#WordWeek: Favourite Fashion Quotes

While fashion is led by visuals, designs are often inspired by words: from the macabre verse of Edgar Allan Poe and Brothers Grimm which repeatedly inspired Alexander McQueen’s romantic, twisted take on gothicism, to the illustrated prose which runs throughout Juun J’s latest S/S15 menswear offering. And indeed, it is often the pronouncements of fashion designers themselves which last, acting as fashion truths for their eras. Here, in celebration of #WordWeek, AnOther names the best quotes on fashion alongside gorgeous illustrations by Helen Bullock.

Yohji Yamamoto: “Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy – but mysterious. But above all black says this: "I don’t bother you – don’t bother me".

Alexander McQueen: "I want people to be afraid of the women I dress."

Vivienne Westwood: "The sexiest people are thinkers."

Oscar de la Renta: "Walk like you have three men walking behind you.”

Marc Jacobs: "Clothes mean nothing until someone lives in them."

Karl Lagerfeld: "One is never overdressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress."

Sophia Loren: "A woman’s dress should be a like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.”

Oscar Wilde: "You can never be overdressed or undereducated"

Yves Saint Laurent: "I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity – all I hope for in my clothes."

Coco Chanel: "A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future."

Jim Morrison: "Some of the worst mistakes in my life were haircuts."

Click here for all of AnOther's brilliant #WordWeek content.

Text by Mhairi Graham