Elbaz Quotes & Sayings

Fashion is not about before, it's not about after, it's about now — Alber Elbaz

What I love in fashion is to tell a story through a creation. — Alber Elbaz

It was not the story of design or clothes, it was the fantasy of women that made me want to work in fashion, — Alber Elbaz

I barely finish one pre-collection before I must start on another. Sales start, but I am already elsewhere creatively. The men's show is being prepared, but we also need to think about accessories, perfumes and other items. In sum, I never stop. — Alber Elbaz

Pure, intense emotions. It's not about design. It's about feelings. — Alber Elbaz

I like first class, but I don't like first class people - I prefer the people in coach. I like fine restaurants, but prefer the taste of McDonalds. I like to be perfect, but I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection. I know, I am a walking contradiction. — Alber Elbaz

If you change a woman's look, you change her persona. — Alber Elbaz

If I wasn't a designer, I would love to be a doctor. That is my fantasy, my dream. A doctor will give you a tablet if you have a headache, and I will give you a dress, and we both make you feel good. — Alber Elbaz

If I am in a beautiful place, but I don't like the people, I am miserable. — Alber Elbaz

I am very sensitive to the smells and sensations that are part of perfumes because they remind me of things: moments from the past, people, events. — Alber Elbaz

I love and respect women. I work mostly with women. — Alber Elbaz

I don't like perfection - I think it's dangerous. There is nothing after perfection. — Alber Elbaz

All I want to do is make people beautiful. — Alber Elbaz

I am always trying to put myself inside: Every dress I do, I think, 'If I were a woman, would I wear it?' — Alber Elbaz

Making them feel gorgeous and comfortable is my way of making women's lives easier, — Alber Elbaz

A singer can quit once he or she has made ten great songs; a director can finish once he or she has made five amazing films; a writer just needs to write three great books. — Alber Elbaz

A fragrance is a veritable story, told and explained in scent, in notes, in impressions. It's a score based on the emotions of each instant, a captivating music of the senses. — Alber Elbaz

All I want is beautiful. I mean, I like grey hair, I love wrinkles. But this is me. — Alber Elbaz

I like dresses for night; I like after-party more than party. I like the mystery; I like the dream, like fantasy dresses. I think, also, that you make women dream. — Alber Elbaz

I love to see old women. I love wrinkles. I love gray hair. — Alber Elbaz

When I was either 7 or 8 years old, I did a sketch every day of my teacher and what she wore. At the end of the year, I gave her the sketchbook. For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams. — Alber Elbaz

In fashion we're lucky, we make dreams come true. — Alber Elbaz

The worst thing that can happen is if you're stuck within a bubble and you think that is what life is all about. It's great to see other people and hear from people of different ages and opinions. — Alber Elbaz

I don't think that you can write music if you don't know how to play an instrument. You have to know the basics, then you can go forward. — Alber Elbaz

I'm not a plastic surgeon, and I cannot change the DNA of a person, but when I see a woman try on my clothes and she feels beautiful, I know I am doing my job. — Alber Elbaz

I spend my time backstage at the Lanvin shows, and when I come out at the end, all I see are people's eyes. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is about having a fantasy. — Alber Elbaz

I need to feel a desire, to find pleasure in moving forward, creating, inventing. The day I cease to learn, I must stop. — Alber Elbaz

What we want is clothing we think we can fly in. That's why I opened the show with flying dresses. — Alber Elbaz

I was thinking recently, If the body really is the new dress, as some are saying - with women buying boobs, butts, faces - then who needs a dressmaker? So I started designing spring like a plastic surgeon - everything stretchy and nude. But after three weeks, I was so bored with myself and the world, I began adding diamond butterflies and chiffon and colors. I realized that fashion is not about second skin. It's not the perfect white shirt or camel jacket. What women need is a dream. — Alber Elbaz

What is beautiful for you may not be beautiful to someone else. Or whatever is beautiful here may not be beautiful there and what is sometimes beautiful today is not necessarily beautiful tomorrow. Perhaps this is the story of fashion and what makes it move forward, the fact that there is no decision whatsoever with what's wrong. — Alber Elbaz

Our clothes are not always beautiful on the hanger, but put them on, and they fit like bathing suits. — Alber Elbaz

I have a problem to do a collection that is a secondary line. I mean, you don't want to be the stepsister. You want to be Cinderella. Show me one girl who wants to be the stepsister. — Alber Elbaz

I wanted to go out of fashion, to study medicine. I thought, you know, who needs fashion? How important is it if you wear a red dress and an orange jacket? It's not, really. — Alber Elbaz

I always say that women are very strong and men are powerful. But beauty gives you both strength and power. I never think of it. It's just one of those natural things. It's the only thing I know how to do. — Alber Elbaz

I wanted to see people from different age groups, body shapes and personalities wearing Lanvin That is what Lanvin is all about and represents - we dont only do clothes for 20-year-old girls. I love to see mature women wearing Lanvin as well. I love wrinkles, I love grey hair. — Alber Elbaz

I think that the lack of intuition in fashion today is one of the most dangerous things. My fear is that our business is turning into a bag business, and it's all about the bag. But it's not only about the bag. It's about the women. And it's not about a bag or a shoe or the jewelry. It's only about women ... Being almost politically correct and doing only what you expect without the ability to make mistakes is very dangerous to fashion. We have to go with our heart. We have to go with our intuition. — Alber Elbaz

I always think, if I were an editor, and I was invited to a show, and I would have to wait for 45 minutes in the dark or in the cold or in the heat, maybe I would like to have a fresh drink or a piece of chocolate. — Alber Elbaz

How do you stand out as a fashion ad campaign? By using people off the street; it does generate buzz. — Alber Elbaz

Everyone wants to be young and skinny. This is awful. Curves are marvelous. Wrinkles are hypnotizing. Why not just be happy with who you are? — Alber Elbaz

My father, who was a hair colourist, died when I was young, so my mother had to work very hard. But at the same time, I do believe that if you have everything, it is easy to make a dinner. When you only have flour and water and olives and potatoes, you have to be much more creative, and that's what my mother is all about. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is like life. It needs fear and uncertainty if you are to move forward. — Alber Elbaz

Mine is a job that never ends, a function where it is almost impossible to set aside time to rest or take a breather. — Alber Elbaz

Style is the only thing you can't buy. It's not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It's something reflected from our soul to the outside world. An emotion. — Alber Elbaz

The nature of fashion is family. You see that at almost every house, it was owned first by a family. It wasn't owned by a bank. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is instinctive and sensual. Learn to love what you wear. It should feel like eating chocolates ... wi thout the calories — Alber Elbaz

I think fashion is about longevity and doing your work. It isn't about winning or losing. It's about process, keeping it going. — Alber Elbaz

For me, Lancome was more than just a brand. There was something very nostalgic about the name, about the whole story. — Alber Elbaz

We are comfortable with formulas, but the best happens when the formula doesn't work. — Alber Elbaz

I thought, 'It doesn't matter what that woman is wearing,' but then I realised actually it's our job as designers to make women smile; to bring them the chocolate without the calories. — Alber Elbaz

I think that we are in a very strange time, when everybody is thinking about what is going to happen, and everybody is kind of cleaning house a little bit. In the fashion world, we are doing something similar. We are taking the fake out and being a little bit more real and simple. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is not about buying a second skin. Fashion is about having a fantasy. — Alber Elbaz

At Yves Saint Laurent, I felt like the son-in-law - like I was part of the family, but not quite. When I was fired, I felt like the widow. — Alber Elbaz

If it's not edible, it's not food. If it's not wearable, it's not fashion. — Alber Elbaz

I think a good designer can exist everywhere and anywhere and all the time. It's all about being good, and I think that our job basically is to make women and men look good. — Alber Elbaz

With fashion, I barely finish one collection before I must start another. — Alber Elbaz

I'm not a religious person in the regular sense, but in the Bible you're not allowed to steal, you're not allowed to lie and you're not allowed to feel you're above other people. — Alber Elbaz

I love to travel inside my head, take journeys toward the unknown, meet new people, dream. — Alber Elbaz

I never think people should do things for me. I think I should do things for others. That makes me more comfortable. — Alber Elbaz

There is always a reason why, and I need to tell the stories. — Alber Elbaz

Some days I feel like a piano: kind of short, always in black & white, always expected to produce music. — Alber Elbaz

Women try to be the best everywhere, and it's impossible. I want my clothes to give women the freedom to just be - I want them to put on my dresses and shine. — Alber Elbaz

Elegant is not what you wear, and it's not about how you wear it, but it's more about who you are. — Alber Elbaz

Sometimes you don't really need armor to feel protected. Sometimes maybe you need just a chiffon dress to hug you. — Alber Elbaz

I know amazing people in fashion who are anything but fake. They are very real and very sensitive. They are happy and sad. They are loyal friends. — Alber Elbaz

Stay big in your work and small in your life. — Alber Elbaz

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

I work on fittings, mostly. You know, I sketch less and less in my work. I sketch for the show sometimes, but then it becomes more conceptual. But when I don't sketch, it becomes more pragmatic. — Alber Elbaz

The nature of fashion is family. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is not always about what's new, it's also about what's good. And I think if you need to see what's good, you have to be there. — Alber Elbaz

I hate the word 'cool.' It gives me a rash. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion doesn't look good only on models; it can look good on different people of different ages and different body shapes. — Alber Elbaz

My dream is to be a doctor. I'm almost working in a laboratory, because I'm trying new techniques, new directions and fabrics, new weaving. — Alber Elbaz

I'm not going into the cool club. It's not my address. — Alber Elbaz

The problem with couture is not designers; it's what happens when the couturier will no longer be there. — Alber Elbaz

Run away from laziness; work hard. Touch intuition and listen to the heart, not marketing directors. Dream. — Alber Elbaz

Women can dream at 9 in the morning and at 10 o'clock at night - it doesn't matter. — Alber Elbaz

I don't go out to parties because I'd look terrible in pictures. My escape is television - it's like meditation to me. — Alber Elbaz

I feel more and more that the most beautiful people are the ones who are comfortable with themselves. — Alber Elbaz

I've always said fashion is like roast chicken: You don't have to think about it to know it's delicious. — Alber Elbaz

When a woman's clothes are in harmony with her emotions, she shines from within. — Alber Elbaz

Alber Elbaz is just a genius. He'll be in a dinner jacket and he doesn't care what time of day it is: I love that about him. He just marches to the beat of his own drum. — Pharrell Williams

Me, as a designer who is not exactly skinny, all I want is comfortable clothes. — Alber Elbaz

I used to hate L.A., but I met such a great group of people there that I fell in love with it. — Alber Elbaz

One woman told me that every time she wears Lanvin, men fall in love with her. Another told me she wore Lanvin to face her husband's lawyer because she felt protected. If I can make men fall in love with women and if I can protect women, I think I can die peacefully. — Alber Elbaz

The whole season thing is nonsense. It's either beautiful or it isn't. That's something I really learned when I started collecting dresses. — Alber Elbaz

Wear flats. You're short. It's much cooler not to pretend. — Alber Elbaz

When you come into a house like Saint Laurent, or Chanel, or Lanvin, and you go into a place that existed before you were born and will exist after you die, it takes some time to get in, to get to people, and to get the energy of the place. — Alber Elbaz

Nothing is ever enough for me. I'm always thinking what is wrong, what needs to be fixed. — Alber Elbaz

H&M approached us to collaborate, and see if we could translate the dream we created at Lanvin to a wider audience, not just a dress for less. I have said in the past that I would never do a mass-market collection, but what intrigued me was the idea of H&M going luxury rather than Lanvin going public. This has been an exceptional exercise, where two companies at opposite poles can work together because we share the same philosophy of bringing joy and beauty to men and women around the world. — Alber Elbaz

I love women. I get along with women more than men, and I have more women friends. — Alber Elbaz

'Commercial' is not the word that has to be said only by CEOs. It has to be something that is maybe the essence of design, because design has some sort of art in it and creation, but it's also some object that you have to use. There is also this pragmatic end to it. — Alber Elbaz

Fashion is like a fruit, you couldn't eat it a day before and you can't eat it a day after; it's just about today — Alber Elbaz

We are being accused that some models are anorexic. But we as fashion designers cannot be blamed, because you know, when I talk to women around the world, rich and poor and young and old and intellectual and not, what they want to be is skinny. You ask them, 'What is your dream?' It's to be skinny. That's all they want. — Alber Elbaz

I am very much a people person. — Alber Elbaz

I do sport at the gym a few times a week, but I hate it. Work is my only remedy. I feel so twisted and horrible in the morning, but then I go to the office and I start feeling better. Work is my Tylenol. Extra-strength. — Alber Elbaz

I adore women, and the one thing I want to do more than anything is to see a transformation of personality when someone puts on one of my dresses. — Alber Elbaz

All the young people in fashion worship the people who have been around a long time. I think it is about keeping something going through the generations. Take my work: Just because I'm not 20 anymore doesn't mean that people don't appreciate what I do. — Alber Elbaz

If you take something out of the freezer, it's cold, but what happens when it melts? It's a cool party, a cool person, a cool collection. What does that mean? I'm more interested in things that are uncool, things that have a certain individuality, a certain soul, a certain longevity, emotion, fragility. — Alber Elbaz

I want to know where is that committee in Switzerland that sits to decide what is in and what is out. I don't listen to the formula makers. I think maybe I have a selective hearing disorder. — Alber Elbaz