I am one who is very meridione - Southern Italian. I am proud of this. I design everything with my team, which is fantastic and small. I design by look. For example, people always comment to me, "When you do men's shirts, you always keep them closed on the catwalk." That's my thing.

Riccardo Tisci

Seduction is about intelligence and wit. Someone who makes me laugh has every chance to seduce me.

Riccardo Tisci

sexy laughter witty

Black is always elegant. It is the most complete colour in the whole world, made of all the colours in the palette.

Riccardo Tisci

black made world

My definition of beauty is something between extremely ugly and extremely fantastic.

Riccardo Tisci

fantastic ugly definitions

Being a creative mind, you have to examine who you are every day.

Riccardo Tisci

creative-mind creative mind

For me, darkness is something very beautiful.

Riccardo Tisci

very-beautiful darkness beautiful

To leave Italy at 17 without money and go to a country like England is very rare; Italians stay with the family until 30, 35. But I couldn't stand to live in this box anymore. I was getting bigger, and the box was getting smaller.

Riccardo Tisci

boxes england country

Anything I do, I do with my heart. This is why I sometimes get very upset or sometimes get very personal when I'm working.

Riccardo Tisci

upset heart sometimes

I think that's what you and I have in common, Donatella Versace, that careful balance. It makes me proud to be an Italian. In the end, I am proud to do what I do.

Riccardo Tisci

balance italian thinking

I’m very faithful to myself. When you do things that are true it just comes out quite instinctively.

Riccardo Tisci

faithful

I like when a man has one strong accessory. If it's a watch, it has to be major. If you have strong shoes, it should just be the shoes. I don't like when a man is overdone-that's just bad taste. Coco Chanel was always saying you have to watch yourself in the mirror, put on a lot of things, and then take them off. I think it should be that way for men as well.

Riccardo Tisci

strong men thinking

Religion and love don't have a price, don't have a gender, a skin color, nothing. We are all on the same plate.

Riccardo Tisci

and-love color skins

It's super-essential. Even though I don't have a very big team, for me, the word muse may be démodé or not. I adore it, but I am also one, in my delirium, to be quite classical. For a designer - especially a male designer - he absolutely has to have that female voice by his side, which he listens to, he filters, he digests. It's a huge need, because when you see through the eyes of a man, you see a woman a certain way, and how they have little tricks of their own.

Riccardo Tisci

team eye men

I am interested in beauty when it has something special and mysterious.

Riccardo Tisci

something-special mysterious special

My life has changed financially and I have a name, but I try to never forget people on my journey.

Riccardo Tisci

journey names people

If you buy a Cartier ring you want people to know it is a Cartier ring or a diamond, or a piece of art that's giving an emotion - then people read it and say, "wow that's really amazing". With prêt-à-porter you see people in the street, in a club, in a restaurant or whatever, and you think, "Oh my god, he's wearing my trousers!" In a way it's more open - people can put together the way they want - mixed with other designers.

Riccardo Tisci

people art thinking

I don't have anything against homes for the elderly, but my mom, after having nine children, after all the sacrifices, living in an apartment - it gave me anxiety. Being the only male in the family, I said, "No I can't let this happen." Therefore I signed, because I wanted to buy a house for my mom. I started at Givenchy and the whole fashion world was saying, "Couture is finished." No, couture is not finished. Couture has changed - thank goodness.

Riccardo Tisci

fashion mom children

I always think about the streets because that's where I come from and that's where I'm going to die one day. That is my life.

Riccardo Tisci

streets one-day thinking

I try to destroy taboo in fashion-which is something I learned as a kid. I come from the street, and you have to be a survivor.

Riccardo Tisci

fashion trying kids

My relationship with religion is very strong because it was my hope, and it gave me two things very important in my life. It gave me the belief and it gave me a point to reach: Don't do something bad to the people next to you.

Riccardo Tisci

strong two people

When I started, everyone said couture was finished and I was so scared. Actually I was more terrorized than scared. I was arriving from a provincial area of Italy. They called me in to do Givenchy and I just thought, Wow.

Riccardo Tisci

scared