A Quote by Suzy Menkes

Nan Kempner wore one of the first Saint Laurent trouser suits to one of those fancy Madison Avenue restaurants and was denied access. She famously took off her pants and walked in wearing only the jacket. And it was that kind of revolution that was echoed in fashion and in life.

Suzy Menkes

Quote Topics

Access Avenue Denied Fancy Fashion First Her Jacket Kind Life Madison Madison Avenue Off Only Pants Restaurants Revolution Saint She Suits Those Took Walked Wearing Wore

Quote Author

Suzy Menkes
British - Journalist
Born: December 24, 1943

Yves Saint Laurent was my first fashion show. I wore his tuxedo. And Helmut Newton was my first photographer, in 1973. I was really very lucky. I had an amazing career.

Jerry Hall

My mother and her plans for my future. She had it all worked out. I would attend a nice college, then get a job in advertising. "You'll be one of those smart-looking fellows in their Madison Avenue suits." And I rebelled against [my mother] and her values and her plans for my future at every opportunity.

George Carlin

We can use our art to become political, to become something you want to talk about. We make clothes, but we have the chance to change a generation as well. We have to remember that fashion changed the roles of men and women: When Yves Saint Laurent was putting pants on a woman, he was not only doing that - he was assuming the fact that a woman can wear pants like a man. It's all the codes that I think fashion pushed so much to change the world, and today it's what I'm trying to do in my own way.

Olivier Rousteing

Minimalism? It is something I appreciate as an art form but leave to others - unless you count a collection of warhorse-workwear Yves Saint Laurent trouser suits. Maybe my penchant for hippie-deluxe eccentricity came from an escapist dream of a different world. It was tough being a working mom in the 1970s.

Suzy Menkes

For a while they wore suits or pants suits, and pants suits are kind of a women's appropriation of male costume, work costume. For me, it wasn't Western feminism or the Western workspace. It was my growing up in a house with a bunch of boys, so that male costuming just became my mode of appropriation way before, you know, Betty Friedan came along.

Shirley Geok-lin Lim

In fashion, of course, the way that women are dressed now - and also a vision of the modern woman, the woman of today. She's very feminine, but at the same time, extremely free. A Saint Laurent woman is actually very Parisian. She's not really a man's equal, she's his adversary. I worked on the catwalk with two models who worked with Yves Saint Laurent for more than 10 years. They're not just gorgeous models, they're more than that - they're very smart and very beautiful. They're more than models, they're really unique; it's personality. It's more than just fashion.

Jalil Lespert

My mom worked at [American] Vogue before I was born. She has always been fashion-minded. I grew up with original Yves Saint Laurent sketches on the wall in our house. A lot of that rubbed off on me.

Zachary Cole Smith

To me, the model example of how to share your faith is Jesus with the woman at the well in John 4. He was patient with her. He took time for her. To some degree, she was kind of disrespectful to Him at first, initially kind of blowing off what he said and blowing off what he was saying to her. But then, as it continued on, she began to understand and ultimately believed.

Greg Laurie

Monsieur Saint Laurent was pathologically shy, and he made the Saint Laurent woman in his own image. Like her, I am shy. And to protect myself, I adopted something of an androgynous look, just as his women did.

Carine Roitfeld

Monsier Saint Laurent was pathologically shy, and he made the Saint Laurent woman in his own image. Like her, I am shy. And to protect myself, I adopted something of an androgynous look, just as his women did.

Carine Roitfeld

I believe in the Yves Saint Laurent woman who either has her hands in the pockets of her pantsuit or is holding her lover's hand. She doesn't need a bag.

Carine Roitfeld

My mama never wore a pair of pants when I was growing up, and now that's all she wears. It was so funny for me when I first started seeing Mama wear pants. It was like it wasn't Mama. Now I've bought her many a pantsuit because she just lives in them.

Dolly Parton

There's one scene where I took my t-shirt off. I was wearing a t-shirt and a hoodie, and I took my hoodie off and took my t-shirt off to give to the girl because she got her top dirty or something. It was like, why don't I just give her my hoodie - that makes no sense whatsoever! I just took off another layer just to take my top off.

Ben Hardy

Fashion once meant dresses and heels, and I didn't know why I'd want to be dressed that way. Now I'm like, 'Oh my God, those Saint Laurent boots!' Those are not words I thought I'd ever say. A beautiful suit is nice. I get fashion now. In fact, I love it.

Elliot Page

Adorable in her not-very-bright submissiveness, charming in her childlike delight in shiny floors, even forgivable in her spiteful competition for the whitest, brightest wash, Madison Avenue's girl-next door is all the American male could wish for: unless, by some miscarriage, he should fancy human companionship.