Joseph Altuzarra Quotations

We're making clothes - we aren't saving the world. I'm not saying that designers aren't artists, but at the end of the day, we make clothes. Hopefully we make beautiful clothes with a message, but in the end it's for people to wear. I think that the hype of fashion has come down a level.

One of my biggest pet peeves is well-dressed designers. If you spend that much time thinking about your own clothes, you're not spending enough time thinking about what you're designing.

I'm always fetishizing the French woman and French taste and style. My assistant will make fun of me because every time we're picking the direction of a collection, I say the same thing: 'I want it to be really French.'

I always listen to music while I draw.

I think women want to feel beautiful. They want to feel seductive. I also try to think about items that can be worn in different ways so they can be worn more than once. If you're going to buy a $2,000 jacket, you are going to want to wear it over and over.

My mother has always encouraged me to do what I love. When I started being interested in fashion, she was very supportive, bringing me to see exhibits and buying me books. And when I started my company, she was right there to help me!

When you live in Paris, and fashion is such a point of pride for the French, it's always around and you're very much exposed to it from an early age. It was always something I knew about and really liked.

I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. I believe that clothes should make a woman feel beautiful. But sometimes it's the little things like cut and fit and sex appeal that make a large impact.

I honestly think that with our generation - Alex Wang, Prabal Gurung, Jason Wu, Christian Cota, Robert Geller - there's a different expectation of what our behavior should be. People expect designers to be good businesspeople and PR people, and I don't think partying is a part of that persona the way it used to be.

If you take away print and embroidery, you have to challenge yourself a bit more on the cut.

I don't think I'm an artist or that I'm doing anything superintellectual. What's important to me is to get a visceral reaction from people, for them to want that coat because they think it's beautiful.

A lot of my pieces are about easy seductiveness and accessibility in terms of showing skin.

I try to think about items that can be worn in different ways so they can be worn more than once.

I think women want to feel beautiful. They want to feel seductive.

When you look at women today, many take very good care of themselves - they exercise, they eat well, they achieve so much in their jobs. I think they feel good, they feel beautiful, and I believe they want to show their bodies.

I think designers are starting to realize that we're all in the same industry. We're making clothes - we aren't saving the world. I'm not saying that designers aren't artists, but at the end of the day, we make clothes.

That's a big part of being a designer now: going out, having dinners, meeting people. Being in an ivory tower, you can feel very removed.

There's a side to me that likes to make clothes for everyday. But I also think of fashion as an escape. It's like a dream. It shouldn't always be practical and about real life. Sometimes you have to do a piece that has a bit more of a wow-almost like, “I don't know who's going to wear that. It's almost too much.” That's a lot of what fashion is about. Even in an economy that isn't strong and where it's important to sell clothes, you have to make things that let people dream a little, you know?

You can build a brand very fast now, especially with bloggers and how fast images can get out - the message just goes out faster and stronger than ever before.

One of the guiding principles of Altuzarra is that fashion can be transformative, changing not just the way you look, but also the way you feel. By partnering with Target, we hope to bring that same experience to a much broader range of women.

In architecture and interiors, as well as fashion, there is an interaction that is both functional and aesthetic.

When you start a collection, you have to push yourself to limits that may make you uncomfortable.

I was also very lucky to be able to work with talented people while I was learning. I didn't actually go to fashion school. I worked with Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy which was a really pivotal experience for me. He taught me a lot about being faithful to your own voice and to really believe in your own voice and that's made a big difference.

I wanted to create clothes for women in their 40s and 50s and 60s who have careers and are sexy and dont want to look like grandmothers.

Ballet teaches you how to hold yourself.

I was not a very popular kid in high school, and I had this idea that the way that I dressed would change how liked I was. It was that kind of Pygmalion story. I think, ultimately that's probably why I became interested in fashion, its transformative power, and how it can change your identity.

Starting your own business and thinking about how you can grow something and fulfill both expectations and needs of your retailers and still stay exciting for the runway, you sort of become this left brain-right brain person pretty quickly.

The best and the worst thing about fashion is that anyone can do it. But because fashion can be the most unintellectual thing, you have to turn it into an intellectual exercise just for your own sanity. You have to start with a conceit.

It's important not to take all this fashion stuff too seriously, and I kind of love the idea of cheesiness.

My mother has a very chic sense of style, but she also has high expectations for her clothes to be functional and practical.