Famous Quotes by Popular Fashion Designers

Fashion isn't just fabric, stitching and trends - it's a language, a statement and an art form. Through their creations, legendary designers have revolutionized the industry - and they've left words of inspiration for generations to come. Coco Chanel redefined elegance, Karl Lagerfeld championed individuality and Virgil Abloh blurred street and high fashion. Their insights are timeless. Their words aren't just about style; they're about confidence, attitude and self-expression.

Scroll through these fashion quotes and let these designers guide you. Whether you're looking for motivation, style inspiration or a new way to think about creativity, these words will inspire you long after the runway is over...

Popular Quotes by Fashion Designers & Fashion Enthusiasts

Pure, intense emotions. It’s not about design. It’s about feelings

- Alber Elbaz

Style is the only thing you can’t buy. It’s not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It’s something reflected from our soul to the outside world - an emotion

- Alber Elbaz

Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment

- Alexander McQueen

I think there is beauty in everything. What 'normal' people perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it

- Alexander McQueen

Anyone can get dressed up and glamorous, but it is how people dress in their days off that are the most intriguing

- Alexander Wang

I have four bedrooms in my house. One is for guests, the other three are for closets

- André Leon Talley

When you don’t feel to dress means that you are depressed. You need a fashion shower

- Anna Dello Russo

You either know fashion or you don't

- Anna Wintour

I make clothes, women make fashion

- Azzedine Alaïa

Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves, and of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys, they’d just walk around naked at all times

- Betsey Johnson

I firmly believe that with the right footwear one can rule the world

- Bette Midler

My clothes don't make one a different person, just more of oneself

- Bibhu Mohapatra

When in doubt, wear red

- Bill Blass

Fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life

- Bill Cunningham

Whoever said that money can't buy happiness, simply didn't know where to go shopping

- Bo Derek

When a woman says, ‘I have nothing to wear!’, what she really means is, ‘There’s nothing here for who I’m supposed to be today

- Caitlin Moran

I love women. I’m trying to do beautiful things with them. I’m not trying to insult them. My life is not about that

- Calvin Klein

Don’t forget to fall in love with yourself first

- Carrie Bradshaw

I like my money right where I can see it: Hanging in my closet

- Carrie Bradshaw

In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable

- Christian Dior

You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet

- Christian Dior

Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally

- Christian Louboutin

A women with good shoes is never ugly

- Coco Chanel

Beauty begins the moment you decide to be yourself

- Coco Chanel

Fashion fades, only style remains the same

- Coco Chanel

Fashion is about dressing according to what's fashionable. Style is more about being yourself

- Coco Chanel

Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions

- Coco Chanel

I don't do fashion, I am fashion

- Coco Chanel

In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different

- Coco Chanel

The best things in life are free. The second best are very expensive

- Coco Chanel

Elegance is elimination

- Cristóbal Balenciaga

I dont approach fashion, Fashion approaches me

- Daphne Guinness

A little bad taste is like a nice splash of paprika. We all need a splash of bad taste—it's hearty, it's healthy, it's physical. I think we could use more of it. No taste is what I'm against

- Diana Vreeland

Fashion is part of the daily air and it changes all the time, with all the events. You can even see the approaching of a revolution in clothes. You can see and feel everything in clothes

- Diana Vreeland

I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity

- Diana Vreeland

You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody. I’m not talking about lots of clothes

- Diana Vreeland

Style; all who have it have one thing: originality

- Diana Vreeland

Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring

- Diana Vreeland

What you wear is such an expression of who you are. That’s like someone picking out who I’m going to date!

- Diane Kruger

Style is something each of us already has, all we need to do is find it

- Diane von Furstenberg

I design for the woman who loves being a woman

- Diane von Furstenberg

Make it simple, but significant

- Don Draper

Fashion is all about happiness. It’s fun. It’s important. But it’s not medicine

- Donatella Versace

You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it

- Edith Head

Fashion can be bought. Style one must possess

- Edna Woolman Chase

How can money be the root of all evil? When shopping is the cure for all sadness

- Elizabeth Taylor

I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it

- Elizabeth Taylor

In difficult times, fashion is always outrageous

- Elsa Schiaparelli

Real style is never right or wrong. It’s a matter of being yourself on purpose

- G Bruce Boyer

I think in Black

- Gareth Pugh

The hardest thing in fashion is not to be known for a logo, but to be known for a silhouette

- Giambattista Valli

Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live

- Gianni Versace

Elegance is not standing out, but being remembered

- Giorgio Armani

People will stare, Make it worth their while

- Harry Winston

Fashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational

- Hedi Slimane

The dress must follow the body of a woman, not the body following the shape of the dress

- Hubert de Givenchy

Fashion you can buy, but style you possess. The key to style is learning who you are, which takes years. There's no how-to road map to style. It's about self expression and, above all, attitude

- Iris Apfel

What’s my style is not your style, and I don’t see how you can define it. It’s something that expresses who you are in your own way

- Iris Apfel

When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else

- Iris Apfel

Design is not for philosophy, it's for life

- Issey Miyake

My mother was right: When you’ve got nothing left, all you can do is get into silk underwear and start reading Proust

- Jane Birkin

Style is a simple way of saying complicated things

- Jean Cocteau

The joy of dressing is an art

- John Galliano

Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress

- Karl Lagerfeld

One is never over-dressed or under-dressed with a Little Black Dress

- Karl Lagerfeld

Trendy is the last stage before tacky

- Karl Lagerfeld

When you hear designers complaining about the challenge of their profession, you have to say: Don’t get carried away — it’s only dresses

- Karl Lagerfeld

Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants

- Karl Lagerfeld

Playing dress up begins at age 5 and never really ends

- Kate Spade

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun

- Katherine Hepburn

Fashion is like eating, you shouldn't stick to the same menu

- Kenzo Takada

Always dress like you are going to see your worst enemy

- Kimora Lee

My fashion statement depends on my mood. I am more of a tomboy when dressing up, and I have never worn pink in my entire life

- Lalaine

Fashion is what you're offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose

- Lauren Hutton

We have this saying, Christy and I. We don't wake up for less than $10,000 a day

- Linda Evangelista

I just love fashion. I think it just expresses who you are so much

- Lindsay Lohan

You’re never fully dressed without a smile

- Little Orphan Annie

What’s becoming very obvious to me is that fashion is art

- Lupita Nyong’o

Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them

- Marc Jacobs

I always find beauty in things that are odd and imperfect, they are much more interesting

- Marc Jacobs

The customer is the final filter. What survives the whole process is what people wear. I’m not interested in making clothes that end up in some dusty museum

- Marc Jacobs

We dont need fashion to survive, we just desire it so much

- Marc Jacobs

Clothes are like a good meal, a good movie, great pieces of music

- Michael Kors

I know what women look good in. I don’t think the rules ever change

- Michael Kors

I’ve always thought of accessories as the exclamation point of a woman’s outfit

- Michael Kors

Florals for spring? Groundbreaking

- Miranda Priestly

Fashion fosters the cliches of beauty, but I want to tear them apart

- Miuccia Prada

Fashion is instant language

- Miuccia Prada

What you wear is how you present yourself to the world, especially today, when human contacts are so quick. Fashion is instant language

- Miuccia Prada

Women who wear black lead colorful lives

- Neiman Marcus

Style is knowing who you are, what you want to say, and not giving a damn

- Orson Welles

Being well dressed hasn’t much to do with having good clothes. It’s a question of good balance and good common sense

- Oscar de la Renta

Fashion is about dressing according to what’s fashionable. Style is more about being yourself

- Oscar de la Renta

Walk like you have three men walking behind you

- Oscar de la Renta

The only rule is don't be boring and dress cute wherever you go. Life is too short to be blend in

- Paris Hilton

Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated

- Paul Rand

Fashion has to reflect who you are, what you feel at the moment, and where you’re going

- Pharrell Williams

A great dress can make you remember what is beautiful about life

- Rachel Roy

Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak

- Rachel Zoe

Fashion is about something that comes from within you

- Ralph Lauren

I don't design clothes. I design dreams

- Ralph Lauren

Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you

- Ralph Lauren

Style is very personal. It has nothing to do with fashion. Fashion is over quickly. Style is forever

- Ralph Lauren

The best part of being a Fashion Designer is being a Fashion Designer

- Rena Do Jess

She can beat me, but she cannot beat my outfit

- Rihanna

I think, with suits and clothes, if you keep them long enough, they all come back in fashion

- Rod Stewart

You don't learn style from watching people on a runway. Fashion happens every morning when you wake up

- Shalom Harlow

I don’t want a politician who’s thinking about fashion for even one millisecond. It’s the same as medical professionals. The idea of a person in a Comme des Garcons humpback dress giving me a colonoscopy is just not groovy

- Simon Doonan

Conformity is the only real fashion crime. To not dress like yourself and to sublimate your spirit to some kind of group identity is succumbing to fashion fascism

- Simon Doonan

Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse

- Sir Francis Bacon

How can you live the high life if you do not wear the high heels?

- Sonia Rykiel

I don’t believe in fashion. I believe in costume. Life is too short to be same person every day

- Stephanie Perkins

Wearing Black makes you look Slimmer

- Tarun

To me, style is all about expressing your individuality freely and courageously

- Timothy John

Fashion is art and you are the canvas

- Velvet Paper

I want people to see the dress, but focus on the woman

- Vera Wang

Buy less, choose well

- Vivienne Westwood

Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well

- Vivienne Westwood

I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color

- Wednesday Addams

Fashions fade, style is eternal

- Yves Saint Laurent

Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who's wearing it

- Yves Saint Laurent

We must never confuse elegance with snobbery

- Yves Saint Laurent

It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic by fashion

- Yves Saint Laurent

Famous Quotes by Leading Indian Fashion Designers

You have to dream big. Your dreams should frighten you - that's how big your dreams should be. And I've always been a dreamer

- Anita Dongre

Clothes are functional but that doesn't mean they're not a form of art. They're just another way to express creativity. It could be film, it could garment

- Manish Arora

Fashion should go back to what it should be: closer to art, not totally commercial but have some artistic value at its core

- Manish Arora

What works for our Indian crafts is the mix of craftsmanship, culture and a touch of modernity

- Manish Malhotra

As a designer, it is my prerogative to preserve my heritage and create designs that reflect our contemporary India

- Manish Malhotra

I stick to the genre I enjoy the most. I don't go crazy experimenting

- Manish Malhotra

What works for our Indian crafts is the mix of craftsmanship, culture and a touch of modernity

- Manish Malhotra

This summer, pink is going to be in fashion, and this does not mean just on the ramp, but in daily wear also. These days the fashion statement is equal as everybody is becoming so very fashion conscious

- Ritu Beri

There is a big difference between being a fashion designer and someone who makes clothes just to sell them

- Rohit Bal

The very look of Linen inspires me to create fashion statements all around the world

- Rohit Bal

Sexiness is a confidence issue not a size issue

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee

Every bride is a story I write, each one different, each one new

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee

I like wearing simple understated clothes

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee

In my personal space, there is no room for fashion

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee

I believe that clothes should be just an extension of one's intellect

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee

I don't design for a muse because my market is my muse

- Sabyasachi Mukherjee