Quotes from Michael Bastian

When I began designing my Spring '13 collection, it wasn't even Spring '12 yet. Snow was actually still on the ground in New York, but I knew I wanted this particular spring season to be freer, more colorful, easier, more about feeling good, and I wanted there to be a sexier feeling than we've been known for in the past.

If you're a New Yorker, there are two things that are most important: a car and a washer and dryer. Literally everyone else in America has those things! It's so weird to them that these are our luxuries. You can eat at Per Se every night, but I don't have a car or washer and dryer!

I'm a New Yorker, so I don't own a car, but I rent a lot of cars.

With tailored clothing, you can really see where the money went. How it's constructed, how it fits your body - this becomes very apparent in tailored clothing.

Most guys open their closet and tend to wear about 10% of what they own - and they wear that 10% over and over again. So the trick is to be honest with yourself and figure out what that 10% is.

You can have a real ongoing dialogue through social media that wasn't possible before.

I prefer simpler shirts, like a solid oxford or pinstripe, and with a solid cashmere crewneck or V-neck.

My favorite animal on the Galapagos is the Galapagos Marine Iguana. The first rule of iguana-dom is that iguanas hate the water, yet somehow, these poor iguanas landed there and had to figure it out.

Men and women shop very differently, and where women are open to edgy, conceptual looks, very, very few men are.

I've been to parties where I've seen guys mess up. They've been dying to bust out those crazy embroidered corduroys all year long, and it doesn't always fly.

I love doing these little collaborations. We collaborate with Stubbs & Wooton on the shoes for Michael Bastian.

Boston's such a unique city. I feel like 50 percent of its DNA turns over every semester.

Men always want to look like themselves, just a little bit better.

Great ideas are very much 'of the moment,' and endlessly mulling them over just takes up too much of your brain space and might block your next great idea. Act on it, give it away, or move on.

Preppy never goes away. It just has its moment every 15 years, and then it goes back underground.

I once had this idea that I wanted to make the perfect boxer short that's not too long, not too short, with pearl buttons, made from real shirting fabric. They were coming in at $215. Well, not even the richest guy in the world is going to pay more than $125 for his underwear.

There's nothin' wrong with the way men dress in New York!

I still don't think I'm a fashion guy. I think I'm a clothes guy. I'm a little obsessive.

I think the secret of my brand is that I speak to the guys who just get it. They don't want something all logo'd and tricked out. But they go to the gym. They still go out; they want to look hot. And they want an upgrade, but they don't want to look like their dad.

I just love walking around the Upper East Side and seeing those guys who didn't just take an extra 10 minutes in the morning to get ready, but an extra 40 minutes.

I know how to cane chairs - how's that for a useless skill? My mom once took a course and taught me how to do it when I was stuck at home sick with the flu. Now I'm all set if I ever decide to drop out of fashion and join an Amish community.

Designer pricing should hurt, but it shouldn't kill you. You wince when you hand over your AmEx, but once you get it home, you never regret it. You divide it by how many days you're using it, and suddenly it becomes affordable.

As a group, the fashion industry has been one of the strongest in the effort to fight HIV and AIDS. There are many groups dedicated to fighting this disease; GMHC's Fashion Forward is just one of them. But I think everyone in this industry fights it in their own way.

I kind of have a uniform for office parties and Christmas parties. What I do is put on a basic tuxedo shirt with a solid navy or black tie, a tweed jacket, a red pocket square, and some sort of fancy shoe or velvet slipper.