1. I've always felt more at home in the UK than in France.






2. People think that everyone wears black in France; in fact they all wear grey.

3. I don't like dreams or reality. I like when dreams become reality because that is my life.

4. Doing fashion drawings was the only way I had to express myself when I was a teenager.

5. When I started in fashion, I had already adopted the sailor-striped sweater as my uniform; that way, I wouldn't have to drive myself crazy trying to figure out what to wear.

6. I'm still astounded by some people's reaction to things I consider quite normal.



7. I was fascinated by movies from age 12.


8. Sometimes I have chosen to see films just by their posters.

9. I don't know exactly what is my impact, but I can say I am doing fashion my own way.

10. People are fed up with something when it becomes more and more popular.

11. Always my collections are made of different influences.

12. It is beautiful to be what you are.

13. My clothes have always been expensive. Even though I have had a few lower-priced lines over the years, little by little everything I do tends toward the luxury market.

14. If it's too fashiony, it's not interesting to me.

15. The great thing about American women is their energy and the way they love to dress. French women don't really dress; they are too conservative, as it's always a question of money. In America, women are powerful and strong, determined. If they want to be an object, they choose to be in control.

16. In France, history is paralyzing.

17. The shock of the way I mix patterns and fabrics can be disconcerting, but what I am trying to do is provoke new ideas about how pieces can be put together in different ways. I think this is a more modern way to wear clothes that in themselves are fairly classic.

18. I was lucky to have parents who loved me.

19. My eccentricity became direction.

20. I would like to say to people, open your eyes and find beauty where you normally don't expect it.

21. I have loved corsets since I was small. When I was a child, my grandmother took me to an exhibition, and they had a corset on display. I loved the flesh color, the salmon satin, the lace.



22. Fashion is about what you look like, which translates to what you would like to be like.

23. Clothes are expensive. You have to buy them, and to buy them, you have to believe in them.

24. Fashion is not art. Never.

25. My best experiences with movies have come when I didn't know what to see.

26. People are so codified - it's sad.

27. There are some people who say and do terrible things and they are not even punished for it.

28. When I do my collection, it is in a way my own story.

29. I know what I am able and not able to do. Fashion? OK. Fashion... clothes in theatre, in an opera, in a concert - all that I love. To make a movie myself... no!



30. When people have good energy I feel it. And generally I feel that people do like me. And that makes me very happy.

31. I am very lucky because I am realizing my childhood dreams, and after presenting my shows it's like a party.

32. I could say that making clothes is my way of communicating, because I was always so shy.

33. I take life as it happens. And I give myself a lot of freedom.

34. You see me, I wanted to be fashion designer. I became fashion designer. So I think that everything is possible.

35. I start each collection thinking how I can refresh my classics.

36. Elegance is a question of personality, more than one's clothing.





37. I will stay in my bed! (On celebrating his upcoming 60th birthday)

38. That name came from people who did not know what to say about me. People were interested in me and they didn’t know what to call it. So they said: "Enfant terrible." (On his famous "enfant terrible" nickname)

39. What is masculine and what is feminine, anyway? Why should men not show that they can be fragile or seductive? I am only happy when there is no discrimination. (on stereotypes)

40. It wasn’t like an old French house. It wasn’t that old prostitution of doing everything for money; it was doing things for the love of the idea. He taught me to be truly free-spirited. (on Pierre Cardin)

41. (I put her) in the cone bra a long time before Madonna. (On dressing his teddy bear as a child)

42. I said later, if she hadn’t asked me to make clothes for her, I would’ve killed the one that she did ask. (on Madonna)

43. I think that the collection is very much sophisticated and very woman. It's elegant, not at all sportswear. But it's very much like daytime, but elegant.

44. It's very free. My cubes are in crepe and in fabrics that move.

45. (It's) like a Parisian punkette. You know, originally the punk (were) English so it's the French version of punk which means a kind of bourgeois. A little chic, elegant and (some kind of) accident (can) happen.

46. (But) for women, you put it on as a dress, so you have to put your leg in it. That's it, ... And the zipper on the back and that's it.

47. I am 1952. I masticate. I am like a big stomach.



48. We have to celebrate the end of the millennium with brio.

49. If there is somebody we're interested in we might place a phone call and send them a look book.

50. Do you know that cats can't wear corsets? They can't stand! Not at all! They just fall over. I know because I tried!

51. I love Madonna. She is the only woman I have asked to marry me. She refused, of course.

52. Anna Wintour is a lot more monstrous than she is described!

53. Designers are to be in connection with what’s happening with the movement of society.

54. I wish I had invented the best accessory in the world - the condom.

55. Phtt! "enfant terrible"…you know, it’s like grey hair…I’m a little bit fatty…

56. He’s not like the old type of let’s say, maybe like a drag queen or a transvestite, not at all. He’s Andrej! (On the model Andrej Pejic)

What do you think of Jean Paul Gaultier's quotes?

Feel free to comment and share this blog post if you find it interesting!