Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent

Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?

Le plus beau vêtement qui puisse habiller une femme, ce sont les bras de l'homme qu'elle aime.

Rien n'est plus beau qu'un corps nu. Le plus beau vêtement qui puisse habiller une femme ce sont les bras de l'homme qu'elle aime. Mais, pour celles qui n'ont pas eu la chance de trouver ce bonheur, je suis là.

I have always believed that fashion was not only to make women more beautiful, but also to reassure them, give them confidence.

Without elegance of the heart, there is no elegance.

I am very happy to design haute couture. It's a love story between couture and me.

Decadence attracts me. It suggests a new world, and, for me, society's struggle between life and death is absolutely beautiful.

Dressing is a way of life.

Dressing is a way of life. It brings you joy. It can give you freedom and liberation, help you to find yourself and to move without restraint. Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing?

I'd really like to be in closer contact with life. I'm a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside.

The big difference between couture and ready-to-wear is not design. It is the fabrics, the handwork, and the fittings. The act of creation is the same.

I hate fashion. I don't have any fun doing it. A show terrifies me.

A good model can advance fashion by ten years.

I like to watch the way a model moves in my clothes, the way she gives them life, or if they are wrong, stillborn, the way her life rejects them.

I want to give haute couture a kind of wink, a sense of humour - to introduce the whole sense of freedom one sees in the street into high fashion; to give couture the same provocative and arrogant look as punk - but, of course, with luxury and dignity and style.

I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.

I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.

When I look at the five thousand garments and then all this music hall work, I ask myself how I could have done it all. I was a phenomenon!

I live in solitude. I have need of solitude to do the next day's work. I can't be to parties where the noise tires me. I can't speak on the telephone. I must have complete calm.

My classmates could see I was not similar. So they made me their scapegoat. They hit me or locked me in the toilets. During the break, I would take refuge in the chapel, or I would arrange to stay alone in the classroom.

I love black because it affirms, designs and styles. A woman in a black dress is a pencil stroke.

Le plus beau vêtement qui puisse habiller une femme, ce sont les bras de l'homme qu'elle aime. Mais, pour celles qui n'ont pas eu la chance de trouver ce bonheur, je suis là.

The street and me is a love story. 1971 is a great date because, finally, fashion took to the street.

No more rules, the freedom of dressing. The beauty of mixing vintage clothes with a pair of jeans that I love.