I'm always trying to understand who I want to be, what I want, what I dream of. When I was a kid, I was really worried that my parents were going to bring me back to the orphanage. I was scared of tomorrow, scared that I was going to be abandoned again. So I tried to enjoy every minute of my life because maybe tomorrow wasn't going to happen. I think I live the same way today: scared of tomorrow. For someone who is considered a party boy, a guy who just has fun and drinks champagne, I'm really tortured.
Olivier RousteingEven if I'm the youngest in the group, I'm the one taking care of everybody. I'm always in control, which means that I can see what everyone around me is doing, what they're going to do. At the end of the day, I make sure to never let go of that control.
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 RousteingKanye West is inspirational. He expresses such a strong vision beyond music, beyond fashion - it's art. He sn't afraid to push boundaries and be provocative.
Olivier RousteingI think fashion is fashion: Sometimes you dress people that you don't know, and sometimes you dress people that you actually know.
Olivier RousteingWhat I'm doing now is having people with and around me to build what other designers built before - like Pierre Balmain with Josephine Baker, Audrey Hepburn, Dalida, Brigitte Bardot.
Olivier RousteingSometimes I feel fashion is not open-minded enough. We need to push the old crowd to believe in what I believe, in the new generation. I remember when I started, my campaigns and and how I connected my love for music with fashion were a tiny bit controversial because they were like, 'How can you bring hip-hop or music into a luxury world?' or 'How you can be so connected to digital and use social media in luxury world?' Now it's changed, obviously, for the best, but I still think that we could push a bit more.
Olivier Rousteing