Women Related Quotes

As serious as fashion can be, there’s no denying it’s also a form of entertainment, and sometimes that entertainment comes not with clothes, but with words spoken by people who’ve had an impact on the industry. Whether it’s Coco Chanel and her worldly wisdom, Marc Jacobs talking about his propensity for making “real” clothes, or Simon Doonan sounding off about, well, anything, the best fashion quotes are ones that say so much with a few short words.

To that end, behold the 101 best fashion quotes of all time.

1. “Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.” — Lauren Hutton

2. “I love women. I’m trying to do beautiful things with them. I’m not trying to insult them. My life is not about that.” — Calvin Klein

3. “You either know fashion or you don’t.” — Anna Wintour

4. “You can never take too much care over the choice of your shoes. Too many women think that they are unimportant, but the real proof of an elegant woman is what is on her feet.” — Christian Dior

5. “I loathe narcissism, but I approve of vanity.” — Diana Vreeland

6. “What I’ve done, Coco Chanel would never have done. She would have hated it.” — Karl Lagerfeld

7. “The customer is the final filter. What survives the whole process is what people wear. I’m not interested in making clothes that end up in some dusty museum.” — Marc Jacobs

8. “I think there is beauty in everything. What ‘normal’ people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it.” — Alexander McQueen
9. “Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.” — Christian Louboutin

10. “I like my money right where I can see it: hanging in my closet.” — Carrie Bradshaw

11. “I always feel that if you’re gonna be uncomfortable and unhappy in something, just because you think it’s in or it’s chic, I would advise you to be happy rather than well-dressed. It’s better to be happy.” — Iris Apfel

12. “Trendy is the last stage before tacky.” — Karl Lagerfeld

13. “Pure, intense emotions. It’s not about design. It’s about feelings.” — Alber Elbaz

14. “I have always believed that fashion was not only to make women more beautiful, but also to reassure them, give them confidence.” — Yves Saint Laurent

15. “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” — Rachel Zoe

16. “It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic by fashion.” — Yves Saint Laurent

17. “Fashion is the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.” — Bill Cunningham

18. “When you hear designers complaining about the challenge of their profession, you have to say: don’t get carried away—it’s only dresses.” — Karl Lagerfeld

19. “Always dress like you’re going to see your worst enemy.” — Kimora Lee

20. “Fashion is not necessarily about labels. It’s not about brands. It’s about something else that comes from within you.” — Ralph Lauren

21. “The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” — Coco Chanel

22. “Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them.” — Marc Jacobs

23. “We must never confuse elegance with snobbery.” — Yves Saint Laurent

24. “Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercouse.” — Sir Francis Bacon

25. “Girls do not dress for boys. They dress for themselves, of course, each other. If girls dressed for boys, they’d just walk around naked at all times.” — Betsey Johnson

26. “Fashion is very important. It is life-enhancing and, like everything that gives pleasure, it is worth doing well.” — Vivienne Westwood

27. “People say, ‘What do you mean you want to help the world, but you’re so concerned about fashion?’ It’s illegal to be naked. It is something that is extremely important.” — Kanye West

28.“When I first moved to New York and I was totally broke, sometimes I would buy Vogue instead of dinner. I felt it fed me more.” — Carrie Bradshaw

29. “Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.” — Alexander McQueen

30. “Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.” — Yves Saint Laurent

31. “We don’t need fashion to survive, we just desire it so much.” — Marc Jacobs

32. “In a machine age, dressmaking is one of the last refuges of the human, the personal, the inimitable.” — Christian Dior

33. “Clothes are like a good meal, a good movie, great pieces of music.” — Michael Kors

34. “The joy of dressing is an art.” — John Galliano

35. “Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live.” — Gianni Versace

36. “Fashion somehow, for me, is purely and happily irrational.” — Hedi Slimane

37. “I don’t want a politician who’s thinking about fashion for even one millisecond. It’s the same as medical professionals. The idea of a person in a Comme des Garcons humpback dress giving me a colonoscopy is just not groovy.” — Simon Doonan

38. “I think that because I’m overweight, [my] fantasy was lightness. So I project my fantasy to the clothes, and now all I do is light, light clothes because it’s the one thing I don’t have. That is why I’m too afraid to lose weight because then I might make heavy clothes.” — Alber Elbaz

39. “When you go to a nice restaurant, you want to be relaxed and have a drink and everything, you want to look at people who look well. You don’t want to look at some slob with an open shirt and a hairy chest. At least I don’t.” — Iris Apfel

40. “Whoever said that money can’t buy happiness, simply didn’t know where to go shopping.” — Bo Derek

41. “Fashion has to reflect who you are, what you feel at the moment, and where you’re going.” — Pharrell Williams

42. “You gotta have style. It helps you get down the stairs. It helps you get up in the morning. It’s a way of life. Without it, you’re nobody.” — Diana Vreeland

43. ”What you wear is such an expression of who you are. That’s like someone picking out who I’m going to date!” — Diane Kruger, on not working with a stylist

44. “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” — Coco Chanel

45. “I’m a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant.” — Karl Lagerfeld

46. “I wouldn’t take it as a compliment if someone looked at one of my shoes and said, ‘Oh, that looks like a comfortable shoe.’ There is a heel that is too high to walk in, certainly. But who cares? You don’t have to walk in high heels.” — Christian Louboutin

47. “I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.” — Elizabeth Taylor

48. “Conformity is the only real fashion crime. To not dress like yourself and to sublimate your spirit to some kind of group identity is succumbing to fashion fascism.” — Simon Doonan

49. “I know what women look good in. I don’t think the rules ever change.” — Michael Kors

50. “Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening. — Coco Chanel

51. “I’ll stop wearing black when they make a darker color.” -Wednesday Addams

52. “Make it simple, but significant.” -Don Draper

53. “A great dress can make you remember what is beautiful about life.” -Rachel Roy

54. “In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different.” -Coco Chanel

55. “People will stare. Make it worth their while.” -Harry Winston

56. “When you don’t dress like everybody else, you don’t have to think like everybody else.” -Iris Apfel

57. “Buy less, choose well.” -Vivienne Westwood

58. “Style is very personal. It has nothing to do with fashion. Fashion is over quickly. Style is forever.” -Ralph Lauren

59. “To me, style is all about expressing your individuality freely and courageously.” -Timothy John

60. “Too much good taste can be very boring. Independent style, on the other hand, can be very inspiring.” -Diana Vreeland