“I cannot pretend to do sculpture and make a woman the ridiculous pedestal of my pretensions. To render clothing poetic, yes–but one must preserve its dignity as clothing.”

It pains me physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic by fashion.

Blue Jeans? They should be worn by farm girls milking cows!

There are women who have completely transformed my view of fashion and if I hadn’t shown them I would never have arrived at this point in fashion, you see.

Over the years I have learned that what is important in a dress is the woman who is wearing it.

I don’t really like knees.

I don’t like [to] make a woman … an abstract concept of the fashion. I don’t like [to] say, “You must wear that.” … I am not a dictator.

Moda je prolazna, dok stil traje, on je večan.

I want to thank all the women who have worn my clothes, the famous and the unknown, who have been so faithful to me and given me so much joy.

Chanel freed women, and I empowered them.

I love women. I love all the bright and attractive people and things of this world, the flame and also the moth, the dancer and the dance.

Decadence attracts me. It suggests a new world, and, for me, society’s struggle between life and death is absolutely beautiful.

I was born with a nervous breakdown.

Finding your own style is not easy, but once found it brings complete happiness. It gives you self-confidence, always.

Fashions come and go, but style is forever.

Fashion is defined by what later becomes out of fashion.

Without elegance of the heart, there is no elegance.

The normal press cycle is to put a company on a pedestal and then knock it down. It’s much more interesting that way.

I’m not better than anyone else. I’m not supposed to be on a pedestal. I’ve always stayed away from that.

If we can take young people who excel at the highest levels, put them on the same kind of pedestal as the all-state basketball player and the all-state football player, and begin to get the same kind of recognition, it will have a profound effect, and we are finding that it does.

I used to say I wanted to genuflect to a woman, put her up on a pedestal higher and higher, way up beyond my grasp…Then I’d find another one.

Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their earthly pedestals.

I don’t like putting people on a pedestal, I think ideas are more exciting.