I 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 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 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 RousteingI don't see a difference between a biological family and an adoptive one. I think the difference is more in the eyes of others around you, who might judge because you're not the same skin color as your parents.
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 RousteingWhen you build a big empire, you become the persona that people think they know. So when you try to show them who you are, to help them discover you, they just want what they think they know about you. I would have been smarter to build some relationships when I was younger, a private love or something. Today it is more difficult. But it's the price to pay. I never regret anything, because every choice I made for a reason, but I'd love personal love.
Olivier Rousteing