Olivier Theyskens Quotes - Page 2

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.

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.

The only shoes that look futuristic are Crocs, but they would be terrible to use in a futuristic movie.

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.

I really hated school. I had the feeling I was losing a lot of time.

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.

I didn't understand the advantages of staying active until I was about 27.

My mother loved fashion and always had a great aesthetic. But she also considered the cost of it, with the kids, that it wasn't something to allow herself. It also probably nourished my passion and my will to make fashion, because I've always felt that, because of having a big family to take care of, she sacrificed a bit of her femininity.

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

I am not a designer that buys vintage to be inspired.

When other boys dreamt of going to the moon or becoming doctors, I wanted to be a designer.

Everything I have is ready to wear, but I have the ability to have different options within the same brand. I have the Theyskens' Theory collection where it's a personal approach to how I build the collection where I fuse more fashion-y ideas and it has my name on it. So it's really something very research- and labor-intensive. And then I have the Theory brand where I infuse all points of view about fashion at large, and it's more global. It's really about making something succeed. You have an instant relationship with stores, and with sales teams, and people that are in the place.

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

As a designer, I'm not a guy that can be put in a niche.

I love to be in New York. And I think anybody who's a designer, who says they're doing an urban collection, thinks about the streets of New York. I cannot do an urban collection thinking of Bangkok. Or Mexico. To me, it's totally instant, totally connected with what attracts me these days. But this resurgence of a modern, cool way of being dressed is something that stimulates me and is totally right for me. Even now I don't like to show something that is some futuristic utopia.

Making clothes that everybody can wear is also something that stimulates me a lot, because I have this edgy, fashion-y part, but I am also totally involved with a brand that is about how people dress, and what they want. And it's a whole other look you can have on the street. It's exciting because it speaks to the other part of my job and what my passion is. A designer wants to make something useful for as many people as possible.