Saint Laurent Quotes & Sayings

I cannot pretend to do sculpture and make a woman the ridiculous pedestal of my pretensions. To render clothing poetic, yes
but one must preserve its dignity as clothing. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent was my first fashion show. I wore his tuxedo. And Helmut Newton was my first photographer, in 1973. I was really very lucky. I had an amazing career. — Jerry Hall

I always believed that style was more important than fashion. They are rare, those who imposed their style while fashion makers are so numerous. — Yves Saint-Laurent

The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy. — Yves Saint-Laurent

One night at a party, a really drunk guy came up to me and said, 'Whoa you look like Yves Saint Laurent' because I was wearing a turtleneck. I'd love to track that guy down and tell him that he gave pretty good casting advice. — Pierre Niney

Haute couture is a legitimate subject for Yves Saint Laurent and could resume one day. — Hedi Slimane

I love bows, ... And I feel some couture pots coming on. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I find men's clothing fascinating because sometime between, say, 1930 and 1936 a handful of basic shapes were created and still prevail as a sort of scale of expression, with which every man can project his own personality and his own dignity. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Decadence attracts me. It suggests a new world, and, for me, society's struggle between life and death is absolutely beautiful. — Yves Saint-Laurent

What is wonderful about my art is that dream and reality can become one. There is just one step between the two. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Fashion is like a party. Getting dressed is preparing to play a role. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I love heels, and as a size 36, I've accumulated a wall of amazing high heels from catwalk shows over the years where designers had to make especially small shoes. Tom Ford's golden versions are my favourite. I do, however, also live in my flat Saint Laurent Chelsea boots or Givenchy sneakers. — Liberty Ross

I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Monsieur Saint Laurent was pathologically shy, and he made the Saint Laurent woman in his own image. Like her, I am shy. And to protect myself, I adopted something of an androgynous look, just as his women did. — Carine Roitfeld

I have been a muse to Mr. Saint-Laurent, Valentino, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Versace. — Iman

We must never confuse elegance with snobbery — Yves Saint-Laurent

Fashion is defined by what later becomes out of fashion. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent is a young man of excellent taste; the more he copies me the more taste he displays. — Coco Chanel

The street and me is a love story. 1971 is a great date because, finally, fashion took to the street. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I view all art as an effort to translate brain concepts into a work. These brain concepts are synthetic ones - the result of many experiences. But a single work of art, or even a series of works, more often than not cannot translate these synthetic concepts adequately. Yves Saint Laurent once said that he suffered greatly when creating. He is not alone in that. Most artists do the same and say as much. — Semir Zeki

I am truly honoured to become ambassadress for Yves Saint Laurent. The brand's modern vision of beauty is very inspiring, and I am particularly proud to represent such an audacious archetype of woman. — Edie Campbell

Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I adore America. It's an extraordinary country. A new country. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Elegance and beauty have been banished. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I'd really like to be in closer contact with life. I'm a little too distant, I guess. I like to place myself outside. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I don't like [to] make a woman ... an abstract concept of the fashion. I don't like [to] say, "You must wear that." ... I am not a dictator. — Yves Saint-Laurent

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

[Fashion is] a kind of vitamin for style. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes.
— Yves Saint-Laurent

A designer who is not also a couturier, who hasn't learned the most refined mysteries of physically creating his models, is like a sculptor who gives his drawings to another man, an artisan, to accomplish. — Yves Saint-Laurent

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

No more rules, the freedom of dressing. The beauty of mixing vintage clothes with a pair of jeans that I love. — Yves Saint-Laurent

The Gucci woman - you know what she's after. The Saint Laurent woman - she's going to torture you a little bit. You might have sex, but she will drip a little hot wax on you first. — Tom Ford

Got Chucks on with Saint Laurent; got kiss myself I'm so pretty. — Bruno Mars

It's totally true: Ariel, Christopher Owens, me, and Courtney Love, all in Saint Laurent ads, all with the same haircut. — Zachary Cole Smith

Fashion fades, style is eternal. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I am no longer concerned with sensation and innovation, but with the perfection of my style. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Both this song ['Black Skinhead'], 'I Am a God' and this song were made after Hedi Slimane didn't let me into his first Saint Laurent show. — Kanye West

For a woman, le smoking is an indispensable garment with which she finds herself continually in fashion, because it is about style, not fashion. Fashions come and go, but style is forever. — Yves Saint-Laurent

The hands of Yves Saint Laurent are something really important - two real characters on their own. — Pierre Niney

Anyone who reaches for great expression has to be careful of the ridiculous. — Yves Saint-Laurent

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

I participated in the transformation of my era. I did it with clothes, which is surely less important than music, architecture, painting but whatever it's worth I did it. — Yves Saint-Laurent

My name will be written in fiery letters on the Champs Elysees. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Blue Jeans? They should be worn by farm girls milking cows! — Yves Saint-Laurent

The most beautiful clothes that can dress a woman are the arms of the man she loves. But for those who haven't had the fortune of finding this happiness, I am there. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent gave women power, Chanel liberated them and when I joined Lanvin, I thought 'what do I bring to women? One day, I received an SMS from a friend in New York - she was in a taxi on the way to court to face her arsehole ex-husband, and she said to me 'Alber, I am wearing a Lanvin dress, and I feel so protected.' That to me was the biggest compliment I ever received. To have a 500 gram piece of silk make her feel protected - that made me very happy indeed. — Alber Elbaz

I knew him, but never felt that I got really close to Saint Laurent. But who really did? Betty Catroux, maybe. — Suzy Menkes

When you feel good in a clothing anything can happen. A good clothing is a passport for happiness. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Chanel freed women, and I empowered them. — Yves Saint-Laurent

the runway style. With her short hair freshly died platinum blonde she had to slay the scene in a black Crooks and Castle snapback, diamond stud earrings, gold collar necklace, red Crooks and Castle sweatshirt, Cartier gold men's watch, black leather leggings, Saint Laurent suede peep-toe lace-up booties and a extra sickening red $7750 VBH Brera ostrich satchel bag. — Keisha Ervin

Saint Laurent has excellent taste. The more he copies me, the better taste he displays. - Coco Chanel — Justine Picardie

I worked in fashion, but I worked more in the sales side of fashion than in design. I was an assistant buyer for a department store back in the '70s and the early years of Saint Laurent. And I used to have a lot of private clients that I bought for. — Colleen Atwood

I didn't see it as someone who worked as hard as I did. But now that Saint Laurent is part of history, it makes me a part of history, so, yes, finally it's not such a bad thing to have been a muse. — Loulou De La Falaise

I worked with the best - Givenchy, Dior, Yves Saint Laurent - and it gave me an ability to be confident. It turned me into a CEO and a creative director and a brand. — Kimora Lee Simmons

Fashions pass quickly, and nothing is more pathetic than those puppets of fashion outrageously made up one day, pale the next, pleated or ironed stiff, libertine or ascetic. Playing with fashion is an art. The first rule is don't burn your wings. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I love Yves Saint Laurent and Giambattista Valli and Givenchy, and I get given quite a lot, but perhaps nothing is as wonderful as the white fake leather trench coat I got when I was 15. — Natalia Vodianova

Speaking of high-end shoe designers, in 2011 it was fascinating to see the design company of Christian Louboutin try to stop the company Yves Saint Laurent from producing high heels with red soles, claiming that Louboutin was the originator of the red sole. Louboutin lost, and I was glad. He was not the first person to paint a sole, and I am wary of patenting a color, like Tiffany blue. Why should we grant that entire history to Louboutin and say there are no predecessors and should be no successors? — Tim Gunn

Yves Saint Laurent was the first person who made me feel like a woman. — Laetitia Casta

Yves Saint Laurent liked women to put their hands in their pockets, or to hold cigarettes, and act a bit like boys. It was to give an impression of composure, some self-assurance, and to counter the feminine appearance. — Carine Roitfeld

Nan Kempner wore one of the first Saint Laurent trouser suits to one of those fancy Madison Avenue restaurants and was denied access. She famously took off her pants and walked in wearing only the jacket. And it was that kind of revolution that was echoed in fashion and in life. — Suzy Menkes

Yves Saint Laurent will never go out of business so long as I'm buying mountains of Touche Eclat. — Deirdre O'Kane

I like to watch the way a model moves in my clothes, the way she gives them life, or if they are wrong, stillborn, the way her life rejects them. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Your priority has to be the creativity - and build a brand. That's what everybody did - Balenciaga, Dior, Saint Laurent. That's the smart thing to do. — Nicolas Ghesquiere

Some people just use beautiful things to just shop or to have a tribal feeling - 'Oh, blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Hermes; blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Saint Laurent; blah-blah blah' - because it's like a need, a tribe, recognition: 'Ahh, my Rolex.' But I run away from anything which is too recognizable - it's my nature. — Manolo Blahnik

Dressing is a way of life. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I have Tom Ford, Gucci, Saint Laurent, McQueen, and odd pieces that I've just acquired because I happened to have come across them and felt they have some historical resonance. — Hamish Bowles

A woman's wardrobe shouldn't change every six months. You should be able to use the pieces you already own and add to them. Because they are like timeless classics. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I'm not designing clothes for someone who is doing lines of coke off the table, like I was when I was at Gucci and Saint Laurent — Tom Ford

My mom worked at [American] Vogue before I was born. She has always been fashion-minded. I grew up with original Yves Saint Laurent sketches on the wall in our house. A lot of that rubbed off on me. — Zachary Cole Smith

Chanel gave women freedom. Yves Saint Laurent (YSL) gave them power. — Pierre Berge

There are women who have completely transformed my view of fashion. — Yves Saint-Laurent

My earliest influences were Coco Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. — Bella Freud

I'm so secluded. Very alone. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I am not really sure that Diana Vreeland did Yves Saint Laurent a favor, as opposed to the world, by putting that exhibition at the Met in 1983. Because I'm sure that Saint Laurent started looking back at his own work. You see that with artists, don't you? Once they get their first retrospective, it's really hard for them to push ahead. — Suzy Menkes

Haute couture consists of secrets whispered from generation to generation, If, in ready-to-wear, a garment is manufactured according to standard sizes, the haute couture garment adapts to any imperfection in order to eliminate it. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Fashions fade, style is eternal. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I pass for a hypersensitive, reclusive neurotic, which I may well be, but I hope the year won't come when my anxieties and fatigue will destroy my love of this life, of all the things that inspire me
a line of music, a face in a Vermeer portrait, a character in an opera, or a model born in Harlem. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I think there's a sort of agony with all intelligent and very creative designers that it's only fashion, that in the end it's only the decorative arts. I had a feeling towards the end that Saint Laurent and Berge were very keen to attain that immortality that a lot of designers long for. You know, those endless exhibitions. — Suzy Menkes

I believe in the Yves Saint Laurent woman who either has her hands in the pockets of her pantsuit or is holding her lover's hand. She doesn't need a bag. — Carine Roitfeld

For the first time in his whole life, Laurent played the game out of love instead of hate. But it wasn't his love of hockey that kept him focused in net.
Every time a puck came toward him and he made a save, he thought, "This is for Isaac." Every time one of his dickhead former teammates snarled something insulting or called him names, he ignored them and thought about Isaac calling him Saint. He thought about Isaac's dumb blue hair dye that had left a stain in Laurent's shower and that lip ring that drove Laurent crazy. He thought about the lake and eating a Twinkie on Isaac's floor. He thought about Isaac saying he loved him. — Avon Gale

What I like about Yves Saint Laurent Black Opium is that it's an understated scent that's somehow familiar. — Edie Campbell

I've spent a lot on clothes. I'm not kidding when I say I could have bought several country homes with the money. I've also given a lot away over time. I had a lovely Yves Saint Laurent jacket that I'd only worn once or twice, but I'm one for spring cleaning rather than storing my clothes. — Donna Air

For me, perfume, must be adapted to fashion, not the other way around. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Isn't elegance forgetting what one is wearing? — Yves Saint-Laurent

To be beautiful, woman enough to have a black sweater, black skirt and walk arm in arm with the man she loves. — Yves Saint-Laurent

All the drawings and sketches and clothes of Yves Saint Laurent in the '70s were so colorful, so bright. — Frida Giannini

I don't really like knees. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Seeing Cubism paintings at the Beaubourg makes me very happy and also old films. — Yves Saint-Laurent

I couldn't love a woman who inspired me to be totally disinterested. If I fell in love with a woman for an artistic reason, or from the point of view of my work, I think it would rob her of something. — Yves Saint-Laurent

Each model I have represents a type of ideal women to me. — Yves Saint-Laurent

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

I love Yves Saint Laurent. I love Chanel. And Versace! Such beautiful gowns! — Tamala Jones

I prefer to shock rather than to bore through repetition, — Yves Saint-Laurent

Minimalism? It is something I appreciate as an art form but leave to others - unless you count a collection of warhorse-workwear Yves Saint Laurent trouser suits. Maybe my penchant for hippie-deluxe eccentricity came from an escapist dream of a different world. It was tough being a working mom in the 1970s. — Suzy Menkes

When I first got Yves Saint Laurent Couture, I didn't know how to take off a cape. I would ask Katoucha and Dalma - the real divas of the runway - 'Can you show me?' I've never been afraid to ask for help. — Naomi Campbell

I was born with a nervous breakdown. — Yves Saint-Laurent

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

I like Chanel and Yves Saint Laurent. I have some great Balenciaga jackets and I'm shoe crazy. — Melanie Laurent

I love black because it affirms, designs and styles. A woman in a black dress is a pencil stroke. — Yves Saint-Laurent