Quotes from Nicolas Ghesquiere

With my designs and my ideas, I want to please myself first.

In terms of design, it's true the world has an influence. But, as a designer, you have to protect yourself. You have to look at the world and then forget it.

People used to define me as a futurist designer, but, you know, the future is now for me.

Your priority has to be the creativity - and build a brand. That's what everybody did - Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent. That's the smart thing to do.

I promised myself: Before your 18th birthday, you're going to be at Jean Paul Gaultier. And it worked. I was hired.

I'm always curious. Every day. As we get on in life, we must be grateful.

Actually, I love golf clothes! I think this is the most interesting part of golf!

I grew up in a family that played golf, and my brother was much better than me, so I kind of put that aside. I had to be good at something other than golf.

What I find most interesting in fashion is that it has to reflect our time. You have to witness your own moment.

For a long time, my uniform consisted of a trench coat, wide flared jeans, and little bottines - I copied a pair that my mother had in this theater place. I had, like, 10 pairs of the same shoes.

I think when a time comes, a change comes, and you have to recognize the change but also believe in yourself.

It's true that fashion is looking at fashion all the time, and this is quite boring.

I love art. I love music. It's more about the lifestyle you yourself have - that's the most inspiring thing. The way you share relationships with the people around you.

I do love science-fiction and horror movies.

In this work, you have to convince everyone all the time, at different levels, to support your dream. I learned you have to be confident in order to do that.

Never forget that what becomes timeless was once truly new.

More than anything, I'm designing for a woman of today. I want to be a witness of my time.

In French we have this word déclic. It's when you have, suddenly, a light shining and you say, "This is what I want to do."

You need something that puts a little distance between what you really are and what you want to show; it's a shield, a protection.

Of course I live in my time, and I'm really curious. But, at the same time, I don't think it has a direct impact on my work.

There are people I've worked with who have never understood how fashion works. They keep saying they love fashion, yet they've never actually grasped that this isn't yoghurt or a piece of furniture - products in the purest sense of the term.

I'm always very stressed about making a new proposition every season. But in a way, it's a kind of addiction.

I think what we're talking about is a sense of fashion as laboratory work. I mean, we are not scientific, of course, but we are looking for ideas all the time.

That's what I think when people do their "best stuff" collection. When you start to think, "Oh, I will just present my 10 years of work," that's not a good sign.