A Quote by Alexander McQueen

Some designers are so airy-fairy people can't connect with them. I hope people can relate to me, to a normal person who just happens to be a fashion designer, that people can take me as they find me. It's not the designer's job to care about what people think. Whatever else I've done, I've never tried to be something that I'm not.
I'm a fashion designer. What I do is artistic, but I'm not an artist because everything I do is destined to be sold. That's not to say that you can't be an artist and a fashion designer. I think some designers are artists.
I think of the medium as a people-to-people medium, not cameraman-to-people, not direction-to-people, not writers-to-people, but people-to-peopleYou can only involve an audience with people. You can't involve them with gimmicks, with sunsets, with hand-held cameras, zoom shots, or anything else. They couldn't care less about those things. But you give them something to worry about, some person they can worry about, and care about, and you've got them, you've got them involved.
When I first started to do fashion shows I didn't have the budget to hire top models so I would cast women who inspired me, and ask them to walk how they walked. I was doing a mise en scène, which for me was normal. I love for people to see my clothes, but it was more about the attitude of the girls. The revues of the late 19th century/early 20th century were very much a reflection of what was happening in society and politics, and for me that is also the role of the fashion designer.
I think fashion is really opened me up as a person. All eyes are on you when you do the shows and when you do the photo shoots. You have to know how to act around people. I used to be a shy kid in school. I didn't know how to interact with people and now I find it so easy. Fashion has really done something great for me and it's really changed me as a person. I've changed my style as well.
A lot of people look at me as a big person. Some people consider me to be obese. Some people consider me fat and sloppy. Everybody knows that I have a big stomach, but I think sometimes that overshadows everything else on my body - from my calves to my back to my shoulders to my biceps. What people go to the gym and work for, I have. The only thing I don't have that they got is six - packs. But I really don't care about six-packs.
You see me, I wanted to be fashion designer. I became fashion designer. So I think that everything is possible.
Why would anybody connect to someone who has everything going for them? It's the person who has faults that people want to connect to. So people identify with certain insecurities on stage and just by me talking about my diabetes people come up to me after the show and tell me "Gabe, my blood sugar is out of control and I feel you". That's the first thing they say, they say "I feel you!".
I don't think I've ever tried to be something that I'm not. People do that for you. People try to pigeonhole you. People tried typecasting me, before they even saw me in anything else. I've never understood that. I was like, "Why don't you wait until my next project, before you start telling my what my career is going to look like, for the next 10 years?" I've never let it set me back because I always knew the world would try to do that for me, anyway.
I think of myself more as a designer than a serial entrepreneur. As a designer, the easiest way to see that something happens is to start a company and then be the boss, and then people have to do what you say.
I can relate to soul, R&B... whatever people want to call me is fine. I just hope it makes them feel something.
I think someone's biggest competition is themselves. I stand out as a 'fashion' designer and not to be confused with, (people who call themselves 'clothing' designers, who just print designs or logos on pre-existing t-shirts), because what I have created is custom fashions that are a personal extension of myself and my personality. It's pretty unique since there is only one of me.
People say to the mentally ill, ‘You know so many people think the world of you.’ But when they don’t like themselves they don’t notice anything. They don’t care about what people think of them. When you hate yourself, whatever people say it doesn’t make sense. ‘Why do they like me? Why do they care about me?’ Because you don’t care about yourself at all.
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.
People often ask me if I consider myself to be an architect, fashion designer, or artist. I'm an architect. The paintings I've done are very important to me, but they were part of a process of thinking and developing.
As a designer it's not my job to make people like me - I just want them to like my clothes.
People think, for some reason, that I don't care about creativity and art, or helping people. So I would say that the biggest misconception is, when you think about me, when you think about my name, I don't want you to think about design or clothes or music. I want you to think about a person that's just trying to help people.
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