DIY Clothing Quotes

Once I was finally liberated from my Kansas background, the first thing I did was get a sewing machine, because it's 1972, and I have to look like Mick Jagger and David Bowie every single second. Taffeta jumpsuits.

Making your own clothes is great - but don't make everything, or I'll be out of a job!

I'm partial to slouchier, more free clothing. My icon is Patti Smith, so the more rips, the more punk, the more comfortable I feel.

I like doing stuff like, for instance, in the 'Leave the Night On' video, I had on a plain white T-shirt. I just wanted to do something to it to make it a little different, so I just cut a big strip out of the side, from the shirttail up to my armpit, and cut a big red strip out of another T-shirt and just sewed it in there.

I like vintage clothes, a lot of '80s band shirts. I wear a lot of my boyfriend's clothes, too.

I did make a lot of my own clothes. I used to love to sew, so I made my own shirts and bell bottoms and modified my own clothes, which is what we did during the punk period.

At 15, I was modeling. I had to do my own hair and makeup. I also made my own clothes because I grew up in South Africa, where fashion was six months behind because of the seasons.

Look at Inuit clothing. Their stuff still works better than Cabela's. I've made my own parkas, mukluks, footgear, and it is good to 60 degrees below zero. All I did was copy the patterns that came down from the Inuits.

If I'm going to try and find something, I stick to the flea markets, or I pull hand-me-downs from my family because I like pieces to have stories.

I'm in the middle of my own 'Project Runway' challenge given to me by my daughter's preschool. All the parents have to make an outfit for their kids, for school pictures, made entirely out of recycled objects. I can not believe I have homework.

You don't need money to look fabulous. There are so many awesome new designers, so many designers doing collections for mass retailers.

The best way to look stylish on a budget is to try second-hand, bargain hunting, and vintage.

I started dressing vintage when I was a teenager because I didn't have money for designer clothes.

Even though it was the 70s, we found old stocks of clothes that had never been worn from the 50s and took them apart. I started to teach myself how to make clothes from that kind of formula.

Boho to me is a first-year student who's just discovered the tie-dye shop.

You couldn't buy any English authors or anything that came from America, like jeans. It was impossible. So we had to do our own clothes if we had weird ideas like wearing long scarves like the French people did. You had to knit them yourself.

My first day of high school, I wore brown boys' corduroys that my mom had sewn Sesame Street elastic into - they were my coolest pants - and a lime green Patagonia fleece that my mom found at Goodwill. I loved fleece.

To be the name on somebody's shirt that they've made themselves in preparation for one of your shows - it doesn't get much cooler than that.

Obviously when you're a teen you have no money, so you make, like, three outfits out of one dress. You're like, 'OK cut the arms here. Alright: New party, cut them to here.'

My mother made all of our clothes, my friends' mothers made all of their clothes. This was the Depression.

In L.A., retro culture is just part of the thing you do. When we were kids, we didn't have allowances, and it was not cool to wear designer clothes. So it meant that we were into 1920s dresses when we were 13.

I once received a cape that was made from the little purple bags that Crown Royal Whisky comes in.

I wanted a maternity dress, but I couldn't find anything I liked. Everything was abominable. So I made one. Then I made a pullover. 'Elle' put it on the cover. Then WWD elected me the Queen of Knitwear.

I love making shorts out of jeans, or customizing denim. Basically, I like to rip and distress things... I love that look.

I am a theater girl, and a lot of theater girls dress however pleases them. I wear whatever looks good on me. I wear what I wear because I have been shopping at thrift stores since I was five.