Jason Wu Quotes & Sayings

I am an Asian designer. I was born in Taiwan. That is who I am. But I am a designer, like any designer of any race. Growing up in the '80s in Taiwan, the arts were not considered a career. — Jason Wu

I'm an American designer. It's important to riff on that. I remember, when my mom and I first came to the States, she was so shocked that everyone was so dressed down in sandals and shorts. It's not quite like that in Asia. To give that a superluxurious makeover? For me to make street wear? It's sort of chic to do it. — Jason Wu

Designers have always shown outlandish and exuberant clothes, but that hasn't always translated to the streets. — Jason Wu

Being feminine in the way you dress doesn't have to compromise who you are as a woman or your career. — Jason Wu

I came from product design originally - I had been designing dolls for a toy company since I was 16 - so I'm used to working with plastic and different things. I had an innate interest in objects. — Jason Wu

I've been known to create clothes that are very formfitting and feminine. — Jason Wu

The idea of transformation is super-important to me. You can see it in the way I approach things. I have never been a clean-faced, freshly scrubbed hair person. I'm the New York designer who doesn't do that. I think about the hair and makeup almost as much as I think about the clothes because it all has to work. — Jason Wu

I don't know if I would want to come back as anything but me. I feel really satisfied. I don't really want to be anyone else. I just feel like I've gotten everything I signed up for as me. I'm happy as me. — Jason Wu

I had a hard time in middle school. I was never really quite me until I was 16 or 17, and things like bullying didn't matter anymore. — Jason Wu

I miss All Stars, by the way. I was just telling people: how am I going to get by until January? — Jason Wu

My inspirations come from everywhere. It's important to look at everything and anything. I think what I create is serious fashion, but I don't want to keep my focus on that. You have to look at a lot of different things. I mean, people are always surprised when they find out that my favorite show is 'RuPaul's Drag Race.' — Jason Wu

I dress some of the most successful women in the world, and meeting these women rubs off on you. A few years ago, the woman was someone I imagined in my head. Now they're real. It's important my work evolve along with me and that I show more facets of myself. — Jason Wu

It's quite a pure relationship, designer and muse. I think a beautiful dress on the wrong woman could mean nothing. It has to be the right woman and the right clothes. That's why you need that personal touch. — Jason Wu

We all want to be a little glamorous, a little playful and a little mischievous at times. — Jason Wu

A lot happened in Vancouver. It was my first Western experience. I learned English, which is my second language. I became very acquainted with Western culture. I had my first sewing machine when I was 9. I trained in fashion illustration when I was in school. — Jason Wu

In American culture you leave home at 18. In the Asian culture, your parents don't really want you to leave home. So my parents just thought I was going to be one of those kids. I was like, "I'm never going to make a living at whatever I do." I just liked pretty things. — Jason Wu

I make very proper clothes. But I was never that person. For a long time, I thought that was the image I needed to have for my brand. And I thought that's the person that I needed to be. Because it gave me a distinct image that no one can deny. — Jason Wu

I love the romance of Paris. I love Angelina [tearoom and pastry shop]. I always get a Mont-blanc [pastry] there. — Jason Wu

There is always going to be that luxury customer out there. I have clients who buy $10,000 dresses and clients who buy $60 dresses. It's not so much about the money. Design is a mentality. — Jason Wu

My cats are really sassy and sophisticated, but most importantly, they are picky. — Jason Wu

I love old architecture. I love collecting furniture, mixing really earthy things with the very polished. I don't come from an interiors background, so I'm not an expert. I just enjoy going to antiques shows and finding interesting things. — Jason Wu

I've always loved the rustic, slightly worn style of Canvas and that element of an artisanal hand. It's so inherently chic. — Jason Wu

As a designer you have to just do whatever you want to do. The second I came to terms with that, it transformed my work. — Jason Wu

The Taiwanese are big on tea. I think it's nice to slow down a bit. It's very much a custom. — Jason Wu

You're always in the mode of creating the next season. It's so fast, and in two months, the collection you just did is already old, and it's always next, next, next. — Jason Wu

I don't collect things per se, but I do pick up things as I go. Like, in my studio I have an old sewing machine from Germany that my dad gave me, and then something else that I got from a friend in India, and a piece of flooring from one of my shows. — Jason Wu

My favorite thing about Taiwan is the food. — Jason Wu

I would love to take an old space and restore it to exactly the way I want it. Like an old factory, just something with great bones and lots of character. I'd take an old house and flip it into something very modern inside, or the other way around. — Jason Wu

The polishedness and the sophistication were what I was interested in. I mean, give me a polka dot, a floral print, a pleated dress, a big fur coat, that was always my language, and it wasn't very "in" when I was starting out, so I had a difficult time in the beginning. — Jason Wu

I never thought of myself as being limited to fashion. I'm a designer, and if you have a vision, you can apply that to anything. — Jason Wu

My mom used to take me to antique shows, which I hated because everything was so dusty and old and there were all these weird ladies selling their antiques. We call them "eclectic" now. But it was really amazing that I was exposed to that when I was younger. Now that I have my own taste, I understand it more. — Jason Wu

For a while, I just thought that I wanted to be an illustrator because that's all I wanted to do. I also did some sculpting. It was always very artsy and very feminine, everything that I did. — Jason Wu

A lot of my peers don't think about collaborating the way I do. My approach is to imagine my world. The Jason Wu woman isn't just floating around in a beautiful dress. I like to know where she's going, what she likes. I'm not just in the fashion business. I'm in the lifestyle business. — Jason Wu

I think it's really important to make things your own in your voice. I started when I was 23, and in the beginning of my career, there was this expectation of a young designer being edgier, cooler, more downtown. But I was never that person. — Jason Wu

I realized the importance of archiving. So I save key pieces from my collections, as well as any red-carpet things that become iconic. I always ask for that stuff back. I'm like, "It's going in my archives." — Jason Wu

My parents loved me, and I think they realized that I was probably not going to have a normal 9-to-5 job. For the longest time, my dad thought that I was just going to be home until I was, like, 35, which, weirdly, is completely normal in Asian families. — Jason Wu

I love the idea of working with women because I always feel like a man designing womenswear needs women around him to really have a sense of what they're doing. — Jason Wu

That's the fun thing about fashion: it changes. One day, we're into short, the next we're into full length for day, or half short and long. — Jason Wu

I don't believe that you have to dress in a masculine way to seem powerful. I think that the way a woman dresses doesn't have to be so aggressive. Being feminine is a powerful feature in itself. Power is in a person's demeanor. — Jason Wu

There's something to be said about a girl who knows what she wants. One of my favorite girls to dress is Diane Kruger. It's always so easy with her. I know her body and what works. When it's right, it's not a lot of effort. — Jason Wu

The worst thing is to be a designer and create work that isn't honest. You have to be honest. Otherwise, you'll always be a reaction to what other people do and you'll always be one step behind. — Jason Wu

In designing for the first lady, I tried to sort of be in her shoes, but I didn't really look at her as an important political figure. I looked at her as a woman who would like to wear a beautiful dress to an important gala. — Jason Wu

What I was interested in wasn't popular and young, but I never really deviated from doing it. I just decided that I was going to go full force into exactly what I wanted. I think there's a certain comfort that comes with age and experience, and when I got that, I think my work got better. — Jason Wu

My Chinese zodiac is a dog. But I'm an exception because of how much I love cats. — Jason Wu

I always have the TV on. When there's no TV, I play music. I like having noise. I think that's why New York is so suitable for me, because it's never really fully quiet. — Jason Wu

A perfectly fitted sheath dress that can take you from day to night is something that every woman should have in her closet. You can't go wrong with black, but a little bit of color is nice. I love a lot of color, personally. You can accessorize a sheath dress. Look at how Michelle Obama accessorizes clothes to make them her own. — Jason Wu

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. — Jason Wu

I woke up one day and I was like, "I don't have anything to save for myself for the future." That's when I started archiving things. I take four or five things that are really key to each collection, and I restore them or, in some cases, remake parts of them, and archive them. — Jason Wu

I think a beautiful dress on the wrong woman could mean nothing. It has to be the right woman and the right clothes. That's why you need that personal touch. I mean, that's why I went into this business to begin with. — Jason Wu

Buy things you truly love, things that are special, but not a lot of them. It's about value, not quantity. — Jason Wu

Actually, I'm probably 99-and-a-half percent plastic now. — Jason Wu

I need to feel like I'm part of something. I need to feel part of the world when I go to sleep. — Jason Wu

When I was 12 or 13 I already knew that I was gay. And then my interests were not conventional. So I was very different, in every sense of the word. And in an all-boys school, that's tough. — Jason Wu

The way my mom dressed was one of my earliest inspirations, in those '80s suits with shoulder pads and things like that. For years, I ran away from that style. But now, all I want to do is shoulder pads and nipped-in waists and padded hips and peplums and poufed dresses. — Jason Wu

I love a little bit of glamour and I love tall girls. — Jason Wu

Brizo has been my single biggest sponsor since I began as a designer. Brizo wanted to be involved in many different areas of design - they had already worked with several architects, and fashion was an area they were interested in moving into. — Jason Wu

I made a rule not to be on reality shows. — Jason Wu

I guess I accidentally became a part of history. Honestly, when you're young and you're a designer, you have a goal, but that is not the kind of goal that you even think it's possible to achieve. — Jason Wu

I call white the most powerful non-color; it's clean, optimistic, powerful. — Jason Wu

I was very preppy in my childhood. I also went through an anti-clothing moment where I just wanted to wear sweats because I'd just moved to Canada. My mom was always trying to get me into proper clothes, but I never wanted to wear them, and now that's all I wear. — Jason Wu

My parents are very comfortable with the way that I am, and I think they've always been. Without that, I don't think that I would have ever have been able to grow into the person that I am today. I never felt like I was hiding anything from them. — Jason Wu

I happen to like selling clothes as much as creating them. It isn't relevant unless it sells. — Jason Wu

I think clothing is transformative. When you put something really beautiful on, you feel something. In so many ways, we're always playing a form of dress-up - it's just a grown-up, much chicer version of it. It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. — Jason Wu

I didn't understand anything about fashion until I moved to Canada when I was 9. That's when I learned English and was exposed to fashion magazines. — Jason Wu

I hope I am the antithesis of disposable fashion. — Jason Wu

When I moved to Canada in '93, I started reading fashion magazines, and that's where I spotted the M.A.C ad that RuPaul were in. That's sort of how I first "met" you - in the red bodysuit. That was so iconic to me. — Jason Wu

When I moved to America, I knew I wanted to be a designer. I never imagined one of my dresses would end up in the Smithsonian. — Jason Wu

It's nice to be able to be whoever you want to be. I moved to New York for that reason. I think I am a very good example of how you really can do whatever you want to do without having any kind of prerequisite experience of any of kind of connection. None of my family members came from this world. — Jason Wu

I would buy Barbies and take them apart and then remake their looks. I used them for hairstyling. It was a whole process. I had a lot of dolls - like 150. — Jason Wu

My mom is a really good cook. We used to make dumplings together. — Jason Wu

When I was growing up, you sort of did the unthinkable. You did something that has never really been replicated. — Jason Wu

I have been wanting to do beauty for years and to pair with an international beauty company. It will solidify the image of Jason Wu as a world. All my shows have a distinctive hair and makeup look. It feels so natural for me; the woman who wears my clothes would have my makeup as part of her beauty regime. — Jason Wu

I worked 10 years as a toy designer before I started my career as a fashion designer. It's something I just fell into and really liked. — Jason Wu

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't know anything about politics. Every time I go to Washington, I feel like I'm in Legally Blonde. — Jason Wu