My mother was a huge influence on me - she was a free spirit and helped me appreciate from a very early age that everyone is different.
You're abandoning a lot of ideas when you're too into comfort.
I hate the whole concept of comfort! It's like when people say: 'Well we're not really in love but we're in a comfortable relationship.' You're abandoning a lot of ideas when you're too into comfort.
You're abandoning a lot of ideas when you are too into comfort. 'Comfy'-that's one of the worst words!
Meet people from other cultures so you understand that the world doesn't swirl around you.
People are proud of their tattoos. It's like a modern coat of arms.
A house is very much like a portrait. I cannot disconnect houses from people. The thought of arrangement the curves and straight lines. It gives an indication of the character at the heart of it.
Istanbul is inspiring because it has its own code of architecture literature poetry music.
The highest heels I do are six-inch heels - but mostly only dancers can wear them since they are used to being on point in ballet shoes. Their feet are arched.
My drawing for women is really curvy. My drawings for men are actually quite angular.
No woman wants to have fat ankles.
When a woman puts on a heel she has a different posture a different attitude. She really stands up and has a consciousness of her body.
Bhutan is a very serene country with an incredible history. It has an incredible group of great artisans.
For women raised in the '70s high heels can still carry a stigma; they're associated with being stupid with just wanting to please a man. Other women find them empowering.
I'd already decided I wanted to design shoes after I saw a sign in the Museum of African and Oceanic Art forbidding high heels. Well who could resist?
One my closest friends doesn't care about sharing her clothes or jewelry but she never shares her fragrance.
It's a good addition. There are so many bad addictions. Better be addicted to shoes than something else
I like to see people who are survivors wearing my shoes. I am fascinated by people who can bounce back.
The red sole was born from red nail polish. I am giving back to beauty what the shoes took from the nails many years ago.
I sort of don't believe in trends. I know that they exist but what is important at the end of the day is to remain independent
I guess being French I love Hollywood. I love Hollywood movies. Joseph Mankiewicz's 'All About Eve.' 'Mildred Pierce.'
Shoes for men are about elegance or wealth they are not playing with the inner character. That is why women are happy to wear painful shoes.
Beauty is all about form; proportions and the relationships between one line and another.
The higher the better. It's more about an attitude. High heels empower women in a way.
My favorite sound is definitely mules. If it was an instrument it's really pingthe touch of the black keys of the piano.
I always loved fish for the colors and birds for the plumage. In the same way I loved those women of the cabaret. They were birds of paradise.
Shoes transform your body language and attitude. They lift you physically and emotionally.
A shoe is not only a design but it's a part of your body language the way you walk. The way you're going to move is quite dictated by your shoes.
Bollywood stars are versatile; they not only act but each one has the dance skills of John Travolta in 'Saturday Night Fever.'
If you do what you love it is the best way to relax.
If I'm in the country my big idea is to do nothing. It means talking it means cooking with the leftovers in the fridge - l'art d'accommoder les restes - it means gardening.
A woman can carry a bag but it is the shoe that carries the woman.
The core of my work is dedicated not to pleasing women but to pleasing men. Men are like bulls. They cannot resist the red sole.
Men are like bulls. They cannot resist the red sole.
I prefer buying things and figuring out where to put them later than regretting not buying them.
I have this disease that if I feel good somewhere I... buy a house.
I buy Dries van Noten shoes. I love his clothes too.
Really good shoes have to seduce both men and women.
I don't like conflicts. I'm not a competitive person at heart. To be in the middle of turmoil is boring.
If you are not bored by life and your primary motto is enthusiasm and if you like your friends family around you it all translates into your designs. That's what keeps the creativity alive.
Boredom is a concept that I don't understand.
I am very much into voices. I would say I'm a fan of voices not of sound. I'm a fan of singers not of bands.
Be completely true to yourself and you'll be happy.
For me there ain't no high heel high enough.
I'll do shoes for the lady who lunches but it would be like a really nasty lunch talking about men.
I wanted to create something that broke rules and made women feel confident and empowered.
Being on a trapeze is like dreaming. I feel totally outside of myself when I'm flying. You know designing shoes my imagination is flying in my drawings.
Being an artist is being at the service of yourself; I am at the service of other people.
I love deep cleavage on the foot. It reminds me of Berlin in 1930s 'Cabaret.'
You need to believe in yourself and what you do. Be tenacious and genuine.
Even if you don't like colours you will end up having something red. For everyone who doesn't like colour red is a symbol of a lot of culture. It has a different signification but never a bad one.
Cinderella is not only an iconic character when it comes to beauty grace and fairytale love but also shoes.
Don't reject a shoe because you can't run in it. It's OK not to run.
I'm really not a fascist. Everyone wears what they feel great in or comfortable with. It's a beautiful day you have an armless shirt: it goes with flip-flops.
I never had the dream to be a great designer. My focus was just to do beautiful things.
A naked woman in heels is a beautiful thing. A naked man in shoes looks like a fool.
My job is designing shoes. It's work that happens behind the scenes as they say and that suits me just fine because in general I am a shy person. But sometimes I have these extroverted outbursts.
I am very bad at drawing. Seriously. I can draw shoes. That's about it.
There is a heel that is too high to walk in certainly. But who cares? You don't have to walk in high heels.
A woman carries her clothes. But the shoe carries the woman.
A woman tells a story with her clothes but it's the shoe that carries her.
You have two categories of Shoes Shoes which are dressing a woman or Shoes which are undressing a Woman
In designing shoes for myself; I'm not thinking of a specific person or catwalk. I'm just not thinking of clothes at all. I'm always thinking of a naked woman actually.
I am interested in all things that celebrate and enhance the female form.
There is an element of seduction in shoes that doesn't exist for men. A woman can be sexy charming witty or shy with her shoes.
A woman can be sexy charming witty or shy with her shoes.
Even today I am still very child-like while designing. It's a bit like Christmas - each of your designs you create is like unravelling your presents.
Shoes for men are about elegance or wealth; they are not playing with the inner character.
People tend to fear the ghosts in their own family. You feel these family curses and think 'If it happened to my father it could happen to me.'
My relationship with shoes has always been linked to shoes women women in their shoes and performance.
I was always shouted at by my teacher because I would draw straight on the table in the school.
When I'm doing a store in a country I always like to consider the concept of the country and the city.
When I'm doing a store in a country I always like to consider the concept of the country and the city. Ask what are the clothes of the city what does this city represent for me?
I don't repeat that many styles if I can help although some have become classics. I try not to repeat. I'd rather surprise people.
I hate the whole concept of the clog! It's fake it's ugly and it's not even comfortable!
If you're passionate about the world and if you really look closely at everything around you each thing can be transformed into a shoe or into a part of a shoe.
I perfectly understand the obsession with shoes. I myself am pretty obsessed. I have a few hundred pairs of shoes in general because I've been collecting shoes for a long time.
I have always loved tartans - such an ornamented type of weaving so vivid in colour and such a masculine aspect. But actually I think tartans can be feminine or masculine.
I hate the whole concept of comfort!
Everyone wears what they feel great in or comfortable with.
I think every market has lot of things in common and at the same time every market has lot of different things.
Strangely enough I really think that shoes are a communication tool between people.
These heels are candy for the feet; theyâ??re for pleasure not practicality.
I'm very detail oriented. Everything that takes a lot of dedication and creativity I do in the morning when there is light and I'm really concentrated.
If I'm in Italy I'm going to have a cappuccino and two small brioches and then a mix of orange and grapefruit. I don't drink tea in Italy.
The core of my work is dedicated not to pleasing women but to pleasing men.
A good host is someone who really takes care of everyone from the food to their daily programme. I can't.
When you sketch a shoe but don't have the intention to do a proper shoe it remains a curvy sketch with no detail. The shoe completely morphs to the body.
I like my customer to be fierce.
In Paris I really do like to try and do nothing... but that's impossible.
When you do something you love you have a passion for it. It comes naturally. Staying true to yourself and doing what you love keeps you going...everything else falls into place.
I love David Lynch's 'Mulholland Drive;' such a wonderful movie.
Madonna is a feminist and has been doing more for the cause than all the grumpy feminists who are giving nothing back by being grumpy.
A good shoe is one that doesn't dress you but undresses you.
There's nothing I liked visually of the period I was a child. There was no dream in it and nothing sparkled.
When you are too specific on a target it can drain you. Ask me where I will be when I am 60 and I will have no answer to give.
When I have meetings scheduled so tight that I can't go to the loo that's where I draw the line!
To me the word 'decadent' is so difficult to use; it's a very sensitive word in a way.
The designer side of me has many ideas on how the shoes or woman should look but the man is thinking 'would I want to see my girl in those shoes?'.
I'm a designer and I think if you work in fashion you have to give people fantasy.
At age 12 or 13 I wanted to design for showgirls - for the theater!
Designing my shoes I'm thinking timeless. Not trendy.
There are a million things I'd rather do before designing clothes: directing landscaping.
I've always been very detail orientated but I have gone from embellishment to nudity - from designing for a woman that likes to be dressed to designing for a woman that likes to be undressed.
For me everyone has many personas.
A lot of men said they were jealous of me because my shoes excite women in a way they can't
Fragrance is so intimate for a lot of women - it's your essence your identity.
It is extremely necessary to realize that the world doesn't only have one way of seeing things.
I didn't even know 'Vogue' existed when I was growing up.
I never was interested in being part of the fashion world - I just wanted to design shoes. I didn't even know 'Vogue' existed when I was growing up. ''Vogue ' what is that?'
High heels empower women in a way.
My shoes are perfect for the very sexy woman who wants to be elegant.
One moves more slowly in heels. Walking fast is neither sexy nor engaging. Nobody notices the people who race around. If you're walking in heels you've got time. It's much more attractive.
The heel is engineering in itself. This little thing that supports the human weight has to have a precise balance.
If I could do shoes for anyone it would be a special project for the Queen of England.
I don't follow anything online. I am rather slow on that side.
Nothing needs to be perfect to be good and no one should need to feel perfect to feel right
I am more feminist than feminists.
The stiletto is a feminine weapon that men just don't have.
Fashion isn't interesting when it comes from an uninspired place.
I never liked my last name or my first name but it's not as bad as Frigidaire so it's fine.
I really wish I had invented the flip-flop. I love flip-flops. It's the one style of shoe I would be so proud of inventing: the Havaiana.
To feel like a woman wear heels to feel like a goddess wear five inches.
I would say that a good shoe is exactly like a good wine. These shoes are going to stay and last for a long time.
Women like my shoes because they look good on them not because they look good on the rack.
Men in high heels? That's a prosthesis. But I sympathise. Women have these giant heels. They get taller and taller. The men need help. But a man in heels is ridiculous.
I am always surprised by who wears my shoes. This is a good thing. There is no type of woman but all my women like to feel feminine. They are women who are happy to be women.
There are few plants that are ugly. It's how you use them that may not be pretty.
You know you cannot be comfortable on a high heel shoes the way you would be in sneakers. But you know not everyone wants to be on sneakers. Sneakers are for different purposes.
High heels are pleasure with pain.
Passage Vero-Dodat - I started my company on this passage. It feels as much home as it can!
Some people don't even know my name but they know I am the man with the red soles.
I mean the shoe - there is a music to it there is attitude there is sound it's a movement.
Shoes are just a pedestal. What interests me is the power of the woman who wears them.
Something I really hate more than anything else is clogs.
I haven't yet met a woman who told me 'I wish I had shorter legs.'
Funnily enough the most difficult style to do is the plain pump because it needs to look good on a variety of feet.
I listen to my stomach. It tells me when I am starving.
I never had a plan. I have to say I'm very shocked when people start a company and say 'In five years I want to launch a perfume or in 10 years I want to have this.' How can you know?
I feel I am a role model to many not just for my designs but also for the fact that I started my own company with the help of my two friends. I became a success story and people relate to that.
Shoes are a mirror of what you want what you are or what you're missing
I like to undress women - not to dress them. You know like Manet's 'Olympia' or Helmut Newton's photographs - naked women with shoes. This is what I am trying to do.
The most outrageous shoe that I had to do was a shoe where the person gave me stones - precious stones - and say that I could do anything with precious stones.
I would hate for someone to look at my shoes and say 'Oh my God! That looks so comfortable!'
A shoe has so much more to offer than just to walk.
When I started to work on perfume I could not reduce the idea of a woman to one smell.
The shoe is very much an X-ray of social comportment.
Sometimes women feel uncomfortable when men stare at them when they try on shoes.
I was the youngest kid. When I was five my sisters were 17 19 and 21 already becoming women. I would see how different they would be around one another and around men even my father.