Alber Elbaz Quotes

I think that the lack of intuition in fashion today is one of the most dangerous things. My fear is that our business is turning into a bag business, and it's all about the bag. But it's not only about the bag. It's about the women. And it's not about a bag or a shoe or the jewelry. It's only about women. . . . Being almost politically correct and doing only what you expect without the ability to make mistakes is very dangerous to fashion. We have to go with our heart. We have to go with our intuition.

Why not touch things that we hate and turn them upside down and inside out?

Women can dream at 9 in the morning and at 10 o'clock at night - it doesn't matter.

We are comfortable with formulas, but the best happens when the formula doesn't work.

For me, Lancome was more than just a brand. There was something very nostalgic about the name, about the whole story.

Run away from laziness; work hard. Touch intuition and listen to the heart, not marketing directors. Dream.

If you take something out of the freezer, it's cold, but what happens when it melts? It's a cool party, a cool person, a cool collection. What does that mean? I'm more interested in things that are uncool, things that have a certain individuality, a certain soul, a certain longevity, emotion, fragility.

If I were a buyer today in one of the American department stores, I would go with extremes-the most beautiful, the more expensive, the more eccentric. I would take risks. The worst thing would be to buy only the little black dress. You know why? Because everyone has it already. I would go with a purple dress, something different

I like the dream, like fantasy dresses. Women can dream at 9 in the morning and at 10 o’clock at night, it doesn’t matter. I think it is also important for me to make it pragmatic and practical and wearable. I always say, 'If you can’t eat it, it’s not food, and if you can’t wear it, it’s not fashion, it is something else.'

I love and respect women. I work mostly with women.

Pure, intense emotions. It's not about design. It's about feelings.

I like first class, but I don't like first class people - I prefer the people in coach. I like fine restaurants, but prefer the taste of McDonalds. I like to be perfect, but I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection. I know, I am a walking contradiction.

I think that we are in a very strange time, when everybody is thinking about what is going to happen, and everybody is kind of cleaning house a little bit. In the fashion world, we are doing something similar. We are taking the fake out and being a little bit more real and simple.

I do sport at the gym a few times a week, but I hate it. Work is my only remedy. I feel so twisted and horrible in the morning, but then I go to the office and I start feeling better. Work is my Tylenol. Extra-strength.

I was a fat child; I was asthmatic. No wonder I'm a hypochondriac.

I always think, if I were an editor, and I was invited to a show, and I would have to wait for 45 minutes in the dark or in the cold or in the heat, maybe I would like to have a fresh drink or a piece of chocolate.

I'd rather be relevant than cool.

I wanted to see people from different age groups, body shapes and personalities wearing Lanvin That is what Lanvin is all about and represents - we dont only do clothes for 20-year-old girls. I love to see mature women wearing Lanvin as well. I love wrinkles, I love grey hair.

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.

Almost every collection I do has 200 different references. I don't have two of the same coat, two of the same dress. I have it in one color, in one fabric. I've tried to adapt the culture of couture, and the know-how and the heritage, but I try to update it.

Style is the only thing you can't buy. It's not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It's something reflected from our soul to the outside world. An emotion.

Fashion is not about buying a second skin. Fashion is about having a fantasy.

When a woman's clothes are in harmony with her emotions, she shines from within.

Sometimes you don't really need armor to feel protected. Sometimes maybe you need just a chiffon dress to hug you.

In fashion we're lucky, we make dreams come true.

Fashion is about having a fantasy.

I think 'modesty' is a beautiful word today - and a beautiful attitude.

I always wear a dinner jacket. I never have this definition of what goes for the morning or the evening or what works for the weekend.

I have a problem to do a collection that is a secondary line. I mean, you don’t want to be the stepsister. You want to be Cinderella. Show me one girl who wants to be the stepsister.

I'm not a plastic surgeon, and I cannot change the DNA of a person, but when I see a woman try on my clothes and she feels beautiful, I know I am doing my job.

I am very much a people person. If I am in a beautiful place but I don't like the people, I am miserable.

Wear flats. You're short. It's much cooler not to pretend.

Fashion is instinctive and sensual. Learn to love what you wear. It should feel like eating chocolates...wi thout the calories

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.

Fashion is like a fruit, you couldn't eat it a day before and you can't eat it a day after; it's just about today

In fashion, we have a reputation for being such a façade, fake people, but none of the fashion people who I know are fake.

I love to see old women. I love wrinkles. I love gray hair.

I work on fittings, mostly. You know, I sketch less and less in my work. I sketch for the show sometimes, but then it becomes more conceptual. But when I don't sketch, it becomes more pragmatic.

A singer can quit once he or she has made ten great songs; a director can finish once he or she has made five amazing films; a writer just needs to write three great books.

If you change a woman's look, you change her persona.

Everyone wants to be young and skinny. This is awful. Curves are marvelous. Wrinkles are hypnotizing. Why not just be happy with who you are?

I am very sensitive to the smells and sensations that are part of perfumes because they remind me of things: moments from the past, people, events.

I don't think you can be a designer if you don't care.

I don't go out to parties because I'd look terrible in pictures. My escape is television - it's like meditation to me.

I've always said fashion is like roast chicken: You don't have to think about it to know it's delicious.

For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams. In my little room at home, I felt that I was somewhere else. In Paris, for instance.

The problem with couture is not designers; it's what happens when the couturier will no longer be there.

I don’t take drugs because if I did I’d love them–I’d be a junkie. And because I’m Jewish, I’d probably be a dealer, too.