#chanel

"I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon."

"I’m very much down to earth, just not this earth."

"Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality."

"A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul"

"I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern."

"Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore – and then you get something out of her"

"The secret to modeling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second. You have to be given what’s needed by nature, and what’s needed is to bring something new."

"For me, Chanel is like music. There are certain notes and you have to make another tune with them"

"Like poetry, fashion does not state anything. It merely suggests"

"Stuff your brain with knowledge."

"Fashion does not have to prove that it is serious. It is the proof that intelligent frivolity can be something creative and positive"

"Fashion is about going ahead, not about memory."

"Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite."

"Success nullifies. You then have to do it again, preferably differently"

"I had an interview once with some German journalist—some horrible, ugly woman. It was in the early days after the communists—maybe a week after—and she wore a yellow sweater that was kind of see-through. She had huge tits and a huge black bra, and she said to me, ‘It’s impolite; remove your glasses.’ I said, ‘Do I ask you to remove your bra?"

"The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engine"