Quotes from Michael Bastian

Flip-flops are a privilege, not a right.

Guys look best when they have a healthy disrespect for their clothes.

Honestly, I'm not so much of a tech guy.

At a certain point, this is a brand. It's got to be bigger than me as one little person. We have a lane - and it's a good lane - and want to drive faster down that lane.

My goal is to elevate the whole casual end of the guy's wardrobe.

Guys are leery about putting on something they don't think is them. They have a fixed idea of themselves.

I'm actually really obsessed with folk art.

The hardest thing in the world to do is to take something everyone already knows and make it a little better.

The easiest thing is to create something no one has ever seen before. There's a reason no one's ever seen it - because someone tried it, and it didn't work in the real world.

I'm always much more inspired by random people on the street. I live down by NYU and The New School, and I'd almost say close your eyes and pull a student out, and they're gonna be a little bit cooler than the average celebrity.

Swedish winters are not for the faint of heart.

Women are more open to trying on a new personality every season; they can go from goth to bombshell to librarian, whatever.

Gray feels like the city.

I'm a big believer in small, dark, cozy bedrooms. I would describe myself as introspective - I feel things first, and then I think them through - and I need the enveloping comfort of a little squirrel's nest when I have to retreat from the world to recharge.

When you live in a city where you're always in and out of a car or a building, I feel it's... better to treat a heavier, tweedier sport coat almost as you would outerwear.

I personally would rather layer up than put on a big, heavy coat.

Celebrities, the beach, and Coachella, that's what everyone thinks about when they think of Los Angeles. Then you see these people living in Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, and they're so chic and have so much style.

The minute you see a guy doing one of those Naomi Campbell catwalk-action kind of things, it falls apart. A lot of hips and the scissor walk? No! Men always need to be men.

I stay in a lot of hotels, and the best part of travel is getting back to my own bed.

All it takes is for one person to say, 'Wow, that looks great on you' - and then they wear it for the next 10 years. That's the great thing about guys. They just need that little bit of encouragement.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the season-to-season business, but to have real longevity in this field, you've got to always maintain your point of view and what makes your brand unique. Your business is always going to have ups and downs, but there needs to be a certain consistency.

I'd like to think my brand shares some of those characteristics we like to think of as classically American - a certain straightforwardness, honesty, a sense of humor, inclusiveness, practicality - all those great Yankee traits. And I don't mean the baseball team.

My big mission in life is to get guys out of those big, baggy board shorts down to their knees. It always looks like they're trying to hide something, like skinny legs.

Anyone can be James Dean for a day.