Top 22 Suzy Menkes Quotes

Fledgling designers need investment – but how much easier it is to put them in a dead man or woman’s shoes, perhaps also backing the new designer’s namesake line, but only as what the French call a ‘danseuse,’ a plaything.

As the fashion carousel spins ever faster, the concern is that, while the stream of newness never runs out, there’s going to be a good deal more crash and burn among designers in the future.

At the ‘Times,’ all journalists on every subject followed the same rules and were supposed to meet the same standards, so I never really thought about fashion writing as being in a bubble.

One thing I learned is how much easier it is to write about clothes than it is to make them.

Clothes, as much as music, have an eerie echo of time and place.

With the traditional six-month lead time on the delivery of international show content, designer collections can be outpaced by the so-called fast fashion chains. H&M, Topshop and Zara, or even Target and J. Crew, would have their versions for sale before the designer looks hit the stores.

The clothes that fire up my emotions are colorful and ‘different’ pieces. My eye still picks out gilded-cloque glamour from among Burberry’s streamlined trench coats or a hand-printed coat from Dries Van Noten.

Change is good; it’s what fashion is all about.

I always have separated myself from my critiques of collections. My judgment is not about whether I would wear it – but how the collection stands in the lexicon of an established designer. As I am a maximalist, not a minimalist, I don’t wear Armani or Celine – but I so appreciate what they have achieved.

The clothes most worn by people are the clothes least commented on by the press.

There is no doubt that online shopping has fed the craze for speed, because when you can’t touch the fabric or try on the outfit, the only emotion you experience is the excitement of the purchase and the thrill of beating everyone else to it.

There is something sad about clothes laid in a tomb of trunks.

I think there’s too much mixing fashion and intellect. Fashion ultimately is designed to cover the human body, to give you joy, to make you feel better. I don’t think it has to have a great intellectual meaning.

I am thrilled to become international ‘Vogue’ editor at Conde Nast International, which has a real commitment to journalistic excellence, and to have the opportunity to write for a wider global audience through the ‘Vogue’ websites.

The natural end of an era, as designers whose houses bear their names grow old and pass away, combined with the arrival of digital cameras and Internet exposure, has created a perfect storm.

I knew him, but never felt that I got really close to Saint Laurent. But who really did? Betty Catroux, maybe.

I am not a hoarder, but my wardrobe is the antithesis of fast fashion. I buy clothes – beautiful in looks and make – to last. I originally stored away things like Ossie Clark because I could not bear to part with such treasures.

I am grateful to have spent 25 years at the ‘International Herald Tribune’ – a newspaper where I had unstinting support in being able to express myself freely and honestly.

Just as in life you always marry the same man, so I think you always buy the same clothes over time.

Smartphones are so fabulous in so many ways that it seems daft to be nostalgic about the days when an image did not go round the world in a nanosecond.

Minimalism? It is something I appreciate as an art form but leave to others – unless you count a collection of warhorse-workwear Yves Saint Laurent trouser suits. Maybe my penchant for hippie-deluxe eccentricity came from an escapist dream of a different world. It was tough being a working mom in the 1970s.

There are some designers who flash and burn – Courreges is an example of that. But he still marked fashion history. And I don’t think that longevity is always a badge of honor. Modern brand management means that we are always celebrating birthdays, when what is exciting about fashion is innovation, not repetition.