Alber Elbaz Quotes

I want to know where is that committee in Switzerland that sits to decide what is in and what is out. I don't listen to the formula makers. I think maybe I have a selective hearing disorder.

I am not interested in perfection, and neither are the women who wear my clothes.

I don't want to see a dress with a woman. I just want to see a woman, with a beautiful dress.

I certainly can't complain. I work six days a week, if not seven, and eighteen hours out of twenty-four - fortunately, with a great deal of pleasure. Why? Because I only do something if I want to do it; I need to feel a desire, to find pleasure in moving forward, creating, moving, inventing.

The nature of fashion is family. You see that at almost every house, it was owned first by a family. It wasn't owned by a bank.

Fashion is like life. It needs fear and uncertainty if you are to move forward.

With fashion, I barely finish one collection before I must start another.

I think that because I'm overweight, [my] fantasy was lightness. So I project my fantasy to the clothes, and now all I do is light, light clothes because it's the one thing I don't have. That is why I'm too afraid to lose weight because then I might make heavy clothes.

I spend my time backstage at the Lanvin shows, and when I come out at the end, all I see are people's eyes.

Many, many times I find that whatever is looking good on the screen doesn't always look or feel good on the body. So who do we design for - do we design for the screen, or do we design for women?

The designers, photographers and models I work with, they are really hard-working people who are devoting their lives to fashion. They're kind of like nuns of fashion.

H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world.

After every show, I say to Hania [Destelle, a friend], ‘They hated it.’

When I'm traveling the world, I don't ever look anymore at the geography - just enough to catch galleries and paintings.

What we want is clothing we think we can fly in. That's why I opened the show with flying dresses.

How do you stand out as a fashion ad campaign? By using people off the street it does generate buzz.

I know amazing people in fashion who are anything but fake. They are very real and very sensitive. They are happy and sad. They are loyal friends.

Making them feel gorgeous and comfortable is my way of making women's lives easier.

If I wasn't a designer I would love to be a doctor. That is my fantasy, my dream. A doctor will give you a tablet if you have a headache and I will give you a dress and we both make you feel good.

All I want is beautiful. I mean, I like grey hair, I love wrinkles. But this is me.

I always say that women are very strong and men are powerful. But beauty gives you both strength and power. I never think of it. It's just one of those natural things. It's the only thing I know how to do.

I think fashion is about longevity and doing your work. It isn't about winning or losing. It's about process, keeping it going.

All the young people in fashion worship the people who have been around a long time. I think it is about keeping something going through the generations. Take my work: Just because I'm not 20 anymore doesn't mean that people don't appreciate what I do.

I think that if you want to pass emotion, you have to write a letter. Emotions do not pass in SMS or in e-mail.

What is beautiful for you may not be beautiful to someone else. Or whatever is beautiful here may not be beautiful there and what is sometimes beautiful today is not necessarily beautiful tomorrow. Perhaps this is the story of fashion and what makes it move forward, the fact that there is no decision whatsoever with what’s wrong.

I love to travel inside my head, take journeys toward the unknown, meet new people, dream.

All I want to do is make people beautiful.

The whole season thing is nonsense. It's either beautiful or it isn't. That's something I really learned when I started collecting dresses.

I created the peplum so you can eat in it. You can have a dessert, you can have another sandwich.

Everybody's talking about the new democratic world and whether high fashion is relevant. But without high there is no low. I don't like to intellectualize. I've always said fashion is like roast chicken: You don't have to think about it to know it's delicious.

I barely finish one pre-collection before I must start on another. Sales start, but I am already elsewhere creatively. The men's show is being prepared, but we also need to think about accessories, perfumes and other items. In sum, I never stop.

If it’s not edible, it’s not food. If it’s not wearable, it’s not fashion.

At Yves Saint Laurent, I felt like the son-in-law - like I was part of the family, but not quite. When I was fired, I felt like the widow.

The big room or big suite doesn't mean a lot to me. It is what the people do or don't do that matters.

There is nothing scarier than being ‘the designer of the moment,’ because the moment ends.

Some days I feel like a piano: kind of short, always in black & white, always expected to produce music.

I was thinking recently, If the body really is the new dress, as some are saying - with women buying boobs, butts, faces - then who needs a dressmaker? So I started designing spring like a plastic surgeon - everything stretchy and nude. But after three weeks, I was so bored with myself and the world, I began adding diamond butterflies and chiffon and colors. I realized that fashion is not about second skin. It's not the perfect white shirt or camel jacket. What women need is a dream.

I am always trying to put myself inside: Every dress I do, I think, 'If I were a woman, would I wear it?'

I love women. I get along with women more than men, and I have more women friends.

My dream is to be a doctor. I'm almost working in a laboratory, because I'm trying new techniques, new directions and fabrics, new weaving.

Fashion is not always about what's new, it's also about what's good. And I think if you need to see what's good, you have to be there.

When I was either 7 or 8 years old, I did a sketch every day of my teacher and what she wore. At the end of the year, I gave her the sketchbook. For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams.

I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection.

I need to feel a desire, to find pleasure in moving forward, creating, inventing. The day I cease to learn, I must stop.

A fragrance is a veritable story, told and explained in scent, in notes, in impressions. It's a score based on the emotions of each instant, a captivating music of the senses.

I am very much a people person.

Fashion is not about before, it’s not about after, it’s about now

Fashion doesn't look good only on models, it can look good on different people of different ages and different body shapes.