You cannot have adoration without being criticized.
I don't have so many things in the fashion world that interest me. It's probably because I am so deeply into it. Often when you go very deep into something, you also discover what it's about, and you understand it better. With the art world, I still have a lot of curiosity.
Until I was eighteen, I did not know that you could study fashion design or art. I really didn't know. I already had my nose in the art world; I was already looking at things, but I didn't really get it that you could study that because my school was a very different environment.
My ideas for the next collection always happen a couple of months before the show. I have learned to shut up and not bother my assistants with it.
People who don't know me look at my world as something very hard-core, and I don't feel it that way. It's not what attracts me.
My point of view is that if I love a certain kind of beauty, I want more of that beauty. I don't need 200 different beauties.
I want to get away from couture just being done for a picture or for a single moment on the red carpet. I want to try and convince women that couture can be worn in the day and that there's a reality and relevance there, because that's what Mr. Christian Dior wanted.
Every weekend, I'm on the highway to Antwerp. I need to be there, to have the calm. It's a whole different life: I jump on my bike, and it's so small, I can be anywhere in a minute. I like to be at home when there's free time because when you're at a big company, you're constantly surrounded by 30 people.
L.A. interests me, the whole band scene and relaxed carefree feel, but it does not mean you have to dress like a hippy.
You can instantly spot a Chanel woman, so I want to develop the Dior woman.
The Chanel woman? I don't even need to see; I smell her from round the corner.
Berlin is in a state of transition. There are lots of people who don't stay here. They pass through. They might not 'clean up,' but they mature. It is a city where people spend a significant time in their lives, and then they move on.
Dress codes and gestures and attitudes have always inspired me, as has youth culture in general, although now I question it more. If you analyze youth cultures over history, there has always been something strict about them - you have to be like this or like that.
Fashion has a long interest in collaborative situations.
My inspiration is endless; I can't define it. It is a constant flow and evolution. In general, I'm taking it from everywhere. People get nervous when they walk with me, as I'll see something and suddenly have to text it to myself.
I'd like to see fashion slow down a bit. What freaks me out about fashion today is the speed - the speed of consuming, the speed of ideas. When fashion moves so fast, it takes away something I always loved, which is the idea that fashion should be slightly elusive. Hard to grasp, hard to find.
Fashion is so mass-produced now; I hope there will come a refocus on how people see couture. And I would also hope for a new focus on the craft.
There are people who, if they see something in couture that they perceive as ready-to-wear, they're in shock.
My whole life, I've always had to be surrounded by creative things. I find it relaxing to be in touch with creations by other people.
I'm fascinated by the way Diane Arbus saw things. She came from this fashion background and then twisted it.
