When I was young, watching historical movies made me feel absolutely sublime. But the first few times I visited costume museums, I was really disappointed because it was not at the level I saw in movies. It was not the level of the image I'd imagined.

I love to see what they [Michelle Obama and Kate Middleton] wear but I am not interested. It’s not natural. If you are a girl dressing up in the morning thinking about the whole world having a point of view on what you are wearing, it takes the pleasure out of getting dressed.

I've admired historical clothes like Victorian gowns since I was a child, and it's what motivated me to go into fashion.

What is funny is when you do a futuristic movie, you immediately get to be fashionable because you're creating something that doesn't exist.

Historical costumes from the 18th and 19th centuries look so complicated, but when you see the patterns, it's very systematic. I've always been impressed by how the patterns economize the fabric.

Even during the golden age of fashion, you had haute couture houses where the designers didn't have money.

When I started at [Nina] Ricci, I did street wear for very cool, young girls but the price point was for the fourth floor of Bergdorf Goodman next to Carolina Herrera. My cool girls cannot afford it.