Strangely, meanness pays more than offering constructive and interesting commentary. Every season I think, "This is the last season. I'm not gonna read tomorrow morning. Forget it." The first thing when I wake up - quite late, usually - I am craving the newspaper.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

Categorized in : Thinking Interesting Morning

Fashion is a playground up until a certain age. But then you have to find your own signature and your own style.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

style fashion age

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."

Nicolas Ghesquiere

shining

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

Nicolas Ghesquiere

fashion moments interesting

It's quite strange in fashion, and it's probably the same with movies and acting - the big choice is between being radical, making a choice that will be more specific that will reach less people but will be very strong and very directional, and making a choice that will be more popular and catch the interest of a large group of people. Sometimes people are trying to push you in one direction or another.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

fashion strong people

Never forget that what becomes timeless was once truly new.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

timeless never-forget forget

You never do things thinking you will make a big statement. It just happens sometimes and you are lucky.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

lucky sometimes thinking

For me, I go somewhere for three days, and then I come back and I want to change everything, and so it's a fight with everybody. I'm transforming and convincing. It's more than designing. It's shaking people and trying to give them direction. I'm a bit of a control freak. This is a problem as I get older, and it's something I should work on. I should be more confident - learn to trust people and give them freedom and delegate.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

fighting giving people

With my designs and my ideas, I want to please myself first. I'm always very stressed about making a new proposition every season. But in a way, it's a kind of addiction. In another way, it's a crazy pressure. I try to stay quiet about the whole situation, because fashion itself can be crazy, and everyone wants a part of you.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

addiction fashion crazy

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

Nicolas Ghesquiere

design want today

I'd rather work with someone who likes what I do than create something for the red carpet that won't make me happy.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

make-me-happy red likes

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.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

priorities smart creativity

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

Nicolas Ghesquiere

boring fashion

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.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

jeans shoes mother

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.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

shields distance needs

I put pressure on myself to propose something new - I think it's the minimum that you can do as a fashion designer.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

fashion pressure thinking

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.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

lifestyle people art

I grew up with the idea that once you found yourself with your clothes, why change?

Nicolas Ghesquiere

clothes grew-up ideas

I do love science-fiction and horror movies.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

science-fiction horror fiction

I remember Grace (Coddington) looking at me and said, 'Can you do something?' and I was like, 'OK, how long do you give me?' and she said 'Half an hour?', I said 'Forty-five minutes?'

Nicolas Ghesquiere

grace giving long

I don't feel French at all. That was never really a concern, and it's limiting to think that way. I think Paris is more of a playground for international designers, so I don't really feel French. And I don't really want to feel French.

Nicolas Ghesquiere

concern designer thinking