident in their clothes. So I sought through trouser suits, trench coats, tuxedos, and pea coats to give women the same confidence.
I tell myself that I created the wardrobe of the contemporary woman, that I participated in the transformation of my times.
I couldn't love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something.
I do not decide that skirts shall be short or long. The shape of the dress itself often dictates the length.
I want to give haute couture a kind of wink, a sense of humour - to introduce the whole sense of freedom one sees in the street into high fashion; to give couture the same provocative and arrogant look as punk - but, of course, with luxury and dignity and style.
Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?
I'd really like to be in closer contact with life. I'm a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside.
I am very happy to design haute couture. It's a love story between couture and me.
It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion.
I told myself repeatedly, 'One day you will be famous.'
I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.
A visit to Marrakesh was a great shock to me. This city taught me color.
If men wanted to look good in a skirt, they would need the body of an African. And the colour. A skirt with white, skinny legs. Horrible!
I adore America. It's an extraordinary country. A new country.
A good model can advance fashion by ten years.
My classmates could see I was not similar. So they made me their scapegoat. They hit me or locked me in the toilets. During the break, I would take refuge in the chapel, or I would arrange to stay alone in the classroom.
I'm so secluded. Very alone. — © Yves Saint Laurent
I'm so secluded. Very alone.
I live in solitude. I have need of solitude to do the next day's work. I can't be to parties where the noise tires me. I can't speak on the telephone. I must have complete calm.
Fashion is like a party. Getting dressed is preparing to play a role.
I love black because it affirms, designs and styles. A woman in a black dress is a pencil stroke.
Decadence attracts me. It suggests a new world, and, for me, society's struggle between life and death is absolutely beautiful.
I have always believed that fashion was not only to make women more beautiful, but also to reassure them, give them confidence.
Le plus beau vêtement qui puisse habiller une femme, ce sont les bras de l'homme qu'elle aime. Mais, pour celles qui n'ont pas eu la chance de trouver ce bonheur, je suis là.
Dressing is a way of life. It brings you joy. It can give you freedom and liberation, help you to find yourself and to move without restraint. Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?
A woman's wardrobe shouldn't change every six months. You should be able to use the pieces you already own and add to them. Because they are like timeless classics.
Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always.
The most beautiful clothes that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves. But for those who haven't had the fortune of finding this happiness, I am there.
To be beautiful, woman enough to have a black sweater, black skirt and walk arm in arm with the man she loves. — © Yves Saint Laurent
To be beautiful, woman enough to have a black sweater, black skirt and walk arm in arm with the man she loves.
Anyone who reaches for great expression has to be careful of the ridiculous.
Chanel freed women, and I empowered them.
I prefer to shock rather than to bore through repetition.
The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.
What is wonderful about my art is that dream and reality can become one. There is just one step between the two.
I pass for a hypersensitive, reclusive neurotic, which I may well be, but I hope the year won't come when my anxieties and fatigue will destroy my love of this life, of all the things that inspire me--a line of music, a face in a Vermeer portrait, a character in an opera, or a model born in Harlem.
Fashion comes and goes, but style is eternal.
Moda je prolazna, dok stil traje, on je ve?an.
Without elegance of the heart, there is no elegance.
When you feel good in a clothing anything can happen. A good clothing is a passport for happiness.
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