It's almost like putting armor on a woman. It's a very psychological way of dressing.
I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.
I am an avid follower of the news, and sometimes you just can't take any more war, any more disasters, and you want to remind yourself there's beauty in the world. I wanted to show a more poetic side to my work. It was all about... a feeling of sadness, but in a cinematic kind of way. I find beauty in melancholy.
You've got to know the rules to break them.
Birds in flight fascinate me. I admire eagles and falcons. I’m inspired by a feather but also its color, its graphics, its weightlessness and its engineering. It’s so elaborate. In fact I try and transpose the beauty of a bird to women.
If you're an open book, there's no allure.
There is no way back for me now, I'm going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed possible
Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual. When you see a woman in my clothes, you want to know more about them. To me, that is what distinguishes good designers from bad designers.
I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.
It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things.
There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance.
I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition
I think there has to be an underlying sexuality. There has to be a perverseness to the clothes. There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance. It's like a Story of O. I am not big on women looking naive. There has to be a sinister aspect, whether it's melancholy of sadomasochist. I think everyone has a deep sexuality, and sometimes it's good to use a little of it-and sometimes a lot of it-like a masquerade.
I never look at other people's work. My mind has to be completely focused on my own illusions.
The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity.
It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance.
There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.
It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood.
I'm not interested in being liked.
I was this young boy and I saw this man with his hands round my sister's neck, I was just standing there with her two children beside me... Everything I've done since then was for the purpose of making women look stronger, not naïve. And so, when everyone started saying I was a misogynist, that really freaked me out. They didn't know me. They didn't know what I had seen in my life. That was the first part of fashion that I hated - people labeling me without knowing me.
When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there’s a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off.
As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.
Women should look like women. A piece of cardboard has no sexuality.
Menswear is about subtlety. It's about good style and good taste.
Life to me is a bit of a (Brothers) Grimm fairy tale.
