Sonia Rykiel Quotes

There are two kinds of designers: ones who are very happy locked in their office surrounded by their coterie. The last thing they need to do is to go to a trunk show; they'd go running for the hills. I not only enjoy it, I think, how do you design things that are applicable to life - unless you live it?

I'm not opposed to doing a fashion line, but I want to make sure it's the right thing and make sure its something people actually want instead of putting out a bunch of stuff that's already been done.

It's important for young women and men coming out of the fashion schools to think seriously before starting their own collections.

I have made things for Calvin Klein and other designers, and it's interesting to see the way each person approaches it.

When I started out, I was more focussed on being creative and wanting to do certain things I hadn't done before. That's great if you're doing fashion as a hobby. But when you want to sell out stores, you need to be very sure of the balance between commerce and art.

Fashion is not art. Fashion is a business that requires discipline and attention to detail and very organized systems of logistics and operations and processes. But even with the most smoothly oiled machine to manage the business, without creativity, fashion could not exist.

I have my Icy brand, so one day when I do have the time I'll create my own fashion line.

When I was in high school, I was thinking about getting ideas and making my first shoe, how it would be, and what brand it would be.

Collectively with my design team we spent time working on the feel, fit and style to ensure the product is not only something I would wear but one which I would be proud to put my name to. I always want to challenge myself and this was such a rewarding experience for me. I'm very happy with the end result and I hope H&M's male customers will be as excited as I am.

I work on fittings, mostly. You know, I sketch less and less in my work. I sketch for the show sometimes, but then it becomes more conceptual. But when I don't sketch, it becomes more pragmatic.

People get this very romantic vision of a fashion designer who in one night makes 25 sketches and in the morning throws them on the table and there are a lot of women in white aprons with the pins on the lapel and they start to grab the sketches and... It's not like that.

A lot of designers get caught up in the creativity, but you've got to think about the legs of your collection - essentially, how the line is going to move forward.

Truthfully, the hardest part about fashion is not the vision or one great idea, but the execution of each aspect.

I am extremely involved in the design process of both my brands, Winter Kate and House of Harlow 1960.

There's a lot of work that goes into it - if you think about how many collections a year that Karl Lagerfeld has to do, with Chanel and all the other things he does - you can't do that unless you are working 18 hours a day. It's really a lot of hard, hard work.

I want to have my own line and collection.

We spent a lot of time trend forecasting and collaborating on ways to design a fresh line of fashion-forward, affordable luxury.

I can design a collection in a day and I always do, cause I've always got a load of Italians on my back, moaning that it's late.

A lot of my peers don't think about collaborating the way I do. My approach is to imagine my world. The Jason Wu woman isn't just floating around in a beautiful dress. I like to know where she's going, what she likes. I'm not just in the fashion business. I'm in the lifestyle business.

I love taking an idea... to a prototype and then to a product that millions of people use.

I wish you didn't have to design so often. Try to do quality and cut down on quantity. I think fashion is very, very important.

In fashion, you need to present something new every six months, but it takes time to study things. Development is very important.

I invited a group of students to my studio to expose them to both the creative and business sides of the fashion industry. It was fun because the group was so bright and full of curiosity. They asked really challenging questions about all aspects of the business and absorbed so much information so quickly.

Throughout the years I've been working as a model, I've gathered lots of information on the process of creating fashion without even trying.

I'm like a conductor. I come up with ideas, and I get all these people to make great music together. I have a team of really talented assistant designers. I have architects in my office. People I trained from the beginning in menswear, womenswear, and home. I have a great team who know what I want and feel and translate that into beautiful results.