Isaac Mizrahi Quotations

This is what I like about being a designer: You can't really get it until you see it.

Sometimes I'm really dressed up, and it really turns me on

When people ask, Do you like children? I always say, I like some children, yes. Some children I don't like.

Even though I grew up as a Sephardic Jew in Brooklyn where we ate Syrian food and went to temple, it was still America.

You're not working with models, you're working with real women who have, like, anatomy. Models do not have anatomy

If you try to have a fashion show with Bach fugues and John Coltrane, it doesn't really work.

All I want are high heels, high heels. If I was a girl, I'd wear a lot of high heels. High, stiletto heels.

The more relaxed you can get, the better you'll do

In Paris, it used to feel like you were living in a museum. As beautiful as it was, it's still limited. But here you have just everything.

I'd love to talk to Joaquin Phoenix because he's a very private guy. Also, he's creating a new kind of sexy leading man. To me, his face is new and might be legendary someday.

Half the time I don't even think about it, I just throw something on because I'm so late or so busy.

How do I do it? I don't know how I wouldn't do it-that's the thing.

I don't like people to feel completely described by the clothes they wear of mine. I want them to feel that they're describing themselves.

I'd love to talk to Angelina Jolie. On my show I would love her because she's a mysterious, mysterious figure.

Most of my life I was occupied with American television and American food. My ethnicity was my choice. It still is

I'm not trying to be the next Joan Rivers.

That's one thing about fashion that you really shouldn't be-you can't be melancholy in fashion because people don't respond to it.

The last thing I want to become is one of those talking heads where everything is satiny smooth and you know what the next question is going to be

You don't necessarily live for the moment; you live for hope-what you're going to get, what you're going to say, what you're going to think.

Just when I think I hate fashion, I hate clothes, I'm seized by this crazy thing that I have to do. I have this little studio now where I just draw. I can be in the room for three days and not even look up

The reason people like to watch ball games is because they don't really know exactly what's going to happen from moment to moment. That's why you watch the entire thing

If I just do it, it will take less time than telling someone what I'm thinking, and have them free associate, and then come back to me and I'll hate it and I'll have to redo it.

Mick Jagger, his face was very new. It became a sex symbol

Everyone asks, Will he make it, will she make it? You never make it.

People say it's really the press who create those soundbites about fashion. That's what sells magazines and clothes.

What you do, you don't think of as a product

When someone says you can't do what you know you can do, then you can't do anything

You know what makes me teary? Goya. Goya makes me cry.

You know who a role model for me is? George Ballanchine

You listen to Handel operas, right? And there are a thousand of them, right? And they all sound alike. If I look back on my work, maybe it's the same thing.

What if Woody Allen called me and said, I'm working on this movie and there's a really divine role for you. We want exactly you! It would be such a fantasy. Forget it! My idol, Woody Allen!

I am going to meet people and I love doing that, and I'm not going to put a mask on to meet people now because of whatever interesting controversy was raised at the Golden Globes.

I don't want it taken too seriously, I want to encourage people to surround themselves with fun, colorful things. It's all about color.

I was not expecting that at all. I thought this girl is all prim and proper on the outside, but she's a wild woman on the inside.

All of my research is about the middle class in 1965. It's about servicing those people in the ?60s. What do jockey shorts look like in the '60s? That actually was one of my favorite fittings on Patrick. The jockey short fitting!

You try to overcome this day to day, primarily through communication. They have understood that as much as it hurts, there are things you must slightly turn away from.

Eclecticism is a good thing, ... This stuff is designed to mix. I'm not trying to tell people what they have is not good. (That's) just wasteful, just wrong.

Synergistically - I hate that word; it's so 90's - but each of these projects feeds one another. I don't know how the clothes can exist without the show, and I don't know how the show can exist without the clothes.

I want hair to have attitude like clothes ... Those are the models that interest me most. The ones that have real attitude, that look like they have a life and they don't just wait around for people to style them. You know, they bring something to the table.

The thing is, I am very connected to popular culture, I am. And I watch 'Will & Grace' and I watch 'My Name is Earl' and I watch prime-time television a lot and every other joke is about pubic hair ... So I don't feel it's wrong to talk about that on the red carpet.

I'm going to be so good I'm going to have a halo by the end of the night. I'm not going to talk about body parts anymore, or underwear. I've been warned.

Being a fashion designers, it's almost like being a doctor. You can touch a person because they cough and you can tell whether they're ill.

He's on his high horse. He'll be on his damn high horse again.

I don't know if kids will love it,

A gift to mankind; the next Elizabeth Taylor in the making

Where is the real low thing? Where are the jelly shoes that you find that are sick because they’re so great…Everything has air quotes around it now.

I think that 60 percent of inspiration is organization.

If you feel something in your heart, if you have a vision for it, then it's no longer a risk.

A bathroom should be sterile and beautiful and functional. It should exude Japanese-style purity.

50s cheesecake meets Eskimo fake fur.

I'm so involved in melancholy.

I have a lot of obligations.

I don't want to offend people.

The Moon is such a planet I can't even stand it.

Flirting is conversational chemistry.

It's no wonder we know how to dress; we've spent centuries in closets.

The key to looking great in the evening is to look original. Try to look different from others without looking out of place. When everyone else is wearing black, stand out in a bold, bright color. When everyone else is wearing dress that falls to the floor, shock them with a short gold brocade suit. But try not to overdo it. Focus on one thing: Will it be a statement neckclace, a stunning pair of earrings, or really big hair? You decide.

You can't be melancholy in fashion because people don't respond to it.

There are so many images out there, so many clothes out there, and the only ones that look interesting to me are the ones that look slightly mistaken.

I encourage you to stop saying, "I just want to look not so bad" and instead say, "I want to look fabulous."

Color is like food for the spirit - plus it's not addictive or fattening.

There is one common philosophy, one thing that you can do no matter who you are or what you look like: You can actually get passionate instead of remaining cool or instead of trying to look like everybody else. You can - you must - immerse yourself passionately in who you are if you want to have style.

A mutt is couture-it's the only one like it in the world, made especially for you.

Style makes you feel great because it takes your mind off the fact that you're going to die.

There's no reason for unhappiness if you're living with nice design.

To me, you can't have style without being inspired. When I design a collection, I am inspired by so many things. The color of a flower. The shape of a butterly's wing. The juxtaposition of an old tenement building next to a shiny new skyscraper.

I equate peonies with love because they're the first blooms of summer.

I'm all about exuberance. We only have one short life to live, and we shouldn't waste it being tasteful.

Remember this: No one is looking at your imperfections; they're all too busy worrying about their own.

The designer tells TV Guide that it was -- quote -- ?brilliant, spontaneous, and just a quintessential Dolly Parton moment.

A muscle in the back of this leg was bothering him. So it was best to take him out.