Fashion is a language. Some know it, some learn it, some never will – like an instinct.
What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he’s become a different person.
Life is competitive; clothes gird us for the competition.
Clothes are the way you present yourself to the world; they affect the way the world feels and thinks about you; subconsciously they affect the way you feel and think about yourself.
The cardinal sin is not being badly dressed, but wearing the right thing in the wrong place.
Just imagine dressing the two handsomest men in the world, and then getting this!
There are three fashion periods: the past, the present and Mae West.
Marlene Dietrich and Roy Rogers are the only two living humans who should be allowed to wear black leather pants.
We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or actor that they are a different person.
With women, there’s a basic female instinct of caring deeply about the way they look; women stars have a narcissist complex.
Even the most beautiful legs – Marlene Dietrich’s, for instance – look better when the kneecap is covered.
We don’t make glamorous movies today. Everything now is very realistic, artistic – and depressing. When is the last time you you saw a wonderful musical or a fabulous fantasy?
Growing old gracefully used to begin at about 35, but today women prefer to ‘stay young gratefully’ with thanks to designers, beauticians and plastic surgeons.
As women, we all have certain weaknesses. I know one who can’t resist pretty shoes but has nothing suitable to wear with them. Others adore frilly lingerie but never have any money to buy outer clothing.
The subjective actress thinks of clothes only as they apply to her; the objective actress thinks of them only as they affect others, as a tool for the job.
I have yet to see one completely unspoiled star, except for the animals-like Lassie.
There’s no such thing as a standard size movie star, or woman for that matter.
Some people need sequins, others don’t.
My motto is that the audience should notice the actors, not the clothes.
Many faux pas of fashion can be avoided if you curb your instinctive desire to buy things with your heart instead of your head.
Couture has copied my things for years, in addition to countless other costume designers, claiming theirs were the original ideas. It’s all part of the business, unfortunately.