Patti Smith Quotes

My style is very eclectic, definitely more '60s and '70s inspired.

When I was around 12, my heroes were Cindy Sherman and Bob Dylan and Samuel Westing from the kids' novel 'The Westing Game'.

Pharrell has always been my style idol.

I love Ali MacGraw and her style - I'm into vintage '70s outfits at the moment.

As far as the style, I was fascinated by surrealism.

If Botticelli were alive today he'd be working for Vogue.

As a drama student I got into Thirties and Forties suits.

I made up my mind that I was going to be just like Elvis. It never occurred to me that Elvis was a man. I just wanted to be him. He had a huge impact on me, right down to that black leather jumpsuit he wore on the '68 Comeback Special.

I'm a London girl, so I grew up on Alexander McQueen and Vivienne Westwood... Dior, Chanel, the usual suspects.

When I was very, very young, I decided that I was gonna catalogue my times because that's what other people who I admired did. That's what Bob Dylan did, that's what Frank Sinatra did, Hank Williams did, in very different ways.

For my own style, I love vintage. 60's and 70's are my favorite. I love baby doll dresses and the soft colors. I try to mix a little bit of modern into that - maybe I'll wear it with boots. At my school we wear a uniform, but we have one day a week we can wear whatever we want.

I love that pre-mod jazz look of the late Fifties, the Steve McQueen style that influenced the British modernists.

I've always found that fashion is, first of all, mainly for yourself. So my two icons are, on one side, Little Edie from 'Grey Gardens' and, of course, like all my generation, I'm influenced by Kate Moss.

Edie Sedgwick, Debbie Harry, Chloe Sevigny, Michelle Obama, and my friend Eugenie Niarchos each have their own great sense of style.

I like to wear short-sleeved collared shirts and high-waist trousers with shiny shoes. And at night, when I'm playing, I'll often wear suits. But it started with my uncle's vintage clothes.

Abbey Clancy is incredible. I saw a picture of her in a white suit recently, and she looked amazing. Victoria Beckham always looks classy, and I like Coleen Rooney's style too.

A lot of my friends inspire my style, and they don't even know it.

I love the '70s, I'm very into that right now. The long Chloe dresses, very Virgin Suicides.

I have this arsenal of high-waisted wide-leg '70s pants and overalls. They are more roller-disco than Alexander Wang overalls.

I think a lot of African-American kids don't have fathers to teach them how to dress, so you end up being taught by pictures in magazine and movies. You see cowboys, Indians, old Hollywood films, Cary Grant. It has an effect on you.

I used to dress like Roger Taylor when I was ten because I thought he was cool. In high school, I used to dress like Stephen Perkins from Jane's Addiction because I thought he was cool. You just want to be those guys when you're that age.

Part of the pleasure of editing 'Vogue,' one that lies in a long tradition of this magazine, is being able to feature those who define the culture at any given moment, who stir things up, whose presence in the world shapes the way it looks and influences the way we see it.

My influences have been what I call my four Bs - the primary one being the blues, then Borges, Baraka, and Bearden.

Early on, I was into David Bowie. Then someone in the band suggested I try a Bryan Ferry type of thing. That's when I started wearing three-piece suits. It wasn't unnatural for me.

Half of my closet is Barbie clothes - PVC skirts, cropped fuzzy sweaters, and velvet minis.