We're in the business of selling pleasure. We don't sell handbags or haute couture. We sell dreams.
Almost every collection I do has 200 different references. I don't have two of the same coat, two of the same dress. I have it in one color, in one fabric. I've tried to adapt the culture of couture, and the know-how and the heritage, but I try to update it.
The problem with couture is not designers; it's what happens when the couturier will no longer be there.
I love couture, but the other side of me loves the street, and I think the mix of these two can create something new.
Some couture collections have everything including the kitchen sink! Everything gets thrown on to make it look expensive. I find it grotesque when clothes hit you in the face and there's no room for fault. But I don't expect to turn things around all by myself. I'm not a saint.
Couture has a power that ready-to-wear can never have; the attention of les petites mains as they sew; all that love and belief goes into the cloth. That's what you feel when you wear it.
I only take risks in couture, but I don't take risks in athleticism.
On 9/11, that morning, I was in a Christian Dior Couture appointment at the Hotel Pierre.
I call the language of political figures, pundits and administrators 'the haute couture of language.'
Daphne Guinness, who makes couture seem wearable, is an icon who influences what I wear.
