Carolina Herrera: If you think that you did everything and know everyt...

You have to have a full-length mirror in your house so you can see what is missing and what you have to add to your look.

Carolina Herrera

mirrors missing house

The word "elegance" is a bit different now.

Carolina Herrera

bits elegance different

Sometimes I'm a psychiatrist and I tell people in my office that my door is open, and if they have a problem to come and talk to me. Sometimes I say, "I have to close the door because I don't want to hear it!"

Carolina Herrera

office doors people

It is difficult to read the reviews when you start because you see something in your collection and the press sees something else. That is when you have to be very strong about your own style. They can say whatever they want, but I do what I do because I love it.

Carolina Herrera

style strong want

Queen Elizabeth of England is the real fashion icon of the century. And she has a sense of humor.

Carolina Herrera

fashion queens real

Fashion is magical, a fantasy. It's madness, and it doesn't last. It's changing all the time.

Carolina Herrera

madness fashion lasts

I cannot go and tell women what to wear and what not to wear; you have to decide on your own.

Carolina Herrera

When you work in fashion, you need to work as a team. You cannot do anything on your own.

Carolina Herrera

team-work fashion team

You have to be a psychiatrist too, especially in fashion. A psychologist and a psychiatrist together.

Carolina Herrera

psychologist fashion together

Fashion is a dream. It's difficult, and there are many aspects of fashion that are very difficult, but if you love it like I do, because I really have a passion, now, for fashion, it's not easy, but nothing is easy in life.

Carolina Herrera

passion fashion dream

I rarely go into a shop on holiday, because fashion and design are what I'm involved in every day. I need another world.

Carolina Herrera

holiday design fashion

Fashion should be fun. It shouldn't be labelled 'intellectual.'

Carolina Herrera

fashion intellectual fun

Fashion is not an investment. If you wear a dress and don't get many compliments, you won't wear it again. It's not like buying bonds.

Carolina Herrera

compliments-you fashion dresses

British and American women have very different styles and a different way of living.

Carolina Herrera

style different way

Have I ever been horrified to see someone in my clothes? Many times, but I close my eyes and look the other way. That happens to everyone. What can you do? Go and tell her, 'Don't wear that dress again'? We designers always have fantasies in our heads, but the difficult task is to make them reality. Because you can be the best designer, but designing in your own place and with nobody wearing [your clothes], then what happens? You're nowhere.

Carolina Herrera

clothes eye reality

When you do something that you like, and you think you can keep doing it, you don't think about retiring.

Carolina Herrera

retiring thinking

Life is hard. It is not too short, it is too long. But you have to learn how to live; you have to have a sense of humour.

Carolina Herrera

life-is-hard too-short long

I've been dressing Renee on the red carpet for the past three years, ... I think she always looks great. She has the right proportion for my clothes. She has that tiny waist and she loves fashion.

Carolina Herrera

fashion past thinking

I love books; my suitcases are always full of them. Books and shoes. I read when I am sad, when I am happy, when I am nervous. My favourite British author is Jane Austen, and my favourite American one is John O'Hara.

Carolina Herrera

suitcases shoes book

You have to have talent to design and to dress thousands of women or millions of women around the world. And you know very well, the only thing they want is to look more beautiful.

Carolina Herrera

design dresses beautiful

If you think that you did everything and know everything and that everything has been done perfectly well, then it's time to retire.