As a journalist, I cannot help imagining with excitement a new era with a face-off between Hedi Slimane at YSL and Raf Simons at Dior - a magnificent battle of style and wills to echo the Armani/Versace, Gucci/Prada or even Chanel/Schiaparelli face-offs of earlier years. But I remind myself that this is not a game of chess.

Suzy Menkes

Categorized in : Myself Game Battle Style

The way  that people dress makes them part of an army, dressed in their own uniform,  determined to do something

Suzy Menkes

army dresses people

I am thrilled to become International Vogue Editor at Condé Nast International, which has a real commitment to journalistic excellence, and to have the opportunity to write for a wider global audience through the Vogue websites.

Suzy Menkes

real writing commitment

The Romanovs are overtaken by the Indian Maharajahs as American heiresses pick over the carcasses of fallen Empire.

Suzy Menkes

heiress empires fallen

The most powerful element is that a designer has to reflect the times. So often you can only sense a change, and not really understand until much later its significance.

Suzy Menkes

most-powerful designer powerful

The clothes that fire up my emotions are colorful and "different" pieces. My eye still picks out gilded-cloque glamour from among Burberry's streamlined trench coats or a hand-printed coat from Dries Van Noten.

Suzy Menkes

eye fire hands

My style has always been to choose the charming and quirky.

Suzy Menkes

quirky charming style

Just as in life you always marry the same man, so I think you always buy the same clothes over time.

Suzy Menkes

clothes men thinking

I am not bothered about fashion's speed-up. I find it quite exciting!

Suzy Menkes

not-bothered bothered exciting

I have a love for colorful things. I'm a fashion maximalist. I come from the school of people who look at the decoration in Marie Antoinette's bedroom, and think 'Why so reserved?'

Suzy Menkes

look fashion love people

With the traditional six-month lead time on the delivery of international show content, designer collections can be outpaced by the so-called fast fashion chains. H&M, Topshop and Zara, or even Target and J. Crew, would have their versions for sale before the designer looks hit the stores.

Suzy Menkes

target fashion time looks

I think there's a sort of agony with all intelligent and very creative designers that it's only fashion, that in the end it's only the decorative arts. I had a feeling towards the end that Saint Laurent and Berge were very keen to attain that immortality that a lot of designers long for. You know, those endless exhibitions.

Suzy Menkes

feeling you fashion long

There is no doubt that online shopping has fed the craze for speed, because when you can't touch the fabric or try on the outfit, the only emotion you experience is the excitement of the purchase and the thrill of beating everyone else to it.

Suzy Menkes

outfit you shopping experience

I was trained as journalist never to use the word 'I,' never to put my own opinion there. In fact, if you had a dollar or a euro for every time I use the word 'I,' you would be a poor person. But this is not true in general. I like the idea of being able to stand away and make a judgement.

Suzy Menkes

you my-own opinion time

As the fashion carousel spins ever faster, the concern is that, while the stream of newness never runs out, there's going to be a good deal more crash and burn among designers in the future.

Suzy Menkes

never good future fashion

I am not really sure that Diana Vreeland did Yves Saint Laurent a favor, as opposed to the world, by putting that exhibition at the Met in 1983. Because I'm sure that Saint Laurent started looking back at his own work. You see that with artists, don't you? Once they get their first retrospective, it's really hard for them to push ahead.

Suzy Menkes

i-am you looking-back work

We know that creative people have all sorts of demons.

Suzy Menkes

demons know creative people

I am thrilled to become international 'Vogue' editor at Conde Nast International, which has a real commitment to journalistic excellence, and to have the opportunity to write for a wider global audience through the 'Vogue' websites.

Suzy Menkes

i-am excellence real opportunity

I am grateful to have spent 25 years at the 'International Herald Tribune' - a newspaper where I had unstinting support in being able to express myself freely and honestly.

Suzy Menkes

i-am myself support grateful

The clothes most worn by people are the clothes least commented on by the press.

Suzy Menkes

press most clothes people

There is something sad about clothes laid in a tomb of trunks.

Suzy Menkes

about something clothes sad