I didn’t long to be a designer. I always liked fashion, but it was always a bit sleeping in me.
Most people travel with a good book, but I also keep my agenda with me; I’ll flip through the pages and take a few moments to organize my life a little – I rarely get the time to do this normally.
I have always loved trouser suits. It’s something I absolutely believe in for women.
British and American women have very different styles and a different way of living.
Don’t wear excessive make-up as you grow older. Young women can wear whatever make-up they want, but if you are older, you will regret it.
Fashion is not an investment. If you wear a dress and don’t get many compliments, you won’t wear it again. It’s not like buying bonds.
Fashion should be fun. It shouldn’t be labelled ‘intellectual.’
For me, fashion begins in New York.
Luxury will be always around, no matter what happens in the world.
You feel very romantic when you’re in a ball gown. Everyone should wear one once in a while.
I love books; my suitcases are always full of them. Books and shoes. I read when I am sad, when I am happy, when I am nervous. My favourite British author is Jane Austen, and my favourite American one is John O’Hara.
You have to have talent to design and to dress thousands of women or millions of women around the world. And you know very well, the only thing they want is to look more beautiful.
Life is hard. It is not too short, it is too long. But you have to learn how to live; you have to have a sense of humour.
Work doesn’t seem to interfere with my life. I have time for everything, even time to be alone.
I was brought up with considerable discipline, and I was taught it wasn’t proper to display certain very private emotions in public.
I was schooled at home, then didn’t go to university because I married when I was 17. I didn’t go into work until late in my life.
Perfection does not exist – only God is perfect.
I rarely go into a shop on holiday, because fashion and design are what I’m involved in every day. I need another world.
My family – my husband, my daughters, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren, all of them – are the most important thing in the world to me.
When you do something that you like, and you think you can keep doing it, you don’t think about retiring.
People get nervous accessorising, but there is nothing wrong with adding a belt or a pair of shoes in another colour.