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I Am A Spiritual Person In An Eastern Religion Kind Of Way. I Learned That Happiness For All Of Us Is A Switch That You Flick In Your Brain. It Doesn't Have Anything To Do With Getting A New House, A New Car, A New Girlfriend, Or A New Pair Of Shoes. Our Culture Is Very Much About That; We Are Never Happy With What We Have Today.

-Tom Ford

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I Am A Spiritual

Tom Ford

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I Am A Spiritual Person In An Eastern Religion Kind Of Way. I Learned That Happiness For All Of Us Is A Switch That You Flick In Your Brain. It Doesn't Have Anything To Do With Getting A New House, A New Car, A New Girlfriend, Or A New Pair Of Shoes. Our Culture Is Very Much About That; We Are Never Happy With What We Have Today.

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Women Are Objectified In Our Culture. And More And More, It Takes A Great Deal Of Confidence, Especially As A Woman, To Break The Mold. You Know, You're Afraid That You're Going To Covered In A Magazine As A "fashion Don't." That's Why You See All These Girls On The Red Carpet Looking The Same.

A Lot Of The Things I Did - It's Not Going To Sound Anything But Egotistical - If I'm Lucky And I Did The Right Thing, They Will Be At Zara Way Before I Can Get Them In The Store, And I Don't Like That.

I Don't Think Fashion Has To Change Every Five Minutes. I'd Like These To Be Clothes You Can Wear For A Long Time - Ten, 20 Years; Pass On To Your Daughter. Why Buy Vintage When You Can Open Your Own Closet!

I Like Putting On A Suit. I Like Putting On A Tie.

Fashion Creates A Bit Of A Dream

Yes, I Still Take My Baths All Day Long. They're Meditative. I Have Three A Day.

I Want To Make Beautiful Clothes For Women And Men Who Appreciate Detail And Quality. The Product Must Be The Best But This Is Almost Secondary To The Service The Customer Will Receive.

There's Nothing Wrong With Ankles. But Only If You're Playing Football In The Park.

British Men Are Peacocks. You See A Lot More Style On The Streets Here Than You See Anywhere Else, On Every Level.

I Think People Who Are Attracted To The Fashion Industry Are People Who Are Really Insecure And Looking For A Certain Identity.

Moving Fashion Used To Be One Of My Chief Goals. It's Not Necessarily Any More. Fashion Needs To Change When Life Changes. You Only Need To Move Fashion Forward When There's A Reason To Move Fashion Forward.

My Real Life’s Not Like The Fantasy Tom Ford World – With Naked Girls Pouring Perfume Everywhere. It’s More Staying In And Watching Friends On Television.

I Love Fashion. What I Love Is The Ability To Express Yourself, To Be Able To Make A Product And Shoot An Ad Campaign That Tosses You Out Into The World And Lets You Have A Voice In Contemporary Culture, Iconography. I Felt A Little Bit Neutered Not Having That Voice.

Most Everyone Now Personally Knows Someone Who Is Openly Homosexual.

I Was Lucky Enough To Have Had Great Success Early On In Life; To Have Had All The Things The Material World Can Offer. And Yet, I Realized That What I Had Actually Neglected Was The More Spiritual Side Of Myself, Which Has Always Been There. But It's Easy For Us In Our Culture To Become Consumed In A Sense By Materialism. Now Materialism Is Fine. We Live In A Material World. I'm Not Saying That Beautiful Things Don't Enhance Our Lives. But, In Our Culture, We're Never Happy.

I Am Not A Person Who Is About Reality. I Am About Enhanced Reality.

Your Name Is A Funny Thing. It Stands For What You're About, And Everything I Do Is Really About Pride.

I Interview These People All The Time Who Come To My Office And Say, "i Want To Be A Fashion Designer." I Tell Them Where They Should Start, And They Say, "i Don't Want To Do That. I Don't Want To Get Anyone Coffee." Don't They Know It Is Great To Get People Coffee?

One Of My Favorite Teams Of All Time Is Fran And Barry. I Just Thought Fran And Barry Last Season Were Just Incredible And They Just Sort Of Went Against All Odds And Were Very Successful.

I Went To A Fashion Show, And This Silver-haired Guy Was Staring At Me With These Piercing Water-blue Eyes. It Scared Me Because I Absolutely Saw And Knew My Entire Future.

I Think Loneliness Comes With Being Creative, Because You Are Obsessed With Creation. And It Is So Satisfying That Sometimes, I Have Noticed, I Completely Neglect My Friends And My Family, And They Fall Away.

Just Like Girls Need To Learn To Be Comfortable In Heels Before They Go Out In Them For The First Time, A Man Should Try Wearing A Suit Throughout A Normal Day. I Do Most Things In A Suit-and Sometimes Even In A Tuxedo-and So I'm Really Comfortable In One.

I Don't Understand All These Breasts Right Now, And They Don't Look Like Breasts. They Look Like Someone's Taken A Grapefruit Half And Inserted It Under Your Skin. I Mean It's - It Doesn't Even Bear Any Resemblance To What A Natural Breast Looks Like. But We're Starting To Think That This Is What Women Should Like. And Young Girls Are Looking At These Breasts And Thinking, Oh, I Need To Go Have My Breasts Done Because They've Lost Touch With What A Real Breast Actually Looks Like. I Find It Fascinating, I Find It Disturbing.

Never, Ever, Ever Wear Anything You Are Uncomfortable In. Because That Is What You'll Project: 'i Look Like A Fool.'

I Am A Spiritual Person In An Eastern Religion Kind Of Way. I Learned That Happiness For All Of Us Is A Switch That You Flick In Your Brain. It Doesn't Have Anything To Do With Getting A New House, A New Car, A New Girlfriend, Or A New Pair Of Shoes. Our Culture Is Very Much About That; We Are Never Happy With What We Have Today.

It's Really About Putting That Sort Of Quality And Beauty Back Into Our Life.

I Never Want To Retire Until The Day I Drop Dead. I Want To Work And Work And Work Because Work, I Don't Do For Money, I Do For Love. And I Love To Work.

From The Time We're Born Until We Die, We're Kept Busy With Artificial Stuff That Isn't Important.

Dressing Well Is An Expression Of Manners.

I Think People Are Sick Of Trends Changing Every Six Months - Not Because We're Tired Of Them, But Just For The Sake Of Change. There Is So Much Junk In The World: Junk Tv, Junk Movies, All Those Junk Magazines With The Same People On The Cover.

I Suppose Everything I Do Has Sexual Undertones, But I Don't Set Out To Make Everything About Sex. My Clothes Are More About Sensuality. What I Do Is Dress And Beautify The Body. My Feeling Is, If You Have Something Beautiful, Then Show It.

If You Don't Need To Quit Drinking, You Shouldn't Quit Drinking. I Used To Really Love To Drink, And Especially Living In London, It's Just Built For Drinking.

I Was Not Popular. I Was The Kid In School That Was Bullied.

This Sounds Crazy, But I Know So Many Famous People, I'm Just Not Intimidated By Anyone. I Feel Really Comfortable With It.

It's Like Everything In Your Life Is Wonderful, But You Have So Much Wonderful - This Is All Going To Sound Horrible - But When You Have So Much Wonderful, It Isn't Wonderful Because You Don't Actually Have Time To Enjoy It.

It's Funny, Our Beauty Standard Has Become Harder And Tougher Because We Live In A Tough Age. I Don't Think Anyone Wants To Walk Down The Street And Feel Vulnerable. You Want To Walk Down The Street And Feel Like You're In Control.

I Believe That When You Really Want To Do Something, You Should Go Ahead And Do It. I Mean, I Feel Fear, But I Never Let That Stop Me.

I Think People Who Are Compelled To Achieve Never Really Think They've Achieved... I Think The Moment You Get To A Place When You Think 'oh I'm A Fashion Legend' Then That's When You're No Longer Competitive In Your Field.

The Most Important Thing Is To Cleanse And Moisturise Your Face Twice A Day. Use Eye Drops. If Your Eyes Are White, You Look Healthy; You Look Fresh. Every Man Should Have A Magnifying Mirror. If You Look Good Magnified, You Are Set To Go.

Real Fashion Change Comes From Real Changes In Real Life. Everything Else Is Just Decoration.

Part Of Fashion Is Newness. It's Got To Be A New Combination Of Elements That's Shocking-stunning-beautiful All At The Same Time. But It Doesn't Have Any Emotion.

A Good Trick As You Get Older Is To Get A Thick Pair Of Glasses That Have A Dark Frame. Everything Else Can Droop And Slide But That Pair Of Dark Glasses Stays Sharp And Crisp. Look At Cary Grant. Look At Vidal Sassoon.

This Is Something I Realized After Stepping Away From Women's Fashion For The Last Five Years. When You Are Inside, It Is Such A Tiny Group Of People Who Think That This Is The Most Important Thing In The World. But When You Get A Little Bit Of Distance, Someone Will Say To You Something Like, "don't You Think That Shoe Is Blah?" And I Will Be Like, "what Shoe? I Don't Know What You're Talking About." It Is Very, Very Inside.

I Suppose, Yes, I've Been Guilty Of Provocation But It's Also Just Common Sense Marketing - Put A Bottle Of Scent In A Woman's Cleavage, Or Between Her Thighs - And Men Will Notice.

When I Was A Little Kid, All I Wanted To Do Was To Escape What I Thought Was The Country And Get To A City. Probably Film And Television Had Influenced Me So Much, I Really Thought The Key To Happiness Was Living A Very Artificial Life In A Penthouse In New York With Martini Glasses.

I Am Actually Extremely Casual In Certain Environments. But One Of The Reasons I Like Living In London, I Like The Formality Of It, As Compared To The Formality Of America - Or Informality. I Like Putting On A Suit. I Like Putting On A Tie.

Fashion Is Harder Than The Film Industry. You Have To Constantly Be Able To Crank Out Hit After Hit After Hit On Demand And On A Very Tight Calendar. I've Come Back, I've Lost It, I've Come Back Again. It's Really As Good As Your Last Collection.

I'm A Perfectionist, To The Point Of Insanity.

You Know That Only Thing That Has Made The Whole Thing Worthwhile Has Been Those Few Times That I Was Able To Truly Connect With Another Person.

When You Are Having Fun And Creating Something You Love, It Shows In The Product. So When A Woman Is Sifting Through A Rack Of Clothes, Somehow That Piece Of Clothing That You Had So Much Fun Designing Speaks To Her She Responds To It And Buys It. I Believe You Can Actually Transfer That Energy To Material Things As You're Creating Them.

When The Youth Of America Gets Together, Amazing Things Happen.

Tweeting? It's One Of The Silliest Things Ever.

I Realized That The Way I Approached Architecture Was With A Somewhat Fashion Brain. That Didn't Get Me Very Good Marks In School, Because Everyone Thought Fashion Was Lightweight. In Architecture They Say, "well, Why Is The Door Pink? Where Does It Go? What Does The Pink Mean? What Does It Symbolize? All The Other Doors Are Beige, Why Is That One Pink?" I Was Like, "well, It's Pink Because It's Pretty."

You Should Put On The Best Version Of Yourself When You Go Out In The World Because That Is A Show Of Respect To The Other People Around You.

While Fashion Is Exciting Because It Changes All The Time, It Is Also Fleeting. Film, Though, Is Forever. In A Way Therefore, Film Is The Ultimate Design Project.

I Do Everything Completely Naked

Fashion Is Ruthless The Way Every Three Months You Have To Think About Everything All Over Again.

On The One Hand, I Want To Go Off And Live In The Desert With My Dog And Sculpt Things Out Of Adobe.

Dressing Well Is A Kind Of Good Manners, If You Ask Me. When You're Standing In A Room, Your Effect Is The Same As A Chair's Effect, Or A Sculpture's. You're Part Of Someone's View, You're Part Of That World, And So You Should Dress Well. I Find It's A Show Of Respect To Try To Put On Your Best Face And Look As Good As You Can.

Banking Types Should Take Their Cue From Gordon Gekko. Or Pick The Best-looking Banker In Their Firm And Copy Him.

When You Decide You Want To Make A Film, You Start Listening To Everything That Anyone Has To Say About Filmmaking And Reading Everything, And There's A Maxim About Film Being A Visual Medium, And So You Need To Make, In A Sense, A Silent Movie And Layer On Dialogue.

People Always Ask Me How I Start A Collection, And I Tell Them That I Just Look Around. What Am I Tired Of? What Am I In The Mood For? Real Fashion Change Comes From Real Changes In Real Life. Everything Else Is Just Decoration.

It Was Like One Of Those Dreams At High School When Everyone Else Has Clothes On Except You.

My Goal Is To Help Women To Become The Best Version Of Themselves.

I Believe In Living Life The Way That You Want To Live It Every Day, And If You Do That, You Don't Really Need To Have New Year's Resolutions.

A Film Should Be Somewhat Personal. I Think That Whatever You Create You Have To Be True To Yourself And Create Something That Feels Right To You.

Be True To Yourself

I Think That Right Now We're In A Very Hard Moment And Off-putting. I Mean, Look At Shoes Today - Women's Shoes. They Couldn't Possibly Get Any Higher And Meaner And Sharper. But Then Again, You Go And Watch Most Films Today, They're Violent And We're Living In A World That Is, At The Moment, Quite Hard.

I Love To Design. I Am A Commercial Fashion Designer. I Always Design Jackets With Two Sleeves. I Don't Design Jackets With Three Sleeves, Or The Layers And Layers Come Off Like Little Dolls From Russia. Fashion For Me Is A Creative Endeavor, But It Is Not Art For Me.

I Thought I Was Fabulous And Everyone Else Was Stupid.

I Try To Be Nice, I Try To Respect Other People, But Over The Years I've Learned That All This Stuff We Do Is A Bunch Of Crap. That Doesn't Mean It Doesn't Have Its Place. We Are Living In A Material World, So Why Not Live With Something Beautiful?

I'm Actually Very Introverted. I'm Very Shy. I'm Very Emotional.

Dressing Well Is A Form Of Good Manners.

We Live In A Material World. I'm Not Saying That Beautiful Things Don't Enhance Our Lives. But, In Our Culture, We're Never Happy.

My Grandmother Was Probably The First Person Who I Thought Was Beautiful. She Was Incredibly Stylish, She Had Big Hair, Big Cars. I Was Probably 3 Years Old, But She Was Like A Cartoon Character. She'd Swoop Into Our Lives With Presents And Boxes, And She Always Smelled Great And Looked Great.

You Have To Love What You Do To The Point That You Can't Imagine Doing Anything Else With Your Life.

She Needs To Have A Few Drinks And Cry A Little-then She'll Be Perfect.

Part Of My Family Were Ranchers. So You Were Expected To Be Quite Macho. You Weren't Expected To Cry. I Was The Exact Opposite Of That.

Everyday Is One Less Day.

In Fashion As In Life, The Right Thing At The Right Time Is The Right Thing. The Right Thing At The Wrong Time Is The Wrong Thing.

If My Parents Had Discouraged Me, I Would Have Turned Out Very Differently. They Raised Me In An Open-minded, Liberal Environment.

A Beautiful Woman In Our Culture, And I Would Like To Say, You Know, This Was Different In 1962, But It Still Exists Today - I Know A Lot Of These Women -treats Different In A Different Way; Meaning That If You're A Beautiful Woman, You're Incredibly Powerful Within Our Culture. The World Operates Differently For You. Then, At A Moment In Time, And It Has Nothing To Do With You, It's Like The Carpet Is Just Ripped Out From Under You, And The Way That You've Operated In The World No Longer Works.

Film Is An Incredible Way To Express Yourself And Your Vision, As Is Fashion, But You Have To Make Sure [to] Be Confident And Honest And True To Yourself And Say Something That Means Something, Because That Is Really The Point Of Any Art.

Once Upon A Time We Did Not Focus On A President's Private Life.

Once Upon A Time

When I Am On My Deathbed, I Don't Think I Will Be Thinking About A Nice Pair Of Shoes I Had Or My Beautiful House. I Am Going To Be Thinking About An Evening I Spent With Somebody When I Was Twenty Where I Felt That I Was Just Absolutely Connected To Them.

I Was The Sensitive, Shy Kid That Was Teased A Lot. I Was Very Definitely Bullied. I Mean, From An Early Age, I Dressed More Like An Adult, You Know, Jackets And Very Slim Trousers And A Raincoat. And I - Even When I Was 7, 8, 9-years-old, Carried An Attache Case To School Because I Just Hated The Sloppiness Of A Book Bag.

I Was Not Good At Team Sports, I Have To Say. I'm Quite Good At Individual Sports, But I Was Not Good At Team Sports, So I Wasn't Good At Baseball And Football.

I Hope People Will Put Aside Tom Ford The Fashion Designer And Think About Tom Ford The Filmmaker.

I Told Myself That I Would Not Come Back To Women's Fashion Until I Felt I Had Something New To Say. I Feel That Fashion Has Become Too Serious And That The Actual Customer's Needs Have Not Really Been Addressed. Fashion Needs To Make One Happy. It Is A Luxury And Should Enhance One's Quality Of Life.

I Have A Driver In London Because I Am Slightly Dyslexic And Cannot Drive In The U.k.; After All, The Traffic Runs The Opposite Way To That In The United States.

One Of The Most Important Things Is To Figure Out What Your Look Is — I Don't Wear This Black Suit-white Shirt Combination All The Time To Try And Be Iconic — But Because I'm Most Comfortable In This. Cary Grant Never Turned Up In A Pink Jacket And Hot Pants And I Don't Feel The Need To Experiment When I Know I Like Dressing This Way.

It's Really Never Fair To Judge People Because None Of Us Know What's Going On Inside Anyone Else's Head.

I'm A Pretty Calm Person. That Came From Living In Italy For A Long Time. Nothing Works, Nothing Is On Time. You Have To Learn To Deal With It.

I Understand That I Have A Certain Look That Can Be Used To My Advantage. I Know The Power Of That When I Walk Into A Room And Talk To People, And I Can Use It As An Advertising Tool. Now I Am Actually Selling Me, My Face, My Thoughts. So I Am My Guy.

Perfection Is Almost An Illness With Me, But Sometimes I Have Moments Where Everything Is Absolutely Clear And You Can Feel, Rather Than Think.

I Think That They Haven't Been Able To Perfect A Good Facelift For A Man.

Keep Your Jacket Buttoned. Always. It's Just Really Flattering—it Will Take Pounds Off You.

When I Read About Young Designers Selling 51 Percent Of Their Company To Someone Else, I Cringe. I Want To Say, 'don't Do It - Call Me First.'

Fashion Is Very Quick. It's Very Disposable. It's Immediately - It Tells You Exactly Where We Are In Our Culture, Especially Women's Fashion.

I'm Living The Exact Life I Planned On Living When I Was Five.

I Just Want To Make Beautiful, Glamorous Clothes.

Right Now Everything Is Pumped Up. Cars Look Like Someone Took An Air Pump And Pumped Them Up. They Look Engorged. Lips Pumped Up, Breasts Pumped Up, Everything Is Pumped Up. And It's Also Kind Of Off-putting. It's Sexual But In Such A Hard Way That It's, For Me, Not Sexual At All. Whereas The 1970s, Breasts Were Smaller. People Were Not Wearing Bras. Farrah Fawcett's Sexuality And Sensuality Was A Very Touchable Sexuality. She Was Kissable. She Was Friendly.

I Am Really A Loner After All; I Am Really Not A Social Person. Because Of My Job, People Think I Am Out Every Night, But I Really Hate All That. I Am Somebody Who Likes To Be Alone And See Some Close Friends. I Am A Shy And Introspective Person.

There's A Different Kind Of Comfort That Comes From Knowing That You Are Putting Your Best Foot Forward. It's Called Psychological Comfort. Look At A Picture Of The Coney Island Boardwalk In 1925. Men Were In Full-on Three-piece Suits, Hats. They May Have Only Had One Suit. But They Pressed It. They Made It Look As Good As Possible.

Certain Directors Are Known For A Certain Kind Of Beauty; It Becomes Their Signature.

Anyone With A Long-term Partner, Anyone With A Long-term Lover, If That Lover Dies, You Could Easily See Yourself In A Situation Where You Couldn't See Your Future And You Would Be Living Entirely In The Past. It's About That Loss.

I'm A Believer In Fate And In Fulfilling Your Destiny. I've Always Had A Kind Of Inner Voice That I Have Learned To Listen To.

In The Early Seventies, I Had Shoulder-length Hair, Bell-bottom Pants, Love Beads And Shirts That Laced Up At The Front. But Then I Smartened Up.

When I Was A Kid, I Thought I Was Going To Be An Actor. I Actually Studied Acting When I Was At Nyu, And I Made A Lot Of Television Commercials - That's Actually How I Put Myself Through Nyu And Through College.

Television Commercials

At Home, Off-duty, I Wear T-shirts From Fruit Of The Loom - But I Have Them Tailored.

September 11th Was A Moment When America Had The Sympathy Of The World.

I Do Struggle Because I’m Attracted To Beautiful Things, Yet At The Same Time I Am Actually Very Aware, In Some Sense, Their Lack Of Value And That The Most Important Things In Life Are Your Connections To Other People.

If You Are A Designer, Sometimes It Is Better Not To Delegate, Because Someone Pays Money For Something That You Designed, So It Should Be Exactly The Way You Want It, Exactly The Way You Would Have Chosen It. People Call Me A Control Freak, And I Say, "well, My Name Is On The Shoe." It Means The Heel Needs To Be The Way I Want It And Not The Way Somebody Else Wants It, And The Toe Needs To Be Exactly The Way I Want It, And The Fabric And The Material Have To Be Exactly The Way I Want It. It Is Not A Democracy - It Is A Dictatorship.

I Don't Work For Money Any Longer. I'm Fortunate Enough Not To Need To Work For Money, But I Work For Pride; I Work Because I Love To Work, And So The Idea That One Could Lose Control Of One's Own Name And That Things Could Be Produced With Your Name On That You Were Not Proud Of Scared Me.

I Grew Up In New Mexico, And The Older I Get, I Have Less Need For Contemporary Culture And Big Cities And All The Stuff We Are Bombarded With. I Am Happier At My Ranch In The Middle Of Nowhere Watching A Bug Carry Leaves Across The Grass, Listening To Silence, Riding My Horse, And Being In Open Space.

I Don't Do Shows. I Don't Have Reviews. I'm Not Putting The Clothes On Every Celebrity So That By The Time They Reach The Store The Customers Are Sick Of Seeing Them.

I Love New York. It's Given Me So Much As A Designer. When I Moved Here, I Wanted To Tap Into The Glamour Of The City Immediately. More Than Anywhere Else, New York Offers Itself Up - You Arrive And Get A Rush In A Flash. It's Dazzling. Everywhere You Look, There Is Decoration, From A Pair Of Jewel-encrusted Shoes In The Window In Bergdorf Goodman To The Chrysler Building. And New York Is Incredibly Democratic. Everyone Is Packed Into This Tiny Space. You Are Confronted With All Manner Of People, And I Love That.

We Have To Have Genius Creative Thoughts Precisely Four Times A Year And On Exact Dates. I Actually Write Them On My Calendar. I Write, 'friday, Nov. 8. Three O'clock. Have A Genius Creative Idea.'

I Think What's Important For Myself And Anyone Else Who Wants To Create A Film, Or Art, Is [to] Make Sure That They Have Something To Say, That They Want To Share Something Important, Express Something Important.

A Film, Since It Is Primarily A Visual Medium, Should Really Be Like A Silent Film. You Should Be Able To Watch Something And Understand What Was Going On And Use Voice When You Need To Communicate Something You Can't Necessarily Communicate Visually. The Book Is The Opposite. The Book Is An Inner Monologue Which Is Beautiful.

You Can't Fake Anything. If You're Honest And True And You Love Something, And You Put That Energy Into It, People Can Usually Feel It On The Other Side.

I Worry Constantly And Obsess Over Things, But I Just Don't Let Fear Stand In The Way Of Doing Something That I Really Want To Do.

If I Was Ever Going To Become A Good Designer, I Had To Leave America. My Own Culture Was Inhibiting Me. Too Much Style In America Is Tacky. It's Looked Down Upon To Be Too Stylish. Europeans, However, Appreciate Style.

Skin Bathed In Summer Sunset Light Is Sultry And Sublime. Every Woman Looks Irresistible In Its Glow-relaxed And Sensual.

What Works With Your Skin And Eyes? Use That To Zero In On Your Wardrobe.

Time And Silence Are The Most Luxurious Things Today.

Students In The '60s Were Responsible For Great Changes, Politically And Socially.

I Swore That I Wouldn't Be One Of Those Parents Who Leaves A Bugaboo Pram Parked In The Communal Entry Hall. Well Guess What, Ours Is There Right Now.

A Lot Of People Think A High Armhole Is Restrictive, But It Gives You Total Movement Because It's Cut Right Up To Your Arm.

What Is Important Is That We Stop And Realize, "okay. This Is Fine. I Can Enjoy That. But What Is Really Important, What I'm Really Going To Take Away With Me From This Life, Is My Connection With Other People.

The Thing About Eyewear Is That It Is So Potent, There Are Very Few Accessories That, If You Were Not Wearing Anything, If You Put On They Would Date You To A Whole Era. You Could Look The Thirties, The Fifties, And The Nineties Just By Your Eyewear. It's Like A Pair Of Shoes Because It Is Sculptural. It Exists Without A Face. It Tells A Lot About Where You Are Architecturally Or Aesthetically In A Particular Period In Time.

I Don't Want To Find Myself Designing For The Press.

If We're Having A Glitzy Over-the-top Moment, Fashion Is Very Glitzy And Over-the-top, You Know, Over-the-top. If We're Having A Moment Where Things Are, You Know, We're In A Recession, Fashion Becomes Quiet. So, In Terms Of Popular Culture, Fashion And Especially Women's Fashion Is Incredibly Interesting, Aside From Satisfying Just A Particular Need To Create And Arrange Things In A Way That One Sees As Beautiful. And So, In A Certain Way, It's Fulfilling. In Another Way, It's Very Fleeting Because It Doesn't Last Very Long. You Know, A Beautiful Moment In Fashion Goes Away Very Quickly.

Second-guess [myself]? Yes, I Do. I Question Everything I Do Every Step Of The Way. Once I Make The Decision I'm Almost Blinded By Believing In It, And Then I Usually Hate Everything I've Done.

A Few Times In My Life I've Had Moments Of Clarity Where The Silence Drowns Out The Noise And I Can Feel Rather Than Think.

I Think That Something That People In General Forget To Do - And It's True, Not Everyone Has The Financial Means To Do This - Whatever Clothes You Buy If You Really Want Them To Fit Well, You Need To Have Them Altered Or Tailored. And Whether You're Doing That Yourself, Whether You're Taking It To Your Drycleaner That Has A Tailor, You Need To Alter And Tailor Everything, Whether It's Expensive, Whether It's, You Know, Whether It's Inexpensive. If You Want It To Really Fit Your Body, Even The Best Clothes Have To Be Tailored.

The Idea Of Losing Someone That You Love Could Throw You Into A Situation Where You Could Not See Your Future And You Really Would Be Living In The Past.

Want Girls To Let You Put Your Fingers In Certain Places? Get A Manicure.

If I Were Straight And I Were Trying To Seduce A Woman, I Could Do It Just By Standing Up At The Table When She Came Back From The Bathroom. It Works. Every Time I Do That, All The Straight Men Are Sitting At The Table And Their Wives Are Kicking Them. "look At That!" "you Never Do That For Me!"

We Are Living In A Material World, So Why Not Live With Something Beautiful?

Both Film And Fashion Are Businesses Where The Audience Doesn't Feel Or See The Work That Goes On Behind The Scenes.

Behind The Scenes

I Am Tired Of The Cult Of Youth. The Cultural Rejection Of Old Age, The Stigmatization Of Wrinkles, Grey Hair, Of Bodies Furrowed By The Years. I Am Fascinated By Diana Vreeland, Georgia O’keeffe And Louise Bourgeois, Women Who Have Let Time Embrace Them Without Ever Cheating. Society Today Condemns This, Me, I Celebrate It.

I Love Black Dresses. I Think Everyone Should Own A Lot, But Black Dresses Don't Sell Online Because On The Computer They Don't Read Like Anything.

You Have To Look Inside Yourself And You Have To Say, Well, What Am I About? Why Does Anyone Need This? Why Does Anyone Need A 'tom Ford' Jacket? What Do I Believe In?

Your Connections With Other People Are Important, Our Connection To The Earth.

My Own Skin-care Ritual Is Quite Simple And Straightforward; I Don't Like A Lot Of Fuss, Surprisingly. My Products Are Designed To Make You Look And Feel Better. I Think There Are A Lot Of Men Out There Who Want And Need The Same Products.

You Always Notice A Facelift On A Woman. It's A Tightness Around The Ears, And The Scar Is Usually Inside The Ears. If I Suspect It's Been Done, I Usually Move Around Until I Can See It. But With A Man, It Actually Pulls Your Beard And Your Sideburns Back, And That's What's So Strange.

If I'm Having A Bad Day I Put On The Very Best Thing I Have. I Polish My Shoes, I Shine Everything Up, Because That Helps Me Get Though The Day. It Helps Me, You Know, It's In A Sense Armor. It Says, Okay, I'm A Mess Inside But You Know What, On The Outside I'm Going To Be Pulled Together, Everything Is Okay.

A Man Should Never Wear Shorts In The City. Flip-flops And Shorts In The City Are Never Appropriate. Shorts Should Only Be Worn On The Tennis Court Or On The Beach.

College Campuses Were Once A Hotbed Of Political Activity.

When You Find Somebody Good, Keep Them In Your Life.

There Aren't Many Strong Or Charismatic Candidates Today, Because Many People Can't Withstand The Scrutiny.

In Another Life I Would Love To Be A Cosmetic Surgeon Because It’s Architectural. You Know, You Are Trying To Figure Out Where The Seams Go. Can I Do It In One Piece Like Halston? Can You Formaldehyde Dna?

I Went Through Some Tough Times Because If You're Used To Having A Voice In Contemporary Culture And All Of Sudden, You Don't Have That Voice, You Don't Have That Outlet. I Didn't Appreciate That. I Didn't Understand How Important That Was To Me. And All Of A Sudden, After Investing All This Time And Energy, I Had No Identity. I Didn't Know Who I Was. I Didn't Know What I Had To Say. I Didn't Have A Way To Say It. It Was Very Painful.

But As An Adult Working In The Fashion Industry, I Struggle With Materialism. And I'm One Of The Least Materialistic People That Exist, Because Material Possessions Don't Mean Much To Me. They're Beautiful, I Enjoy Them, They Can Enhance Your Life To A Certain Degree, But They're Ultimately Not Important.

I Haven't Had Any Plastic Surgery - Despite What People Think, This Is My Nose. I Have Had Restylane And Botox, But I Don't Think Of That As Plastic Surgery Any More.

If It's Not Fun, I'm Not Going To Do It.

I Am One Of Those People Who Isn’t Great At Anything, But I’m Pretty Good At Most Things.

Fashion Is Everything. Art, Music, Furniture Design, Graphic Design, Hair, Makeup, Architecture, The Way Cars Look - All Those Things Go Together To Make A Moment In Time, And That's What Excites Me.

I Think We Are Becoming More And More Linked, And Before Long, We'll All Be One Culture. It's Happening In Every Field, Not Just Fashion. Actually, I Think The Only Hope For Peace Is If Culture Is Homogenized. Unfortunately, Money Seems To Be The Only Solution To Political Disagreements. If We Are All Linked Through Culture And Trade, It Won't Be Worth Fighting Each Other.

Give Me The Control, Don't Ever Come On The Set, And I'll Show It To You When It's Cut.

I'm Very Aware That When My Friends And I Sit Around Over Dinner These Days, The Conversation Invariably Turns To How Crass The World Has Become. Tweeting? It's One Of The Silliest Things Ever.

I Find A Bath Meditative And Usually Prepare Myself For The Day In This Manner.

The World Might Be A Very Scary Place If It Were Only Run By Virgos.

My Own Sex Life Is Very Monogamous And Happy . . . Just A Happy Married Sex Life!

When I Come Home I Actually Take Off All My Clothes, And I Wear No Clothes Until I Leave. I Eat Naked. I Do Everything Completely Naked.

I Don't Believe In Playing Around Much With Suit Cuts. I Like A Fairly Classic Shape That Gives A Man Strong Shoulders, A Fitted Waist, And Long Legs. Classic Simplicity Always Works.

Fashion Is, After All, A Form Of Escapism, And In Fact People Are Buying More Special Things Than Ever, Nowadays. They Deny And Deny Themselves, And Wait And Wait, And Then They Get Sick Of It And Spend To Make Themselves Feel Better.

To Me, Beauty And Sadness Are Very Closely Linked. Truly Beautiful Things Make Me Sad Because I Know They Are Going To Fade. When I See A Beautiful 20-year-old Boy Or Girl-and They Are Breathtaking-i Am Filled With A Kind Of Sadness. But Maybe They Are Beautiful Because We Know They Are Not Permanent And They Are In A Kind Of Transition.

I Am A Perfectionist. This Job Is A Total Ego Thing In A Way. To Be A Designer And Say, 'this Is The Way They Should Dress; This Is The Way Their Homes Should Look; This Is The Way The World Should Be.' But Then, That's The Goal: World Domination Through Style.

It's Not A Feminizing Product; It's Designed To Make Your Skin Look Better.

The Seventies Is What I Love. Soft, Touchable Beauty Is What I Love.

In My Early 40s I Started To Feel That I Had Neglected The Spiritual Side Of My Life. It Had Always Been There, But I'd Neglected It. In Fashion, That's Really Easy Because We Live In The Future, And We Can Place Too Much Importance On Material Things.

For Fleur De Chine, I Imagined The Romantic And Mysterious Women From Asia's Cinematic Past-from The '30s Femme Fatale In A Cheongsam And Dark Lipstick, To The'60s Hong Kong Heroine Of In The Mood For Love. I Wanted To Capture That Fascinating, Exquisite And Slightly Scandalous Femininity.

Mysterious Woman

Oh My God, So Many Young Girls Now Look Like Whores!

Choose Your Team Carefully. So Much Of Your Success Is Due To The People Who You Surround Yourself With. Your Friends, Your Family, And The People That You Work With -- They All Play An Important Role In Inspiring You And Supporting You And Giving You Stability. These Are The People In Your Life Who Will Be Honest With You.

You Have To Be Passionate, You Have To Be Engaged And You Have To Be Contributing To The World.

If You Are Creative, Sometimes You Give Up A Lot Of Things That Other People Have.

If You're At The Oscars, There's Not A Man On That Red Carpet Who Is Not Wearing Make-up. Most Straight Actors I Know Get Quite Used To It. Even When They Go Out In Real Life They Grab Some Sort Of Bronzer And They Throw It On. They Dye Their Eyebrows, They Dye Their Lashes - They Know The Tricks.

I Hate Tricky Facial Hair. If Your Facial Hair Is Too Spotty In Places, Shave. Just Forget About It.

Bill Sofield Has The Ability To Understand The Architecture Of A Space And How To Utilize It In The Most Beautiful Way. He Can Create Completely Different Styles For His Clients Based On Who They Are And What Their Taste Is. Our Efforts Have Always Been Collaborative, And I Value What He Brings To The Table Architecturally And Aesthetically.

Yeah. Iʼve Always Felt This Way. I Mean Weʼre Born Alone, We Die Alone. And While Weʼre Here We Are Absolutely, Completely Sealed In Our Own Bodies. Really Weird. Kinda Freaks Me Out To Think About It. We Can Only Experience The Outside World Through Our Own Slanted Perception Of It. Who Knows What Youʼre Really Like. I Just See What I Think Youʼre Like.

Just Because One Is Spiritual Doesn't Mean That One Doesn't Like Crocodile, Cashmere. We Live In A Material World. We Still Experience These Things. It Doesn't Mean To Completely Disregard Them.

Men Don't Wear Fashion Any More Except In Italy And London. Americans Have Lost That.

Artists, Like Yourself, Are Born With A Need To Express That's Just Innate.

I Am Not Someone Who Likes Cocktail Parties Or Large Dinner Parties, But I Have To Attend Them Often. I Much Prefer Very Small Dinners With Close Friends.

London Is One Of The Few Cities Where People Still Dress Properly And Fashion Exists. Every Day I See Women Who've Thought About Their Outfits. They've Picked Out The Bag, Put On Proper Shoes. ... Do You Know How Rare It Is In Parts Of America To Actually See 'an Outfit'? France? I Don't Want To Be Anti-french But There Isn't A More Unattractive Group Of People On The Streets.

As A Fashion Designer, I Was Always Aware That I Was Not An Artist, Because I Was Creating Something That Was Made To Be Sold, Marketed, Used, And Ultimately Discarded.

I Live, I Shop Almost Exclusively On The Internet. I've Bought Cars On The Internet. I Watch Television, I Do Everything On It. I Even Watch My Son Online.

Dressing Effectively Is A Kind Of Excellent Manners.

We've Become A Little Spoiled With Menswear In Particular Because, Of Course, We've Come Off A Period In The '70s And '80s When Armani, Which Is Very Soft, Dominated Menswear. And We've Become Obsessed With Comfort. I Actually Don't Like That.

I'm A Fashion Designer. What I Do Is Artistic, But I'm Not An Artist Because Everything I Do Is Destined To Be Sold. That's Not To Say That You Can't Be An Artist And A Fashion Designer. I Think Some Designers Are Artists.

I Don't Wear A Lot Of Color. In Fact, I Don't Actually Like Color On Myself. I Love Color But It's Very Challenging, It's Very Powerful, It Can Overpower You. I Think If My Eyes Were Closed And Someone Put A Red Jacket On Me, I Would Be Able To Feel That It Was Red. I Don't Feel Great In Color.

Style For Me Is Some One Who Figures Out Who They Are. What Works On Them. What They Feel Good In And Develops That. Develops Their Character. And The Outer Expression Of Their Character Is What Is Style.

Style Is Very Different From Fashion. Once You Find Something That Works, Keep It.

In My Adult Life I've Understood That If I Put An Enormous Amount Of Love And Honesty Into Something, Usually That Shows In The End.

I'm A Natural-born Boss, I Have To Say. I Just Like To Be Good At Things. Even As A Child, I Was Boss Of My Family.

I Think We're Very Uptight In America. You Have To Remember That We're Descended From Puritans. Whether Or Not The Country Is Now Composed Of Immigrants, Our Culture As American Really Begins With The Landing Of The Pilgrims And A Puritanical View Of Things.

When I Was Young, I Wanted To Be A Movie Star. But I Realized That You Have No Control Being An Actor. So I Went To Architecture School In Nyc, Because I Was Crazy About Buildings. Then I Began To Realize That I Got More Excited About Vogue Coming Out Each Month Than I Was About My Projects.

There Is No More Dramatic Accessory Than A Perfect Lip. It Is The Focus Of The Face And It Has The Power To Define A Woman's Whole Look.

This Is Going To Sound Crazy, But The First Thing I Do When I Get Home Is Take Off All My Clothes - At Home, Just Around The House. I Take Everything Off. I Can't Stand Clothes! I Take Everything Off - My Shoes, My Socks, My Watch, Shirt, Everything. I Am Completely Naked.

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