SO THEY HAVE CROWNED ME KING. LOOK WHAT HAPPENED TO ALL THE OTHER KINGS IN FRANCE

And other great yves-isms...



"First nights at the theater...life on a yacht -- all things like that belong to a society that no longer means anything...a society that is no longer a la mode. The Social Ladies are no longer significant."
1968

"I have always done black. I don't do `message' couture."
1968

"In the future, men and women will dress more and more alike. I want to create clothes for women like men's clothes."
1968

"The drama is that there are so many stupid rich people. Luxury - so few know how to use it and make it respectable."
1970

"I want to see elegant women...women aware that they are women. Finished are the hippie things...all those bits of folklore...those scarves. The street is terrifying now. Horrible."
1970

"Look at all that advertising - you must buy these shoes to go with this bag to go with that belt. Such advertising takes people for imbeciles. The results? The young don't shop in the big stores anymore."
1970

"I did not think that in a profession as free as fashion that one could meet so many people so narrow-minded and reactionary, petty people paralyzed by taboos. But I am also very stimulated by this scandal because I know that which shocks is new."
February 1971, reaction to universally scathing reviews of his spring couture collection

"The challenge is to make a raincoat that looks just as good on a girl of 15 as on a woman of 60."
1971

"Pants are simply not important anymore. There are only jeans today."
1976

"Maybe I am ill, but are you so well every day of the year?"
1977, denying published reports that he was too ill to design his own collection

"I have said before that the most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy."
1978

"The more ideas you have, the worse it is."
1978

"Humor is the vital element. My message is humor combined with total refinement."
1978

"For me, `Porgy and Bess' is the epitome of the American spirit. It is modern, sexy, amusing and full of gaiety."
1978, after creating the "Broadway Suit" collection

I am not a young lion now, I am an old lion. Perhaps a fox."
1980

"The one thing I lack in my life is to live. In my youth, I never discovered life. Life is to be lived when one is young, and truly, I've never lived."
1978

"I remember when trousers were shaped like trumpets [bell-bottoms]. Perhaps, it was amusing at the time as a fashion, but styles like this are gimmicks, they are not real and cannot last. Classics continue all the time because they have style, not `fashion."'
1981

"There is no world that is refined that is not also melancholy."
1983

"People think decadence is debauched. Decadence is simply something very beautiful that is dying. It's a beautiful flower that is dying, and sometimes you have to wait a very long time for another flower to come along."
1986

"It may not succeed, but it will have an effect."
describing his 1986 fall couture collection.

"What a woman needs is a black turtleneck sweater, a straight skirt and a man to love her."
1989

"I've worked all my life to found a fashion house worthy of France. I did so without concession or compromise."
1993, upon selling the house to Sanofi

"I'm happy to be copied, otherwise I wouldn't be doing my job well."
1998


YSL: couturier and philospher... formidable

x