Lydia Hearst Quotes

Not everyone can be successful selling fashion at $25,000 for a wedding outfit. Certain designers are able to do that. And there is only a certain amount of consumers who can do that. The real opportunity is in that $25 garment.

I hate to say it, but the truth is that the upscale line is where I get respect as a designer. The higher the price range, the higher the respect level from the industry, even though it's much easier to make a great $500 dress than a great $100 dress.

I love to design things that people can actually buy. I'm staggered by what a boot costs today.

There are really two things that have to occur in order for a new technology to be affordable to the mass market. One is you need economies of scale. The other is you need to iterate on the design. You need to go through a few versions.

I had been designing for Alessi and Swid Powell and Steuben and high-end people, and people always complained, 'Michael, we'd love to buy your stuff, but it's too expensive.'

After all, it's very important for any big-name designer to have a couture range. I leave the ready-to-wear to my partner and team.

I'm a Gucci girl all the way.

Among the reasons for this was the fact that the U.S.A. is one mass market. It is only when you have a mass market that large-scale manufacturing which involves very substantial expenditures can be justified.

I deal in volume. To sell volume, it must be affordable. So that's my whole life, is to make it affordable.

People want to express themselves - that's what fashion is for. You can go to Target and get something that Rodarte designed for $34, but would you want to go buy the higher version for $3,400? I think most people would say no.

Fashion today is available to everybody in a way that it's never been before: you've got every designer you've ever heard of working for H& or Target. That's fantastic.

During the 1990s, luxury became something exclusive and elitist. I think fashion got lost. It forgot about craft and culture.

Anybody can make a thousand dollar garment because you find the finest fabric and the finest mills, and you churn that out.

I liked the fact DAKS was an unknown quantity. It's more like Gucci before Tom Ford got there. There's a lot you can do.

The Kitchen was a really great concept; it just wasn't at the price point that made it accessible to people. People could visit occasionally, and some people were coming regularly. It just wasn't a novel concept for every customer.

I love high fashion. I want to do it, but in order to be able to make a change, you have to be able to talk to the masses, not the 1 percent.

The price point and the quality are very rare. I don't want people thinking, "I got the look for less." I want them thinking, "I got the look!"

It is solely bigness in business which makes it possible to supply the masses with all those products the present-day American common man does not want to do without. Luxury goods for the few can be produced in small shops. Luxury goods for the many require big business.

I'm more concerned about Marc Jacobs than the U.S. president.

It turns out that people - in every country in the world, there's a segment of buyer that wants the best product and the best experience. And that's what we're about providing.

Once the Third World has become a mass market for the goods, products, and processes which are designed by the rich for themselves, the discrepancy between demand for these Western artifacts and the supply will increase indefinitely.

I'm lucky to have met Nicolas Ghesquiere, the creative director of Vuitton. He understands me and knows me, and I admire his sensibility and talent. Karl Lagerfeld is another huge designer and artist for whom I feel affection and admiration.

I love working with Prada, I would do it all the time if I could. Working with them is like working on a film: it is very collaborative.

I think the problem is that fashion has become too fashionable.

Pucci was always my favorite brand when I was in college. It has a similar DNA as my label, both in the sexy, uplifting point of view and in the use of color and surface pattern.