Alexander McQueen Quotes

You've got to know the rules to break them. That's what I'm here for, to demolish the rules but to keep the tradition.

The world needs fantasy, not reality. We have enough reality today

Fashion should be a form of escapism, and not a form of imprisonment.

There is no better designer than nature

People don't want to see clothes, they want to see something that fuels the imagination.

I think there is beauty in everything. What 'normal' people would perceive as ugly, I can usually see something of beauty in it.

If you're lucky enough to use something you see in a dream, it is purely original. It's not in the world - it's in your head. I think that is amazing.

There comes a time in your life when you focus solely on what you believe is right, regardless of what everybody else is doing.

For me, what I do is an artistic expression which is channeled through me. Fashion is just the medium.

When I'm dead and gone, people will know that the twenty-first century was started by Alexander McQueen.

Fashion is self confident and fearless.

It's a new era in fashion - there are no rules. It's all about the individual and personal style, wearing high-end, low-end, classic labels, and up-and-coming designers all together.

Style is not about the clothes, it's about the individual

I want people to be afraid of the women I dress.

Give me time and I'll give you a revolution.

I came to terms with not fitting in a long time ago. I never really fitted in. I don't want to fit in. And now people are buying into that.

For people who know McQueen, there is always an underlying message. It's usually only the intellectual ones who understand what's going on in what I do.

It's almost like putting armor on a woman. It's a very psychological way of dressing.

There is no way back for me now, I'm going to take you on journeys you've never dreamed possible

I oscillate between life and death, happiness and sadness, good and evil.

The reason I'm patriotic about Scotland is because I think it's been dealt a really hard hand. It's marketed the world over as . . . haggis . . . bagpipes. But no one ever puts anything back into it.

I find beauty in melancholy.

You can only go forward by making mistakes.

For a long time I was looking for my perfect equilibrium, my mojo. And now I think I'm getting there: I've found my customer, my silhouette, my cut.

If you're an open book, there's no allure.

British fashion is self confident and fearless. It refuses to bow to commerce, thus generating a constant flow of new ideas whilst drawing in British heritage.

Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual. When you see a woman in my clothes, you want to know more about them. To me, that is what distinguishes good designers from bad designers.

I used flowers because they die. My mood was darkly romantic at the time.

There's beauty in anger, and anger for me is a passion.

Beauty can come from the strangest of places, even the most disgusting of places.

I like things to be modern and still have a bit of tradition

Of course I make mistakes. I'm human. If I didn't make mistakes, I'd never learn. You can only go forward by making mistakes.

Menswear is about subtlety. It's about good style and good taste.

There is a hidden agenda in the fragility of romance.

It needs to connect with the earth. Things that are processed and reprocessed lose their substance.

I find beauty in the grotesque, like most artists.

When you see a woman wearing McQueen, there’s a certain hardness to the clothes that makes her look powerful. It kind of fends people off.

Women should look like women. A piece of cardboard has no sexuality.

People find my things sometimes aggressive. But I don't see it as aggressive. I see it as romantic, dealing with a dark side of personality.

If you ask any lady they want to be taller, they want to be slimmer, you know, and they want a waist. I'm not here to make people look like a sack of potatoes.

It's the ugly things I notice more, because other people tend to ignore the ugly things.

There’s blood beneath every layer of skin.

As a designer, you've always got to push yourself forward; you've always got to keep up with the trends or make your own trends. That's what I do.

Clothes and jewellery should be startling, individual.

Let me not forget the use of my own hands, that of a craftsman with eyes... that reflect the technology around me.

It's good to know where you come from. It makes you what you are today. It's DNA, it's in your blood.

Life to me is a bit of a (Brothers) Grimm fairy tale.

I'm not interested in being liked.

The turnover of fashion is just so quick and so throwaway, and I think that is a big part of the problem. There is no longevity.

I feel more Scottish than Norman.