Quotes from Yves Saint Laurent

I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.

I told myself repeatedly, 'One day you will be famous.'

I love bows, … And I feel some couture pots coming on.

I had noticed men were much more confident in their clothes. So I sought through trouser suits, trench coats, tuxedos, and pea coats to give women the same confidence.

If men wanted to look good in a skirt, they would need the body of an African. And the colour. A skirt with white, skinny legs. Horrible!

I do not decide that skirts shall be short or long. The shape of the dress itself often dictates the length.

When I was young in the 1960s, all the world watched the youth. Everywhere was the sensation of wanting to break the chains but to do something beautiful. It is my privilege to have beauty always near me.

Fashions fade - style is eternal.

To be beautiful, woman enough to have a black sweater, black skirt and walk arm in arm with the man she loves.

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

Chanel freed women, and I empowered them.

There are women who have completely transformed my view of fashion and if I hadn't shown them I would never have arrived at this point in fashion, you see.

I love women. I love all the bright and attractive people and things of this world, the flame and also the moth, the dancer and the dance.

I don't at all search for an ideal woman, but several ideal women.

What is wonderful about my art is that dream and reality can become one. There is just one step between the two.

I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style.

Elegance and beauty have been banished.

I couldn't love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something.

I cannot pretend to do sculpture and make a woman the ridiculous pedestal of my pretensions. To render clothing poetic, yes--but one must preserve its dignity as clothing.

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