Francisco Costa Quotes

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.

When people ask how have I kept on top, I have to say with the help of every photographer, make-up artist and hairdresser I've ever worked with.

I think I've done two shoots in my underwear ever. They both happened to be for Calvin Klein. But that tag - 'underwear model' - I just can't get rid of it. And it's such a bizarre, specific thing - underwear. It's like I never modelled clothes.

Designers used to be kept behind veiled doors. Now they are often the faces of companies.

The bottom line is that red carpet helps us broaden the appeal of the brand. Calvin Klein used to be about a very specific woman, but we've dressed so many different women at awards.

To create a collection, you need a narrative - an explanation to tell the team.

A lot of companies talk about letting creative lead, but Chanel actually does let it lead.

At LVMH, we have amazing heritage brands, and we put interesting talents in those brands, sometimes very young, like we did at Givenchy with Riccardo Tisci at the time, or like we just did with J.W. Anderson at Loewe, but also talents that are already further along in their careers, like Raf Simons at Christian Dior or Nicolas at Vuitton.

I've met people who didn't even know there was a Calvin Klein; they thought it was just the name of a product.

I worked with the best - Givenchy, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent - and it gave me an ability to be confident. It turned me into a CEO and a creative director and a brand.

I saw my potential as artistic director, which is very different from designer. Fashion companies might have $200 million to $300 million in annual sales - Hugo Boss has €2.5 billion. I have to create a world that is believable and also relevant in 7,000 sales points around the world.

I'd worn Joe's Jeans since I was young, so it was cool to be able to reinvent the brand and be able to be part of it.

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

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.

We have this perceived illusion of what the fashion designer does. As an industry, we make it out that this one individual changes the entire face of the earth. I have never said 'me'; it's always 'we.' I am just the big salesman.

I'd want to start being a creative director of a specific line, like Adidas, for example. If they called me up to collaborate on something, I would do it.

I'd love to maybe explore editorial, or join a creative team for a brand, looking at imagery and content. Fashion is so vast, there's a million things.

My name is on the door, and I care very much about the design that gets put out. I'm sorry, but it has to be my way. You learn that by working for people like I. M. Pei. You think he isn't a design tyrant? Is Calvin Klein a tyrant? When it came to his dresses, he had to be.

One of my first fashion clients was Calvin Klein. We did his first freestanding stores. He was very exact and precise. But talk about high-fashion people who brand themselves!

I think maybe that as time goes by there will be more newness but because I was part of what it was before it's not like coming into a house and saying it's all about me. I don't feel like that. It really is all about McQueen and the things that he was trying to say and about moving that forward, making it relevant, making it desirable, making it into what people want to wear.

You can have successful teams where people hate but deeply respect each other; the opposite (love but not respect among team members) is a recipe for disaster.

Designers are more like artistic directors now. Before, there wasn't this idea of supervising the artistic direction of the entire house. The old way was to think you could be this couturier or designer or stylist.

Everything I have is ready to wear, but I have the ability to have different options within the same brand. I have the Theyskens' Theory collection where it's a personal approach to how I build the collection where I fuse more fashion-y ideas and it has my name on it. So it's really something very research- and labor-intensive. And then I have the Theory brand where I infuse all points of view about fashion at large, and it's more global. It's really about making something succeed. You have an instant relationship with stores, and with sales teams, and people that are in the place.

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

I hate Gucci,' said Francis. 'Do you?' said Henry, glancing up from his reverie. 'Really? I think it's rather grand.' 'Come on, Henry.' 'Well, it's so expensive, but it's so ugly too, isn't it? I think they make it ugly on purpose. And yet people buy it out of sheer perversity.' 'I don't see what you think is grand about that.' 'Anything is grand if it's done on a large enough scale,' said Henry.