Fashion designers

"I've got a couple of those Gossard Wonderbras. They are so brilliant, I swear, even I get cleavage with them."

"I don't do any Class A -especially not cocaine - after seeing what it does to people."

"It was just the time. It was a swing from more buxom girls like Cindy Crawford and people were shocked to see what they called a 'waif'. What can you say? How many times can you say 'I'm not anorexic'?"

"'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.'"

"A celebrity now is someone who's on the telly."

"I can’t wear any brand on my body - I just freak out. I mean, if I’m with a girl who’s wearing a Christian Dior necklace, I can’t even fuck her. And then there are those girls - like every girl I seem to find - who has one those Louis Vuitton bags. C’mon, it’s fucking false tribalism."

"Look, I spent months in Mexico and the Dominican with subcontractors. I could tell you where all the best fucking bars are in the Dominican. What I’m trying to say is that it doesn’t work. My theory is, and I think I’m right - and I mean you guys had rioters in Montreal a few weeks ago [for the WTO] - is that going offshore is actually more expensive than these guys let on. What I’m going to prove, and I’m going to embarrass the entire fucking establishment, is that sweatshops are more expensive in the end than vertically integrated manufacturing in Canada or the U.S."

"How do you think it is on a Jewish mother? It’s horrible for her to see her son facing these accusations."

"I made a mistake with these stores; I didn't do it myself and it's wrong. So I've had to let people go and there's nothing I hate more than having to get rid of kids. It breaks their hearts. But you know what? It affects sales. Should garment workers at my factory suffer because we fuck up the casting? What I'm looking for is style--that's not something you can teach a person. You have it or you don't. Let's say one girl has an acne problem but good style, while another one is beautiful but has no style. I'm picking acne!""

"If 60 Minutes will not do a story on me, it's their problem not mine. I'm changing the world; they're just reporting on it."

"Take one part brilliant entrepreneur, one part narcissist, add in a smattering of Attention Deficit Disorder and a dash of philanthropy and you get Dov Charney."

"Supermodels, like we once were, don't exist any more."

"In this job an illusion of beauty is sold which doesn’t really exist like that. It’s like a work of art, an act. I cry in front of the camera but am not really sad. I’ve just come from a job, am made-up and made to look beautiful with fantastic clothes and hair and nails all done."

"When I saw him, I was like, wow! He is different and so tall and dark and just handsome. I saw the package — and I mean the whole package, literally. I was like, "That is a man.""

"I have the most romantic husband. I do."

"I know a lot of people talk about Seal's bicycle shorts, but it is the truth! That is what he was wearing the first time I met him and I was overwhelmed."

"I just think if you have an emotion and you let that go that moment might pass. If you don't open the door for the person to come in, it would have just been like, "Nice to meet you — goodbye.""

"My parents were free about nudity, and we are too. I’d like our children to feel unashamed of whatever shape they are. People should worry about other things."

"We went somewhere very nice for dinner — it was very good but I can't tell you exactly what we did. It would be too naughty and you can’t run it anyway. It would just be bloop bleep bloop bloop bleep. But it was a very good first date."

"Sexy for me is a curvy woman — doesn't have to be skinny, which I hate anyway. I'm glad [the fashion industry] is changing slowly a little bit now to get more into the boobs and hips again."

"For me the most important thing was always that you have something in mind that you want to do, that you enjoy doing, because a lot of people have a job, but they're not happy. I think you have to think about what it is you really want to do in life and pursue that, and do it with fun; have a smile on your face, because then you're happy. You're happy and you can be open, you can be nice with people, and you have a different appearance and feeling of life than when you are in a job you hate. So for me that was always the most important thing."

"I think that everybody is beautiful in his or her own way. If you smile a lot and are confident, then you are a gorgeous person. I don't know whether my looks come from God. I'm not really religious. I don't really know what I am. I'm just trying to be a good person. I am who I am."

"I have a woman's body: I have hips, I have boobs, I have a butt. There is nothing I can change about those things even if I lose weight. You have to learn to accept your body and like your body. But, it's true, when I started modeling people were always telling me that I had to change. They told me to cut my hair because long hair is not versatile enough. And they gave me this stuff to put in my water. They said: "Drink this and then you won't be so hungry, dah-dee-dah-dee-dah..." I said: "OK, great," but I never took any of it."

"I think that you have to do whatever feels good for you. As a woman, you should feel glamorous, beautiful and confident. You should be unique. For me, if something doesn't move you in that direction, then why do it? I have considered doing Playboy. I have had offers on the table many times. But then, it has to work the way I want it to. I mean, I have no problem being naked at all — I come from a place where I am used to running around naked. But you still have to feel confident and beautiful about it, and I had a checklist of how I wanted certain things and they wanted other things, so in the end, we didn't agree."

"In Germany—and this started with a newspaper headline — they call us “the Patchwork Family.” I was, like, Hmm, is this an insult or is this positive? I talked to Seal about it, and we’re, like, it’s actually kind of great — we’re all different shades and we came together and we all love each other. They may call it black and white, but I’m not white, I’m a shade of brown and so is our daughter, Leni. She’s the lightest, then it’s me, then it’s our son, and then it’s Seal. So I think, Hey, it’s actually kind of nice to have a 'patchwork family.'"

"I jumped into the water with 45 sharks without a cage in the Bahamas for a Discovery Channel show. That was a really good experience. I'm not saying that everyone should swim with sharks, but sometimes you have to jump over your own shadow in order to learn something that you will never forget for the rest of your life. Then you know you can conquer your fears."

"Fashion shows have never been my thing. I don't look thin enough for the runway. The other girls were always much taller and skinnier. But I've never starved myself or done crazy things just to be thin like a rail."

"People in the business always say, "You look fabulous." You get that all the time and it kind of goes in one ear and out the other because most of the time they just say that to make you feel good. It's nice when you hear it from an ordinary person and then I appreciate it."

"I'm a very driven person. I'm always going after my goals. You just get up in the morning and kick yourself in the butt. I'd like to show people that they can have that same drive to go where they want to go. It's up to you and not to anybody else."

"I always think, Look at how people were before they were pregnant. If you were a toned, healthy, energetic person, most likely you will be like that again. A lot of people come to me, and they’re like, "Will I look like you after I have the baby?" And I say, "Well, how were you before?" You can’t kid yourself."

"If you love what you do, you can balance and you can juggle (work and family). You have to set your priorities straight. You can't just work, work, work. Because then all of a sudden, you don't have a family...then why did you work so much when you're all by yourself in the end? So for me, I always wanted to have a family, for me that was the most important thing, and I found a man that wanted to have that with me."

"[In America] people are a little bit more scared to show their bodies. I grew up different. Nudity was a common thing. We went camping on nude beaches in Italy. When my parents were still sleeping, I'd just go outside and run to the beach without anything on."

"My philosophy is that, in life, you have to want something. If you just say "la-la-la" and go through life without a goal, nothing will happen."

"I know from people I work with, that people say "I want to have Heidi’s career," and my friends are like, "but she also works very hard." It's the truth! It's not as if I sit back and watch things fly onto my plate. I went for a lot of the things. (Success) doesn't happen by waiting for things to happen because there are other people who are hungry. The early bird catches a worm."

"I dont think it makes a difference if you have children or you don't have children. I think it's all in the head about how you feel and, I don't know, I always like to be active and work out and eat right and just be active so I never see it as, oh when you're a mom you can't be sexy or you cant be in lingerie anymore looking good."

"A size zero? I've never heard of that. That didn't exist when I was growing up. When did that start? What does it mean? It means a person is not there, no? It makes no sense."

"Modelling is a job. For girls who want to be successful it's not something they should approach lightly. You should be professional, show up on time, prepare, and earn your money. Girls should also be aware of what they're expected to do at a photo shoot in terms of nudity, since there is often that kind of pressure — especially when you're just starting out and trying to make your mark. I also tell them they have to get a thicker skin. You have to handle criticism. All that stuff. A lot of people are looking at you and judging you. That's the nature of the job."

"For me, life is about enjoying yourself because you only live once. We should try to make the most of things and follow our dreams."

"I always treated modeling as a business and I've always been very organized. From the very start, I would keep clippings of my magazine spreads and ask my agency to find out where my photo shoots were being published. I also think I had an advantage in that I was more centered and wasn't into partying and living the high life. I had fun, but I was reasonable about it!"

"I'm never uncomfortable being naked. I don't have a problem with my body."

"I don’t know why he said that. Maybe he wanted to be in the paper? Maybe he doesn’t understand what I do? It’s bizarre to me that he says he doesn’t know who I am because he’s dressed me in the past. I’ve worn Karl Lagerfeld. Not even Chanel—his line. Lagerfeld doesn’t just send random things everywhere, so it was a big thing for me [to wear his label] to the CFDA Awards a few years ago. I don’t know how he missed that, when he dressed me that time. But you know, it’s cool. People can say whatever they want to say. You can’t please everybody, and you can’t live your life wanting to please everybody either."

"You have to just do your thing. As long as you don't hurt anybody along the way."

"You can’t look at Hollywood and blame it, you have to make up your own mind whether you want to be fit, or super skinny. You can’t blame other people. It’s your own choice and if you have children, it is up to the parent to educate your children so they are healthy and they don’t go into a direction of anorexia or obesity. It is up to you as a parent, it is hard to feed children right. I deal with it on a daily basis; it is much harder to make sure they eat right."

"Nowadays children look at everyone in the magazines and they want to be a basketball star or on a television show, but there is only so many people who can do those things and not that you shouldn’t aim or dream for these things, but there are so many other fantastic jobs. So it’s good to talk about how to get there and how difficult it is to get there."

"I think if you put a smile on people's faces, they give that back to you."

"I told Seal pretty early. He was there from the very beginning. He's always been Dad."

"If we don't take that time (to be romantic), then it's karate, then it's ballet, and then there's Christmas, and then my husband is flying off to tour around the world."

"Models have a sell-by date. There are certain jobs I don't do anymore, like the young, sexy, cute things for teenagers, or even 25-year-old girls. I go in a different bracket now."

"They're photographs by Adam Fuss. He's an artist. They are beautiful, artistic photos - more silhouettes than anything else. It's not like, "Hey, Mom and Dad are naked, come check it out!" But if I go to the bathroom and my kid walks in, I'm not going to be like, "Oh my God! Close the door!" They see their parents naked all the time. We are not ashamed."

"My lifestyle is very healthy. I eat very healthy and we cook at home. We don't eat out a lot, we don't go out for fast food a lot -- and it's the same with the children. I'm a pain in the butt with my children. I want them to eat right. They hate me for it a lot of times, but I don't want to make my life easy and skip those roles that I feel like I have to have as a mother."

"I don’t think that it's like an obligation because you are known or anything like that. But if I was Heidi Klum still living in Bergisch Gladbach, no one would listen to me, and no one would care. So I think that it’s great that because of what I do I can raise awareness. You know, I would still want to do it if I was still in my hometown. It’s just that no one would care."

"In terms of being naked, I'm not very prudish."

"When I won the competition, I had just been offered a job as a designer in Düsseldorf, so that’s probably what I’d be doing now. It can be fascinating to consider how your life might have turned out, like in the movie Sliding Doors, but I’m too busy to look back."

"I think my business is about people making you feel self-conscious. All eyeballs are on you when you're a model, when you're on the runway or in front of the camera, you're always looked up and down and back up, so that comes with the territory. But at the end of the day I feel like my parents gave me a good solid foundation. I know who I am and there are things I wouldn't do. I wouldn't starve myself, I also never wanted to chop my hair off when people said I should do this and I should do that. And I always knew who I was and said they're going to book me like this or not book me. I don't want to be a role model because I'm just a person too, so I can have mistakes and some people don't like what I do. People always push this role model thing on you. I just want to be a good role model for my children."

"Because of my job, I learned to be confident a little earlier than most. People pick you apart when you're in the public eye - you're wearing the wrong shoes or you have ugly nail polish on or they're wondering if you got your boobs done - so you have to be a strong person right away."

"I've never gone on a diet to lose weight. I have taken a few things out of my diet, like pasta and white bread, which are not so necessary for the body. Right now I'm looking at apple strudel and brownies with whipped cream. Do I want to eat all that? Yes. I've been wanting it all day but I'm not going to do it. I'll have something else."

"I am not that person who walks in a room with my nose in the sky. I smile at people when I meet them, and I like photos of me when I'm smiling because they show my personality. I am always trying to have fun."

"My mom gave me a lot of advice. I would say the biggest advice is to always have fun. Treat people well, have respect for everybody and, therefore, you will be respected. Have fun in your life!"

"I learned from working in the fashion world that if I have a day when I feel slapped in the face, or if someone has been mean, I just have to get back up and it will be another day. I think about what I'm grateful for. I look at my kids and my husband and think, Wow, I'm a really lucky person."

"The ultimate beauty secret for a woman getting older is, Don't be too thin! When you are just muscle, you end up being gaunt in the face, and that makes you look older by 5 or 10 years. I don't think of getting older as looking better or worse; it's just different. You change, and that's OK. Life is about change. I don't have anxiety about it, so I'm not running to get Botox. Maybe that will change, but I don't think so. I feel comfortable in my skin and comfortable with aging, so I think it's OK that I get wrinkles."

"I never really have any major resolutions. I do try to be a good person, to be a good mom, to be a good wife, I don't really start the year off on January 1, 'Oh, I am now going to make a big change.' I try every day when I wake up to be good to the people around me."

"The trick is that you have to stay naked. You must be naked."

"A pair of black Louboutin's... and that's it!"

"If you pick something you actually enjoy doing, you have fun every day of your life."

"Ask me again when I'm 65, but I'm proud to be able to say, in this day and age, I haven't done anything. Everyone has a view of what's pretty and what's not pretty, and it just doesn't look pretty to me."

"I was too curvy and too busty and a little too short. And I was a little bit self-conscious about it. But I was by no means heavy, I just — well, you have hips and boobs, and that's it. Haute couture, you don't really see girls with big boobs. And I always wanted first to be a model. So I had to say, "OK, you're going to find other things to do in this industry, or it's maybe not my industry.""

"I think you just have to be comfortable in your skin. But, I'm a nudist in any case. I've never had a problem with my body and I don't really care what people think, so I have bottoms on and pretty much go topless, or also when we shoot - we did a lot of nude pictures today, too - it doesn't bother me in the slightest."

"Have fun—a smile is the most beautiful thing on a woman."

"I have always believed that fashion was not made only to make women more beautiful, but also to reassure them, give them confidence."

"I don't really like knees."

"I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."

"The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy."

"Deepak Perwani doesn't want awards; he wants appreciation - that's all."

"I am individual, stylish, mad and a lot of fun to be with."

"Work hard and you will make it; at the end, it's all about your design philosophy."

"I was never a mainstream bridal designer. I am all about prêt. But over the years, my clients have forced me to do their bridal wear so I said why not."

"Whether people in Pakistan understand fashion or not, it is a true everyday-living history of our times. People judge you by the clothes and shoes that you wear; they are not bothered whether you live in Clifton, Nazimabad, Gulshan or FATA or anywhere. Everything is perceived by what you are wearing."

"I'm 40 now. When I'm dead, hopefully this house will still be going."

"Fate, I respect a lot. I never regret anything."

"I decided to kidnap Brian. It sounds ridiculous but they even made a film about it, about kidnapping a pop star ['Privilege'] starring Paul Jones. This was the original story, Brian seemed to be the most sexually flexible. I knew I could talk to him. As a matter of fact when I met him I was his groupie really. I got backstage with a photographer, I told him I just wanted to meet him. I had some Amyl Nitrate and a piece of hash. I asked Brian if he wanted a joint and he said yes, so he asked me back to his hotel and he cried all night. He was so upset about Mick and Keith still, saying they had teamed up on him. I felt so sorry for him. Brian was fantastic, he had everything going for him, but he was just too complicated."

"They looked at me like I was some kind of threat. [Mick] Jagger really tried to put me down, but there was no way some crude, lippy guy was going to do a number on me. I was always able to squelch him. I found out that, if you stand up to Mick, he crumbles."

"I was too independent for Mick. I wasn't proper enough for him. He's a chauvinist. I wouldn't put up with that. Keith, surprisingly, is not. Though I feel sorry for Patti [Hansen]. I love her and think she is a marvellous woman, but I would not want to be in her shoes now. It's such a lonely existence, living with a rock 'n' roller. No matter how much he loves you, he will always love his music more. I know when Keith is working on his music nothing else matters to him. He can be in a room with fifty people and he won't nothing anything but his guitar. A woman, to live with a rock star, must find her ways of independence."

"That boy of 17 who shot himself in my house really ended it for us. And although we occasionally saw each other for the sake of the children, it was the end of our personal relationship."

"At first I'm sure Anita wanted to protect Brian from what she thought was our cruelty and callousness. Coming in like that she couldn't realize how the scene developed. Or how impossible it was to deal with a dead weight like Brian. They had incredible fights. And she used to beat the shit out of him every time. He would start a fight. Obviously she was tougher than him. He always was walking around with his ribs bandaged or his eyed blackened. Anita felt Brian was somebody who could be sensitive and obviously she felt he needed support. When he started paying her back by trying to beat her up, she began to realize."

"That song is about a few other things as well. And Anita is one of them. I was breaking up with her around that time. I'd said, "Look, if we clean up together, we'll stay together". Well, I cleaned myself up. But she didn't. And I realized that I couldn't sleep with someone who had a needle beside the bed. I was too fragile at that point. I loved her, but I had to leave."

"They fought about everything - cars, prices, restaurant menus. Brian could never win an argument with Anita although he always made the mistake of trying. There would be terrible scenes with both of them screaming at each other. The difference was that Brian didn't know what he was doing. Anita did know what she was doing. I think in a more gracious age, Anita would have been called a witch."

"Mick seemed to delight in Anita's sharp mind, her vicious streak that made her somehow very different from Marianne. For a while she seemed to dominate him with the same, almost supernatural hold she had over Brain & Keith. Once I heard Anita listen to a tape of 'Stray Cat Blues' as Jagger proudly waited her tell him (as all the other lackeys had done) how brilliant it was. "Crap," she said when it had finished. "The vocals are mixed up too high, and the bass isn't loud enough." Mick, with the basic insecurity of every creative artist, was so unused to hearing someone dare criticize his work that he at once went back to the studio and had the number remixed."

"I believe that Anita is, for want of a better word, a witch...The occult unit within the Stones was Keith and Anita...and Brian. You see, Brian was a witch too."

"I knew her since we were first hanging out in London with The Rolling Stones. She was a real nasty person. She would do anything to upset her girlfriends. I don't know her anymore."

"I felt from Anita an unmistakable electrical charge. She was so clever, so European, so built...She exuded a stylish and playful decadence that was at once intellectual, sultry, and mischievous. She was so perfectly Continental. She made quite a lasting impression on me that night."

"Fantasy is often better than reality [...] It’s much more inspiring not to go to places than to go."

"There is no marriage, yet, for human beings and animals… I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat."

"Yet, for all his much-vaunted preservation of his privacy, he has always been noticeably willing to wile away an afternoon or so with journalists, spilling out well-honed anecdotes about himself - but these, of course, help maintain the mask. There is a particular story of which he seems especially fond, having trotted it out virtually word for word in almost every interview he has given during his 40-year career: "When I was a child in Germany," he merrily begins, "my parents gave me six bicycles - six bicycles, because I was a very spoilt child, hein? - and none of the other children had any because it was after the war, you know? But I wouldn't share, no, no, no. But I would instead come to school every day on a different bicycle and the other children would be very jealous." Even the various assistants, administrators and acolytes who flutter around him are so well trained in the importance of this anecdote that I am told it within minutes of my arrival, before they nervously usher me in to meet the man himself: "You know, when Karl was young, his parents gave him six bicycles ...""

"That was his thing. He only ever wore black and white. Misogyny was also his thing, but they don’t want to talk about that."

"Oleg Cassini is the rarest of rare species: a man who genuinely loves women. And for all his talk it is he that has served them for most of his years. He has devoted his life to making women look and feel beautiful with his classically designed clothes most famously creating 'The Look' for Jacqueline Kennedy when she was First Lady. As the first designer to license in 1951, he has been creating everything from evening dresses to sunglasses in more than 60 countries ever since. His name has always suggested glamour, champagne, polo ponies, a box at the opera, he was married to a movie star, and engaged to Grace Kelly before she became a princess. The son of Russian aristocrats banished to Europe after the revolution...he designs clothes that betray a lifelong ache for lost grandeur, there is about him in every gesture from knocking ash from his cigar to straightening his tie an echo of old world distinction."

"Generally speaking, I am not interested in the future and don't believe in it. First, I guess it is true that I don't trust the future, but, more to the point, I don't even trust the "myself" of tomorrow, nor, for that matter, of the day after. Basically, all I know, and all I am capable of understanding, is the "me" that is here, now, the "me" that has dragged his past with him to this point."

"I think perfection is ugly. Somewhere in the things humans make, I want to see scars, failure, disorder, distortion. If I can feel those things in works by others, then I like them."

"In order to create an image almost similar to that of a pencil case standing up and walking, I try to eliminate all excess by cutting. I have the feeling that this process (of "cutting off") is linked in some way to "elegance". Elegance and so-called "eliminating excess", or the beauty that remains after excess has beeen eliminated..."

"Dirty, stained, withered, broken things seem beautiful to me."

"I want to achieve anti-fashion through fashion. That's why I'm always heading in my own direction, in parallel to fashion."

"My whole life is made up of: "I'm sorry". I feel like I have to apologize to people, to things, to life itself. It's like, "I'm sorry to be here". I don't want to disturb anyone. But in my work, in the clothes I create, I'm actually telling people that I'm here. So, I guess I'm disturbing them, after all."

"To be modern is to tear the soul out of every thing."

"It is also important to carefully read the cards that life deals you, and to play the right hand at the right moment for maximum effect. Having tasted a chilled champagne in a hotel suite is fine, but one should also have enjoyed a tasty glass of beer bought with one's last few coins while down and out. The breadth of experience will allow one to look into that cracked mirror, snicker, and hten tie a neckerchief into a bowtie and push back one's thinning hair. Now that would be a man with a genuine sense of style."

"“If it is the will of God.”"

"“I used to belong to the school of thought that females in the Nigerian music industry were disenfranchised. However, knowledge, time, maturity and research made me realise it’s the effect of our traditional beliefs that the girl-child is positioned to play a second fiddle.”"

"“Subconsciously or unknowingly, it plays out in our attitude towards professionalism and commitment to work. The male artistes put in more to attain the heights they get to. I cannot say the same for the women and I am guilty as charged. There are lots of other distractions, both natural and artificial, but the bottom line is that if women put in as much effort as men do, there would be equal results.”"

"People mistake it for a guy's name or a nick name. Gift is my real name and that is where I got the G in Muma Gee, forget the fact that I added double ‘e’ to it, just as it sounds Gee but the G is just the G in Gift. For the Muma, the Jamaicans will call mother Muma and papa Pupa. The Muma in my name means 'do good' in my language."

"[It] is all about the African woman, her beauty and how she makes herself beautiful. An African woman is therefore not to be messed up with or looked down upon because she’s feminine. Even though she’s beautiful, she’s strong and has a sense of pride."

"One needs to take one’s time because good work takes time. But it must be worth the wait in the end."

"keep moving on and you will get there someday."

"My contesting for election has nothing to do with being face of the sports festival. My contesting election was inspired by the fact that irrespective of who we are as entertainers, I believe we can bring the required change into the system. I believe we have what it takes in terms of exposure and grassroots reach to steer the wheel of the nation right. I was motivated by this realisation to contest. I contested for the Federal House of Representatives under the Federal Constituency of Odiabidi and Ahoada East."

"I get that skillashy, effizzy, I'm sexy, afrotasticthat skillashy, effizzy, I'm sexy and afrotasticAfrican Womanmy body no be for sale ohoriginalI no dey sell ohI be African woman ooooriginal"

"They don't need me to be another Establishment designer. That's not what I'm good at..."

"With the way that the times are, we're all looking for a little fantasy... Fantasy is such an important part of my fashion..."

"I'm always about optimism and exuberance. It's what I feel about fashion."

"We manipulate fabric."

"Longing and desire goes further than instant satisfaction. That's human nature."

"The sexiest thing about a bikini is that it leaves something to the imagination, which is the best part."

"You have to focus on your dreams, even if they go beyond common sense. How could this young girl from the suburbs of Detroit become a success in New York? It was always that dream."

"Every time that I wanted to give up, if I saw an interesting textile, print what ever, suddenly I would see a collection."

"To stand out in the crowd I liked the color purple."

"I read about two young ladies that went to Parsons, and when they graduated Elizabeth Taylor opened a store for them in Paris and I thought okay-that's all I have to do!"

"I think a dream can take you farther than anything."

"I think that I appeal to the girliness in all of us."

"The man that owned the company that I worked for called me into the office and said how can you be on our payroll and have your own New York Times ad! This has to stop! And I said but it can't I have orders to ship. And he said well you're fired. And that's how I started my business."

"I'm still dreaming."

"You have to be in the right place at the right time and understand that and know when it is your time and how you react to it and how you respond to it."

"I love research. I love learning..."

"To me, fashion is like a mirror... It's a reflection of the times. And if it doesn't reflect the times, it's not fashion. Because people aren't gonna be wearing it."

"I think whenever people talk about the 'Anna Sui woman,' they're talking about someone that's probably kind of more downtown, and there's always like this ambiguity: Is she a good girl, or a bad girl?"

""It's kind of a dream come true, because to me fashion is not just the clothes, it's all the accoutrements that go with it..."

"I live for fashion."

"I love the whole story of why something happened when it did and that’s what I put into the collections."

"I don’t answer to anyone."

"We do all the first samples here and all the production in the garment center, within these few blocks... I love the process."

"... I am a New York designer and the things are made in New York..."

"I grew up in Middle America and in the suburbs..."

"American television is popular everywhere and its what I grew up on."

"Be true to yourself and figure out what it is that you are good at."

"I was always attracted to the way rock stars dressed and the way their girlfriends dressed."

"When I am designing, I make a selection of music that will be the inspiration behind the whole collection... I will be blasting that music—it becomes a journey I take in my brain to transfer that sound to the clothing."

"I love history. I love art. I like to mix it all together, but in the end it somehow has to all make sense."

"I had a really typical, suburban, middle-class upbringing. The only thing out of the ordinary was being one of the few Chinese families in town."

"I am inspired by New York..."

"My main goal when I started my collection – and I didn’t think beyond this actually – was that I wanted to dress rock stars and the people that go to rock concerts."

"We picked up Madonna at The Ritz to go to the Gaultier show together, and she took off her coat. At this point she hadn’t even said a word to me, but she leaned over and said to me, Anna, I have a surprise for you, and she showed me she was wearing my dress."

"I’ve known a lot of talented people but the people that really, really, achieve success – there is ambition, focus and drive behind it."

"I bought a fur coat with my first pay cheque and it lived better than I did for years."

"People create their own obstacles."

"...all the formulas have flown out of the window."

"Sui's gleeful eye sees poetry where fashion conformists see only the absurd."

"The lynchpin of her unique career is encyclopedic curiosity as much as commercial acumen, studied process and a deep respect for the techniques and traditions of her craft."

"Anna Sui is synonymous with black, white and purple..."

"Anna Sui is one of the most important and influential American designers of the past twenty-five years."

"Anna Sui helped define the look of Generation X."

"...a woman who’s been nothing less than American fashion’s best storyteller for nearly three decades."

"When I think of her, I think of Mick Jagger. Jimi Hendrix. Heart. Stevie Nicks."

"Before eclecticism and the magpie mix were fashion world buzzwords, there was Anna Sui."

"She used to be a stylist... and I think that really sharpened her eye, she knows how to tell a story with clothes."

"What stayed true about Anna was this wide eyed wonder, she's always been able to bring such beauty into what she does. I feel like an Anna Sui show is an education."

"It's almost as though she's making one long movie and this movie jumps through times and places but the central character stays the same kind of girl."

"It doesn’t do a critic well to try to neatly connect the dots between Sui’s inspirations and her clothing—the way she mashes up her many references is a singular skill that seems innate and above logical explanation."

"Sui has never failed to stage a fantastical runway show..."

"She’s... been a champion for the Garment District, raised money for the Bowery Mission, and made concerted efforts to help the victims of global tragedies—which is to say that she’s a kind person, who, it was agreed upon in a car after the show with other journalists, happens to also be one of the nicest people in fashion."

"She really is one of our best."

"My path to vegetarianism was a slow one, it was something I thought about for a long time, and when I read “Eating Animals” by Jonathan Safran Foer, something in me clicked. I believe that feeding oneself shouldn’t require torturing animals, and that one can take pleasure in food even without meat. … Young people who follow me know that Love Therapy refers to food that doesn’t cause harm to living animals or our planet. … I try to stick to a vegetarian diet because I think what humans are doing to animals is terrible. When I shop, I concentrate on fruits and vegetables. Everyone has a goal, and mine right now is to become vegan – I think of them as modern saints, as they make sacrifices for a better, collective good."

"The Mummy's Tomb was my only horror film, so I remember it vividly. We had to work all night on the kidnapping and graveyard scenes. Lon Chaney Jr. had a strap around his neck to support me. One arm was supposed to be paralyzed and he could only hold me with the other arm. I had this negligee with marabou—and one of the feathers somehow got under Lon’s rubber mummy mask. He was one unhappy actor—because he couldn’t get it out. After it was over, he thanked me for being petite. It seems some of my predecessors were a little on the heavy side! The day of the kidnapping scene—where the Mummy takes me from my bed, the director told me, "When you see him you really have to scream!" He thought since I’d never done anything like that before, I wouldn’t be able to do it. One look at Lon Chaney Jr. coming at me and it wasn’t hard to let out that scream at all!"

"They were a lot of fun but at the time I had two children. I’m just a mother at heart, so I decided it was time to retire from the screen. I would hate to be around today. In my time you learned your craft with small roles. They always handed you a script and told you, ‘This is your role.’ Now, you have to read for a part, over and over. 2,000 people have to approve before you get anything. I liked my era, where you were groomed."

"Animals that are killed for their flesh lead miserable lives. They are kept in disgusting conditions. The simplest little thing you can do not to hurt animals is just not eat them. I'm bringing my four children up vegetarian, and I know absolutely that I'm giving them the very best start in life."

"When I was a small child and adults asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always beamed and said, ‘A vegetarian’. And that’s exactly what I became. Despite growing up with parents who lived on meals of meat and two veg, eating animals never made sense to me. … I grew up surrounded by dogs and cats and couldn’t understand why we protected these animals, played with them, encouraged them to sleep in our beds, and called them ‘pets’ while labelling other equally interesting, cuddly, and sentient animals ‘dinner’."

"...every human being has an amount of genius in them."

"If you have 1,000 people, you have 1,000 geniuses. They’re just different kinds of genius and a different degree of intensity."

"Man needs dignity even more than he needs bread."

"We have now swapped information for knowledge, which is not the same thing. I do not want to know."

"Mankind is becoming more ethical, but it is not happening because man has decided to become better than he was 100 years ago. It’s because we know we live in a glass house where everybody can see."

"We need a new form of capitalism, a contemporary form of capitalism. I would like to add “humanistic” to that equation."

"Since the very beginning, I have had this dream of living and working for the dignity of mankind."

"We must start from the joy of life, from respect, from humanity, because the most important thing in life is having respect for other people. Especially for those who might think very differently from you."

"Dignity generates responsibility, responsibility generates creativity."

"But with a phone call I can understand your mood, your emotions. With an email I can’t. When speaking I can understand if you have a problem in an instant. I understand your fear. But I can begin to cultivate a hope with you."

"I believe that there are three things in life that you must absolutely do yourself because nobody can do it in your place: keeping fit, following a diet, and accumulating culture."

"I used to always get up at 5 A.M., but now I force myself to stay in bed until 6."

"I have 5,000 books in my home, 1,000 of which I feel are close to my heart. They have always shown me the way. Books are my great passion; I could not live without them."

"If you are a dickhead you will still be a dickhead after tertiary education."

"It is never challenging when you only do one thing in life. It is difficult to do everything, but if you specialise in one thing, you can focus with your head bent over one single thing the whole day and you have less likelihood of getting things wrong."

"I nearly always wear almost the very same things. But I alter the combinations slightly."

"I myself can wear joggers, a good pair of sneakers, then maybe a sweatshirt, and on top of it all, a blazer. That's what makes a difference in luxury terms."

"...there is no accessible luxury. There is no aspirational luxury. It’s either luxury or not luxury."

"While things rest, the world regenerates."

"I started with nothing and built something, and one day it will finish, and something new will come out of it."

"I've always been quite fair in complexion. If I wear green, it does not suit me. It's one of these things in life that I cannot explain. It just is."

"I'm 65; I couldn't just wear a normal suit, a nice shirt and tie. Because I don't want to look that old - I want to look at least 10 years younger."

"So you do need to make a plan for the next three or 30 years, but also the next 300 or 3,000 years."

"In the winter on a Sunday afternoon, I can spend six hours in front of the fireplace, just looking at the flames and thinking. In the evening, I’m drunk with beautiful thoughts. My wife says to me, ‘What are you looking at?’ I say, ‘The fire.’ We have to take a step backward."

"Do you think that during the first five hours of the day you are the same as you are in the last five hours? No way. You’re tired, and if you’re tired, you stop listening, and the decisions you make are risky."

"Our soul needs to be fed on a daily basis too, as much as the body and the mind."

"All the mistakes I did in my life, I like to keep them private."

"In Rome they dress very well. In Milan, they dress more bourgeoisly. But the most avant-garde city... is Naples. The Neapolitan underground youth can easily be compared to a city like London."

"Wealth is a wonderful ticket to freedom."

"Intelligent men are not ashamed to bring out their feminine side."

"The time when physically nothing is happening is equally important."

"[...] I do not separate between work and life."

"Vegetarians are hotter than meat-eaters."

"When I saw how animals are tortured on factory farms, I couldn't justify being a part of that cruelty. I thought, "Imagine if that were me". Straight away, I said, "That's it – I'm going vegetarian"."

"I have been vegetarian for almost 15 years now, and I made the transition to being vegan slowly about 5 years ago. … Hate mushrooms? Prepare to fall in love with them. always freaked you out? You ain’t cooking it right then. One of the best things about being vegan is how much you come to appreciate food … it's just about opening up your palette and trying new things. Once you get into it, you won't go back."

"“We don't need aid, we need partnerships. We cannot continue to be a beggar nation. I have always believed yo shouldn't give the man the fish,but teach the mangiw to fish and he will be able to take care of himself and others“."

"“West has taken and borrowed a lot from Africa…now it’s a renaissance: we’re claiming back what is ours and we’re adding value to what is ours, making it globally acceptable and globally appealing”."

"“We know that Africa has potential, all we need is investors – either local or foreign – to come on board with money and partner with us and take it all the way up there. If Burberry, Armani, or Prada, instead of coming to look for inspiration, actually partnered with the craftsman or designers to do a line, it would be a world-class hit”."

"“Being a Nigerian was no limitation for me because I just thought, well you haven’t seen me and there’s loads more like me”."

"The West has taken and borrowed a lot from Africa… now its a renaissance. We’re claiming back with is ours and we’re adding value to what is ours, making it globally acceptable and globally appealing"

"African designers need to celebrate their cultural roots and fashion history in order to become globally competitive"

"I try to fuse African cultural style with a modern approach to design. I love the dynamism of creating modernity out of something that is steeped in history. I think it’s what gives my collection such a cultural mix"

"I didn’t choose fashion, it chose me, ... I think the only way I’ve managed is because I know fashion was my destiny. African designers face so many challenges, producing collections and working hard to rise above the manufacturing infrastructure problems. For me, it’s about rising to the challenge and I think it’s made me a better designer. I feel I produce more intelligent clothing as a result"

"African bespoke is different from European bespoke, in that Africans are very much more endowed in very specific areas. My challenge is that I work with a lot of lumps and bumps, which almost turns me into a type of cosmetic surgeon. Except that I’m not cutting you up or anything, it's just that I do a lot of things with fabrics and accentuating, to create that perfect hourglass shape"

"When I started out, it was with a certain philosophy, because at that time it wasn’t cool to look African. Africa wasn’t on the map as it is now. … There was nothing really happening in terms of African fashion going global, or Africans being able to make a business of African fashion outside of the shore of Africa. So I went into it, sort of, to prove a point and to say ‘Listen. We can do this. We can add value.’ And to also bring the attention of the world to our own native abilities"

"I just had this can-do spirit. I was just so convinced that my product was so genuine and would no doubt conquer the world"

"Developing my own fabrics is essential for me. Every time you do it, it’s fresh; the drawings, the process of making Adire, starting with indigo and then just making music with colour and patterns, 'fabric jazz'. I wanted to play with floaty fabrics this time. It was just my mood. Of course I’m still in the throws of my love affair with Aso Oke which is still a huge feature in this collection."

"Fashion chose me, and I believe that it did because I had been sent to impact African fashion as it relates to the world. It’s not just me; it’s my family"

"Family plays a huge part in our business because it’s the cornerstone. We do everything together, whether it’s deciding the theme for the season or what each feature of every look that will form the collection we are working on might be"

"Everything is done in-house. From the conceptualisation to filming campaigns, everything is always completely done by the it-girls.” Their orientation of family extends to their clients, “We get so involved with clients, we want [our clients] to be a part of our family as much as possible"

"The real core of our business is God. So, if we have different opinions or a strong opinion about one thing, the final opinion we seek is His. It’s what holds us together as one and what has made us stand so strong in the face of every challenge that we’ve faced"

"Designers are more like clothing architects. It is more about the concept than the product because there is more to the product than what meets the eye."

"A woman should have clothing items that will last for 10 years in her closet and play around with accessories to create different looks."

"I have a duty to groom up and coming fashion designers in Botswana behind the scenes."

"German prints have always been a part of our culture. They were a prestigious dress code that was initially reserved for elders."

"I do not follow conventional fashion trends, instead I create fashion trends, and make every one of my clients feel special by designing outfits that are unique to their figures, character and personalities."

"Fashion is art. It is something that we use to express ourselves as individuals."

". I have learnt to grow up funny enough, to be mature, to invest in my craft through reading, and to be better every single day. BY Lesego Otlhabanye retrieved ( 9 July 2022)"

"I have learnt this early on in college, to stay committed to my work because I know for sure at the end of the day I will be reaping the rewards of the work I put in. By Lesego Otlhabanye retrieved ( 9 July 2022)"

"This entertainment industry is unkind, complicated and harsh…focus is what has gotten me through. By Lesego Otlhabanye / Retrieved ( 9 July 2022)"

"It's never something easy to do to overcome your fears and talk about them in the public space. By TswaLebs April 27, 2020, 01:00pm TswaLebs, retrieved 10 November 2022."

"Khumo Kgwaadira: Sometimes I fall, I rise up, fall and rise up again by Lesego Otlhabanye, SheLeadaAfrica, retrieved 10-November 2022."

"” Success does not come because of one’s background”."

"”We are successful when every other designers who came through us are successful”."

"”Ethnicity made globally friendly is what makes Nigerian designs stand out”."

"When you are doing something you are enjoying, you wouldn’t bother to take care of your health. Once there is life in you, you keep doing what you are doing. And it’s something that pays back on your body."

"You were born not to make noise but to make impact."

"The ability to speak is good but the ability to speak to yourself is awesome if you can listen."

"As you grow older, you start to understand more and more that life is not about what you look like or what you own, it’s all about the person you have become and the people you have blessed."

"When the going gets tough, that is when I see God coming in his full might."

"I’ll be Diego_Twahirwa's wife by this Christmas."

"this is an opportunity to showcase Rwanda’s fashion industry to the international market, and a chance to create new avenues for them to gain regional and international markets for their products."

"To my people exciting times….” Designer& mental health advocate."

"May we all hear the voices of children, who are learning to be expressive under the best of circumstances, and are often completely absent when they, as I was, have been traumatized."

"What you see today is me, dressed in a cloak of healing, which is often forgiving and will be in production forever."

"The most important thing is truth, dignity, and that enduring Rwandan spirit – the spirit that must never die."

"Join me, as I stand here today and pray for every Rwandan, who is healing from a life left by the Genocide’s ‘visible and invisible’ scars."

"Let us condemn all the deniers of the Genocide against the Tutsi so we give dignity to the deceased and respect the survivors."

"The purpose of denial is to destroy truth and memory. The denial of the genocide against the Tutsi causes the gravest offence to survivors."

"I strongly believe that Rwanda has a very rich culture with an artistic side to it, and I am determined to put the country on the world fashion map."

"“If you told me today to start a fashion line, I don’t know if I would be as brave because the older you grow, the more you calculate what could go wrong or right.”"

"“It’s not who wears my clothes, it’s about what difference we are making in the community.”"

"“The ability to redefine yourself is a bold, daring and purposeful choice… No one can take your happiness from you or prevent you from being happy. No one except you, that is.”"

"“Designing campaign attire for our candidate, President Paul Kagame, during the 2024 elections was an honor. We wish him all the best.”"

"“No one can take your happiness from you or prevent you from being happy. No one except you, that is.”"

"“Redefining oneself is the epitome of growth and development. The woman who redefines herself is free because she has let go of her insecurities.”"

"“The ability to redefine yourself is a bold, daring and purposeful choice… No one can take your happiness from you or prevent you from being happy.”"

"“I prepare for the next step in my life — motherhood. I hope you love it as much as I do!”"

"“To those still carrying pain in silence: you are not alone.”"

"“Free Spirit. Control. Powerful. Feminine.”"

"“Yes, she is indeed wearing our belted Vintage dress from our Spring '22 collection! We love to see it #MadeinRwanda to the world …”"

"I was stepping into land unknown. But for my love for fashion and a passion for what I was about to venture into, I really knew nothing. I had no formal training or experience in the industry. It was my love for it, my determination to see it through and I guess my ‘naïveté’ that spurred me on."

"Life experiences, my age, my outlook on life, my constant changing needs and wants have seen me do just that. And of course it reflects in everything I do. In addition to this, as a designer, I must move with the times and society’s ever changing fashion needs and desires."

"When you know your vision is not seen through, when there is so much to achieve, when inspiration catches you unawares sometimes, when you know those that rely on the success of the business, when you know what gives you an adrenalin rush more than many other things, how do you stop? You can’t."

"Have your vision, know your truth, stick to it and run with it."

"A lot of people up till date feel like it is an easy cop out. They say “so she’s lazy, she may not have done well enough or she’s spoilt.” Those who have just come out of school, people we say “oh her parents probably have too much money she can do whatever she wants.” Or “her husband has too much money, it’s a hobby.” A lot of people have said that and still say that. It is changing because perhaps Nigerians are seeing the potential in it."

"Fashion design is a profession and an industry on its own. As a designer, you run your own business and you’re in control. It is honestly one of the most difficult things anyone can take on and should never ever be disregarded."

"I feel like you can be schizophrenic with style, some days I want to look a certain way and you see me the next day, I could be completely different."

"I am grateful for the platforms that have helped raised the brand and open doors for us. If not for these platforms I probably wouldn’t be where I am today and probably not have as much exposure."

"Every collection designed is a modern interpretation of a part of our culture, our history or traditions. As a designer, I am intentional that in every design, the Nigerian or African woman is able to see herself and her own experiences and know to be proud of and celebrate where she is from."

"The modern woman today is whomever she wants to be. And she can wear whatever she chooses to. Her fashion choices are not determined or restricted to a time frame or by trends. She can decide to look one way today and look another tomorrow. She is self-aware, she is empowered, and confident. Mostly, she is free."

"Fashion is a universal language and should have no geographical boundaries."

"Despite still being limited by infrastructural challenges such as power supply, a lack of adequate fashion training and educational facilities, and not enough financial aid and support from our government, the industry still forges ahead strongly."

"It is important to learn how to push yourselves and get up because in Ghana, if you move one step, it pushes you back three steps but that is not the reason for not pursuing your ambitions so keep doing it until you become successful."

"we need to enhance creativity in the schools.It is very important for our country. It’s my hope to be at some point and some level with design. I added entrepreneurship because after school the designer becomes business people in our own area."

"I am a disciplined, principled, and determined woman. I always set goals for myself and make sure I achieve them. This explains why I have been able to manage her time successfully and played my role as a wife, a mother, a teacher and a shop owner."

"My vision in the next few years is to own different shops in different parts of Africa, Europe and the US, expand my production line and invest in men’s clothes"

"They must learn to set goals for themselves and work towards achieving such goals"

"To sew is one thing but one needs to understand the business end of it. It is necessary that people come to see that talent can only take you so far, the ability to apply proper business principles will define many who will make it in the industry and those who, unfortunately, will sink."

"In the past, mothers would lock it up in a trunk and have it is passed from generation to generation. We didn’t get to wear it unless it was some amazing occasion."

"I wanted to change the way Kente was kept and used. I believed that you could actually cut Kente and use it to do almost everything."

"I feel like what I’m doing is a calling so I think I have arrived at what I was supposed to do in the first place and I’ve always followed it so I don’t have regrets in anything that I have done. I always knew fashion was an area I was going to venture into."

"I say they should stay focused, committed and dedicated in their thoughts and their minds and the direction they are going."

"Customers do not call me on my personal line. Everything business is done at work so that it doesn’t come home. So the weekend is spent with my children. So I advise mothers to find a structure in their lives that they will use to be able to run their businesses as well as manage the children at home."

"Do you love it enough to want to plug through the hard times? Are you willing to persevere? What is the message you want to put across? Tell it the best way possible! Be patient, be grounded, know your craft – the success will come."

"I believed in this dream, I knew it was what we needed in this part at the time and I was really inspired to go ahead and pursue my dreams."

"We weren’t watered down, and looking at African design through a European prism was not the goal. It was about observing the diverse range of our work and the represented brands."

"I am honoured and excited to be among top 10 designers from across the world selected to showcase the Qipao at the National Silk Museum in Hangzhou, China. As a Ghanaian designer, it is a great privilege and matter of national pride to represent Ghana on a global stage such as this."

"If ‘Ophelia’, a girl from Osu, can do it, then nothing can stop you from achieving your dreams. Go out and create your magic."

""I wanted to do something iconic and classic, but forward and today, so it was really created intentionally to have a fashionable element to it, but also a very practical athletic element to it as well"."

""I feel a lot of times that things are created for women aren’t actually practical. So I used a lot of inspiration from vintage jerseys including the ribbing and some of the wording and put it into a more modern look"."

""In terms of other inspirations, a lot comes from music, like Ms. Lauryn Hill, Big Daddy Kane….those kinds of things have always inspired me maybe more so than actual designers"."

""Part of the reason that I took on the Foot Locker role was because it was so much easier for me to come into a system that was already established, versus me having to literally build it from scratch"."

""I try to split up creative days and workdays. If I am designing something, then my entire day from start to end will just be designing"."

""I want to create something that will remind you of who you are, and why you're here — make it a little bit easier for you to move through the world, and feel supported or confident, whatever it is that you need"."

"Outcome doesn’t mean anything about your efforts."

"A lot of people think of a ‘no’ as the end of things, or a way to beat yourself down. But then you keep going. It’s not final."

"‘No’ is not really the end of growth. It’s just a way to get better."

"Growth is so uncomfortable yet so rewarding"

"advances in the digital world and technology will continue to illuminate the problems and simultaneously bring people together for the purpose of acceptance, love and unity’"

"Hard work never kills anyone."

"I surround myself with positive energy so as to make each day a productive day."

"Education is absolutely important but once you are passionate about something you can’t run from it."

"Have a first degree that can get you a job just in case your passion doesn’t quite work out. Once you have that then you can chase any dream of yours."

"No matter what challenges or problems we face, we have to overcome and keep forging ahead."

"One must be ready to work very hard and be very patient with your staff to achieve your vision and dreams."

"You don’t need millions to start a business. All you need is the zeal, tenacity and wisdom from God."

"I've always been comfortable in my skin so I never let anyone look down on me because I am a coloured woman. I would like to accredit my easy journey to the level of education and literacy of the environment I am in."

"I definitely want to continue with the modelling career path that I’ve chosen. I want to be successful enough to make enough money to start my own business."

"As Africans, sustainability has always been ingrained in our culture. We've practiced sustainability for generations. Perhaps it's because our fashion industry hasn't reached full maturity that we haven't fully showcased these practices."

"God himself is an artis, we can see everything he created art is everything you see."

"Education is the key to bridging the gaps in our technical skills, business knowledge, branding, marketing, and positioning."

"My faith in God and my self belief. I believe a lot in myself. You don’t have to rely on anyone and you can help yourself you can do stuff by yourself. My parents are paramilitary, so I’ve always grown up to have that mind set of whatever you want you can achieve, My dad will never help you bribe anybody, or help you talk to anyone to get you a job or a placement anywhere… So I have that self believe that what ever I want if I work hard at it, if I follow the right way and I do the right things I will get it… and I have faith in God."

"In my collection, I included one saying, “No condition is permanent,” hand-stitched into the clothing. Everyone in Nigeria believes that if you are poor today, this is not permanent. Tomorrow, you’ll be a millionaire. Everyone is so hopeful."

"Now I enjoy it from the bottom of my soul. Both things can be true. I can enjoy talking and thinking about business and tech and also enjoy fluffy romances with a HEA and debate celebrity fashion choices like its paying my bills."

"In my opinion, creativity is best defined with this quote by Mary Lou Cook, “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun."

"Focus. Keep improving your craft on all fronts – technical and otherwise."

"“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”"

"I am a creative designer that love to educate and impact others especially Teens to unleash their potentials and be a resourceful leader."

"To new black entrepreneurs is “to believe in your idea,”"

"Don’t lose your own goals and what’s important to you.”"

"Be 100 percent behind it because you’re going to be putting your heart and soul into it."

"I thought people would be interested, but I never expected the amount of support or the amount of press attention we received. It’s been a real blessing for which I’m truly grateful,”"

"'Success, as we all know, is a learning curve that comes with patience, perseverance, hard work and endurance."

"I am a people person with excellent communication skills. This goes a long way with the business side of fashion. This has helped me build more relationships that have been converted to a wide range of clients over time. I tell you it is true when they say business is all about relationships. It makes a huge difference."

"In my humble opinion, my greatest achievement to date is that I am still a force to be reckoned with in the fashion industry. Trust me, building these relationships within and outside the industry hasn’t been easy. I believe this is partly what has gotten me to where I am today. This is my 17th year in the fashion industry, and it has been quite the journey. I am thankful to God for the many accomplishments and accolades I have received through the years and to my loyal customers for their continuous patronage."

"Winners don't quit try again this time with God."

"I would like you to join me in celebrating my cultural heritage and background as my journey as the First Female Queen in my community , this is not small. It is a big deal to me, particularly because such a title is not given to women in my area but today my people are bending rules to accommodate, and celebrate female excellence, and inclusivity in community and nation-building"

"People who are close to me know how deeply rooted I am in culture and tradition. This is definitely a path I will enjoy"

"I will serve as custodian of culture and heritage while providing leadership to the community. Another important thing I will be directly involved withis conflict resolution, especially among women, ensuring peaceful coexistence and upholding traditional values"

"As a culturally preserving agent in the community, I will play an important role in participating in cultural festivals, ceremonies, and practices that preserve the community’s identity. I will also serve as an intermediary between our community and the government, ensuring our people’s voices are heard in policymaking and implementation.These are the key things I will focus on at the moment"

"I have always been a well-dressed lady who respects my cultural ethics"

"The title will further permit me to now wear royal attire especially on public outings or traditional festivals and since I am a fashion designer, I can be creative about it to further beautify my culture. I strongly believe that when I’m at work in my factory or having meetings with clients in respect of my fashion business, I may not have to wear the royal attire"

"Kebbi state, just like many regions in Nigeria, faces challenges in development, especially in the rural area, but the state also has unique strengths especially in agriculture. Whether it is ‘lagging behind’ depends on the metrics used in comparison, e.g., infrastructure, education, healthcare, or industrialisation"

"As a traditional ruler, I have several key responsibilities all aimed at ensuring the well-being and harmony of the community"

"In terms of community development advocacies, I will play a vital role in advocating for and facilitating development projects, such as education, healthcare and infrastructure by partnering with government agencies and organisations."

"My love and appreciation for beautiful things and my value for artisanal products and respect for artisanship."

"I am surrounded by beautiful products with great history culturally and was always inspired by our own version of Luxury. I felt we needed a platform that challenged us into making traditional luxury objects covetable by ourselves and the rest of the world. Also I looked around and saw that we have great taste and love of Luxury but not many people were investing in retail in a formal way. I am also aware that Luxury Retail is becoming very experiential and that creating our own unique version of luxury retail will be interesting educative and inspiring."

"The exceptional beauty and versatility of Timber and the variety and abundance that we have here. Again the skills of the makers. For me honing those skills to produce simple streamlined and sophisticated designs is rewarding."

"Brands I believe embody the spirit of today’s Africa in terms of aesthetic and culture, luxury and fashion brands that people know, love and aspire to own and exceptional African brands."

"The luxury of having a purpose, identifying it and being able to realise it. It's rare, it's valuable and it's is covetable. That's Luxury"

"Alara was conceived to show the world who we are today, to share how we live and to show Africans that we have a lot to be proud of, that we create and enjoy objects of exceptional quality and beauty, to celebrate those who have done it, and to support and encourage those who wish to exchange, educate, elevate and beautify."

"We will open people’s eyes to the incredible creative renaissance that is growing in Africa and how seamlessly it functions as a part of the global conversation of style."

"Going beyond luxury retail, we’ve become a platform for exchange across all the creative disciplines. Our curation is trusted, and our network authentic."

"I have a huge vision, huge passion and huge ambition."

"We are women. We are meant to rule the world. We are super."

"It’s about beautifully made, bright, colorful, expressive things that have a story behind them. It’s about art, clothing, and design that’s unique and beautiful. It’s African but contemporary"

"I decided it would be interesting to have the best stuff from all over the world along with the very best from Africa all in the same space to get people from outside Africa to see what was possible, but also to get people in Africa to understand the value of what they had. It was a bit of an education on both sides."

"I used to spend a lot of time with artists and designers and I had a lot of friends that were doing creative things and I enjoyed spending time with them."

"I got the impression that although people were making these things, they didn’t feel as though what they were making was good enough to be on a certain level. A lot of what people were doing hadn’t been properly celebrated and there were these very beautiful, very well-crafted African items that people didn’t know about."

"I felt that we needed something iconic that would change our city, change the way we see ourselves and also change the way the world sees us."

"I taught myself to make furniture and then started a furniture factory that still exists. But I realized I wanted to be around creative people. I started to travel within Africa, and discovered people making fashion and design pieces that were contemporary iterations of what you see traditionally—not what we would call contemporary in the Western sense, but in our context. And I thought that was very intriguing."

"I understand the connection: female founders, a strong and unique point of view, curated and presented with a focus on art and its interaction with fashion. But our mission is different: upliftment."

"We are selling our culture. We’ve clearly become an epicenter for cultural exchange for all kinds of creative people. In my native Yoruba language, alára means “wondrous performer, one who thrills endlessly”—that’s how we see African fashion and design, and how we want global audiences to experience it and embrace it."

"ALÁRA was created to be a window to the world, an authentic curation of contemporary Africa...[it is also] a symbol of my personal journey of self affirmation and belief...a fulfillment of a burning desire to celebrate and elevate a lot of what I had come across on my journeys in Africa."

"I think we needed a symbol of what is now called the African renaissance, a showpiece that is unapologetic in its approach about who we are today,...that we have people who make and consume luxury and that we have done it all by ourselves."

"There’s a great appetite for consumption of luxury goods by Nigerians, but in terms of experiential retail with a concept...that is completely new...We have definitely had to educate the customer with regard to African Luxury, getting them to pay more for African goods that they have hitherto seen as craft and substandard."

"It was important for us to have an aesthetic that we believed was our aesthetic...we chose designers who reflected the ideas of bold, unapologetic beauty, [had a] conscience and celebrated craftsmanship. We realised quite fast that people wanted to pay for brands they knew and coveted and if we were to succeed we had to first of all listen to our market, get them super comfortable with us and then start to explore other brands."

"I devote a lot of time reading about and consuming the different art forms that we live with. I have tried to paint, I have made furniture, I have designed clothes, and I have always created experiences."

"When I’m trying to define African luxury, and this is not an exclusive definition, it has to benefit the person who’s buying it in terms of its value, but it also must benefit the person who was making it and the people in that chain of making it."

"Reni is showcasing the best and brightest in a way that allows them to shine – and the exhibition is doing the same."

"Reni Folawiyo is a pioneer whose determination and vision have created a contemporary visual language for African luxury. Architecturally, the concept of the Alára store is a celebration of design talent—an architectural promenade through the different parts of the program. Socially, Reni Folawiyo has carved a way to promote emerging talent while establishing a creative hub and an essential new destination for Lagos."

"I found a way to make us women powerful, by being able to earn money."

"“I always sign the work I do by myself with my name N-I-K-E and I encourage the other women to sign their work too,”"

"“You have to wear your indigo to show your people that you love them.”"

"Indigo is regarded as the color of love by the Yoruba people. “The pattern of Adire is the way we used to communicate in the past,”. You have to wear your indigo to show your people that you love them,"

"By the time I was ten-years-old, I was already weaving on a proper loom and considered a professional,”"

"“There are over 4000 women whose lives have changed thanks to textiles.”"

"I still don’t know a lot of things and I think that this is the most important part of life."

"Discover what you really don't know and accept change."

"Wherever we live, we are in touch with differences, which give quality to our life. With true differences, we discover what we are and we discover what we need to know about others."

"There’s a cultural difference, so sometimes we have boring Italian people and you have boring American people, or we have nasty Italians and nasty Americans, or we are super cool men or women in Italy and the same in America. It depends on the individual."

"I like details, but I like details that you should discover, not details that are there to be seen."

"Generally speaking, I don't like to design something that is there to be seen. I design something which is there to be felt."

"If I had something I always wanted something else, I’m just that sort of person."

"Shopping and clothing is part of my family’s culture. If something is wrong, you go buy a dress."

"She works in a wide variety of media in her artwork, producing sculptures, objects, prints, film, and more, which she often bases on personal experiences and self exploration."

"Her candidness regarding personal flaws and the cycles of repression and coping that accompany conservative, middle class, Afrikaans upbringing inform much of her work, calling attention to ways in which women are silenced or otherwise repressed in that space."

"It's difficult to talk about Southwood's work without talking about the artist herself because she so unashamedly bares herself, warts-and-all, to an audience. Plumbing the depths of her conservative, white, middle-class Afrikaans upbringing, Southwood unearths a nasty cycle of repression, abuse and the coping mechanisms offered her by this society where women occupy a silent and haunted interior. Southwood's candidness about her own disposition leaves a viewer trapped between doubting her sincerity and wanting to know less about a near stranger. 'Too close for comfort', her first one person show, held in 2000, presented the viewer with this dilemma in an all too attractive way."

"I arrived in France at the age of 10, with my mother and my little brother. She had divorced my father. She wanted to leave Algeria to join my grandmother here. We had a lot of family problems, we didn't have a house, we didn't know where we were going to live."

"I was already behind because I didn't speak French and I was constantly changing schools. Once we had a more stable situation, I couldn't keep up anymore, I couldn't catch up. It was a shock for me because in Algeria, I was always top of the class and, suddenly, I found myself last. And all my dreams, everything I wanted to do since I was little, I knew it was no longer going to be possible. I had to find another solution."

"I was young and I wanted to have sex. I didn't want to remain a virgin. And then I thought: what options do I have? All the girls my age had a boyfriend, they were in love for a month, then they were sad, then they changed (...) I knew it was just going to be a waste of time, that it wasn't going to get me anywhere. I thought: I might as well have sex and earn something in return. I found it more exciting. And I didn't like men my age at all, I didn't find them interesting."

"I started going out and meeting women who took me with them. I followed them a little, I saw what they said, what they did... I felt a bit like a grown-up."

"Since I was a little girl, I've had this passion for fashion and for what makes women look beautiful."

"I'm very proud of what I've achieved so far ... I'm concentrating on my brand for the time being, but I've got so many other dreams, and I'm constantly brimming with ideas."

"I'm still the same person that I used to be, with the same passions and the same dreams. The only difference is that I've become a media target,"

""celebration of the two-dimensional with [a] strong use of frontal lighting. The image is perceived as an arrangement of shapes: a hat may be chosen for its geometrical line, the body framed for effect and the who image subtly etched with shadow"."

"Her portrait work was featured in leading magazines and newspapers of the period such as The Home Magazine, The Australian Women's Weekly, and The Sun."

"I landed myself in acting and that never left me after seeing the movie Sarafina no one could change my mind. I was made to be an actress"

"The biggest hurdle I think I had was fighting to be authentic and creating a mark within the industry without having to change who I am"

"I also am fighting for the bigger dream of being an international force"

"I have had to learn that I can’t do everything"

"Until I reach my full potential I’ll keep my cards close to my chest"

"I’m nervous about the challenges that are still yet to come"

"I credit my success to everyone who has helped me build the woman I am today, to everyone who is giving me a chance to sit down and ask questions"

"Some doors were closed but I always found a way to break through them and create a whole different golden road for myself"

"I would love to be a household name and a passionate, powerful actress for the rest of my life"

"Work hard, never let anything get to your head. Respect people around you, stand firm for what you believe in. And plan, plan, plan and plan some more"

"We all know how unpredictable the comments section can be—but I said yes. Not because I’m fearless, but because I believe in showing up, as I am, with confidence and kindness"

"confidence is the most powerful thing you can wear. It doesn’t come in a bottle, a bikini, or a lipstick tube—it comes from how you feel in your own skin. And that feeling? It’s something you build, not something you wait for permission to have."

"If a red lip gives you a spark—put it on."

"If you feel powerful in a black swimsuit—wear it with pride"

"And if you feel your best with bare skin and a strong brow? Go for it."

"If you like it, wear it"

"Makeup, style, and beauty should never be about restriction. They should be about freedom—the freedom to feel like you, at every stage and in every season of life"

"You are allowed to feel good. You are allowed to enjoy beauty. You are allowed to be seen."

"Confidence is ongoing. Let’s keep showing up for ourselves"

"Skin first, confidence always. Less is more, but it’s not about doing less, more so choosing better. The beauty of now about embracing who we are - knowing what suits YOU, what brings you joy, and what makes you feel your best. These days, I’ve ditched the drama in place of well-prepped skin - the secret to glowing, long-lasting makeup isn’t in the foundation or setting spray, it’s in the skin underneath. When your skin is healthy and you’re already glowing, all you need is a touch of makeup to bring your face to life. I look for multi-tasking products infused with skincare ingredients, and use only where needed. Whilst the drama may have softened, confidence is stronger than ever."

"Whether it was over-drawn, over-plucked brows or, in my case, striped eyeshadow, every look served its purpose. The most beautiful thing about style is that it evolves and grows with you… so rather than look back with embarrassment, it gives me huge joy to look back and see myself experimenting and just having fun with it. At the end of the day, that’s what makeup should be - FUN"

"Looking good is all about self-confidence"

"True beauty is not defined by age, colour, size or sex - it is reflected by the spirit within. Someone who has a ready smile, who shows kindness and warmth is always beautiful"

"The darkest berry shade looks beautiful on me as someone with a nude complexion and equally as beauty on someone with a pale skin tone"

"We are constantly discussing ingredients, sustainability, formulation advancements and new packaging innovation. Whilst we have to be conscious of costs in the given climate, launching products that don’t deliver would be detrimental to my credibility as an artist and brand founder"

"Our main goal is to enhance people’s natural beauty, creating a safe space to ask questions online and encourage people to embrace their unique looks"

"Does your product or service already exist? What is your point of difference? Also, don’t be overwhelmed by other people’s opinions"

"I may not shout and scream but I have always stood up for accessibility. Nobody should go into a store or shop online and find that nothing works for them"

"When I browsed stores, I noticed a lot of complicated products being touted as ‘perfect’ for altering your appearance to look like someone else. The increase of filters being used online created a gap in the market for those that wanted a more natural, simple approach. I want to see people celebrating themselves and feeling comfortable in their own skin"

"Nothing could have prepared us for the complications that arose. Applying makeup was banned, so technology became key to the business rather than a hands-on approach. You had to learn to adapt"

"I wanted people to feel free to use them whenever they wanted, using their creativity rather than feeling constrained to a name. I use the tapered brush for shadow work on the eyes as well as to strategically apply concealer. Everything is designed by an artist, made for you"

"I’m constantly on the lookout for new and innovative products. It can be overwhelming when you see brands with thousands of lines. As an artist, I’m constantly editing down the products I have for my kit, and I wanted to make it easy for everybody to do the same"

"I started making cropped tops and scarfs for myself to wear and I was surprised to find that my friends liked them and asked me to make some for them. I never thought that I would make clothes for others, or even start my own clothing company, but that started to change after realising how people appreciated my work."

"In Rwanda crocheting and knitting are not developed even though we have schools to learn from. The machines we use here are outdated compared to current machines on the market today. Our work would be much easier and faster if we were well equipped but they are very expensive."

"I get discouraged by people who say that crochet is outdated and for people who are not educated. However, it gives me strength because I love it and know that it is worth doing. I have also been able to give jobs to people who help me during the crocheting and knitting process."

"you can have your dream” guru courses, and I sit here today because of them. It’s actually true! It’s all about what you think about. I did a really short pattern-making course and very quickly realised it wasn’t for me. I’m an ideas person, not a technical person."

"It was really the best thing we did. It was a great year. We were actually going to settle overseas, but we decided we missed family and home, so we came back. I went to work for other clothing companies under my brand but I missed being with my son, so I stopped altogether until he was about nine, and then I started the company I have now, in 1996."

"I’m a really big believer in that you can’t do one without the other. Our Holy Chic brand is a great example. We were going to do it as an online brand only. We put a lot of marketing and money behind putting it out there and it just didn’t get traction."

"It was a whole new experience and I got to learn a lot"

"I loved the fact that we got to have a full house in Coventry and fans were happy to meet me for the first time"

"As artists we have a voice that speaks to people and we pass on different messages"

"I am glad that I got to spread my message of love and spirituality through my music"

"I am ever smiling. I don’t know anything else, but to smile since l was a baby"

"Being a mother and a musician is like managing an exciting challenge. It’s not easy, but very possible to love and be available for both. When I’m at home I’m a simple girl, who cleans, cooks and plays around with the boys, and when we get on stage, things change and we work"

"My husband has been a pillar of strength, my greatest fan actually. Balancing home and my career has been made flawless with his support"

"Yes, as a woman in the music industry, we do meet challenges, a lot of them. However, at the end of the day, the answer lies within one as an individual to focus on their goal. When you know what you want to achieve, you step on these thorns, get hurt, but you keep going"

"To young ladies, join the music industry when you know what you want to become. Anything is possible. You can be whatever you want to be, but the secret is knowing what it is and taking the first step"

"Travel, for me, is about expanding my horizons and connecting with different cultures on a deeper level. Every destination offers a unique lens through which I learn more about the world"

"...you can’t visit Dubai without starting at the Burj Khalifa—the views from the top are simply breathtaking. But beyond the skyscrapers, I’d recommend exploring the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood to really get a sense of Dubai’s cultural roots."

"What really stands out is how Dubai celebrates its diversity, blending tradition and modernity in a way that mirrors our own cultural tapestry. There’s a lot we can learn from how the city embraces and showcases its rich heritage alongside its modern influences."

"By exploring different cultures, we not only enrich our own lives but also foster a deeper understanding of the global community."

"It’s about stepping beyond your comfort zone and discovering how much more there is out there."

"Aren't you tired writing about me? You should meet my niece who studied and worked in New York."