You're taught that you need to please magazines, to please the fashion elite, and that if you do everything the right way, everyone is going to love you. But I decided not to follow some of the rules. My girls from the runway were not just models - they were soldiers. They helped me bring my ideas to life. I was talking about sexiness, about diversity, about different shapes of bodies. I was following my instincts and learning that it would not please the fashion elite. And I think this is the real luxury, to be free to express yourself. Freedom is luxury to me.
Olivier RousteingI've learned that I am strong enough. When some people might have given up, I didn't. I found myself in situations where I had to make choices and I followed my instincts. You can't show people you're learning, because if you do, they will treat you like a kid. You have to grow up faster, not showing any fragility.
Olivier RousteingIt's really sad to me that we even have to talk about diversity in the fashion world today. That I would love to change. Diversity should be normal.
Olivier RousteingI actually am locked away. I think I have 4.6 million Instagram followers, which is obviously a great way to communicate my work and my life. But it's also a form of protection, because I don't want everybody to see my process. What I want to share in the pictures I post is something dreamier than reality. I love solitude. I love escaping into my mind and sketching. Sometimes I travel alone. I'm the first one at the office in the morning, the last one closing the door. People don't expect that, because on Instagram I have a reputation as a party boy who takes selfies all day.
Olivier RousteingI think the only word I can use to describe what I'm doing today is feeling free. Of course, it's a business - it's about money at the end of the day, but it's about ideas as well. When you treat fashion only like a business, you're not going to go anywhere; when you push on that, we have the chance to express ourselves.
Olivier RousteingBeing part of what I call the "click" generation - where everything has to be fast and revolutionary and you just want more, and it's about likes and consuming - I want to bring new things to the table. A lot of designers say they're scared or overwhelmed because everything moves so quickly now. I think it would be scarier if it was too slow. I want to go fast.
Olivier RousteingWe 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