For me, haute couture is a necessity. I never would have done this job were it not for haute couture. It is a comfort, a security. I almost feel it is our duty to continue. Haute couture is France. We have to keep all the skills and craftmanship alive.

Since I was a child I've loved going to the opera, theatre and ballet.

I am always anxious to know what has happened while I've been asleep.

We all look for lost time.

I'd experienced the '40s and '50s by looking at my grandparents' old clothes, books, and magazines

For me, elegance is not to pass unnoticed but to get to the very soul of what one is.

In Italy, the Milanese are well organized but follow bourgeois taste. They adhere to certain codes of elegance, but not to individualism.