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

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

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

Yves Saint Laurent gave women power, Chanel liberated them and when I joined Lanvin, I thought 'what do I bring to women? One day, I received an SMS from a friend in New York - she was in a taxi on the way to court to face her arsehole ex-husband, and she said to me 'Alber, I am wearing a Lanvin dress, and I feel so protected.' That to me was the biggest compliment I ever received. To have a 500 gram piece of silk make her feel protected - that made me very happy indeed.

I don't think that you can write music if you don't know how to play an instrument. You have to know the basics, then you can go forward.

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.

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.