Giorgio Armani quotes: dapper quotes from the fashion icon.
“I don’t have a formula to pass on. I always did it my own way. Even today, I hold my independence close. It’s what’s most precious to me. Passion. Risk. Tenacity. Consistency. This is my professional history.”
“This is the problem with the world today: nobody wants to take risks, to risk being themselves.”
“To create something exceptional, your mindset must be relentlessly focused on the smallest detail.”
“Eighty percent of what I do is discipline. The rest is creativity.”
“To be the best in your field is a great ambition, and requires discipline and a huge amount of effort.”
“Confidence is fundamental to winning in any competition.”
“There are so many things to take into account: your ambition, your ego, the press, the consumers. You can never be sure that you’ll be on top of the pile again.”
“I must always try to do better because perfectionism, and the need to always have new goals and achieve them, is a state of mind that brings profound meaning to life.”
“Creative work gives you an almost indissoluble connection with people.”
“I fear chaos and unruliness. Structure allows me to move freely and productively, because I can monitor everything.”
“I don’t believe in looking back, referring to, or interpreting the past.”
“Remain true to yourself and your philosophy. Changing in the face of adversity will in fact diminish your credibility with your customers.”
“Anyone who is passionate about what they do will have a better chance of connecting with future generations than those who simply follow transient trends. At least their work will have a distinctive character, and this is what people respond to, I believe.”
“The secret is to remain true to your aesthetic vision, so that people can see that you really believe passionately in what you are doing. That way, they can relate to your style. At the same time, you experiment, you try new things.”
“I was an observer. I like to listen rather than openly express myself. This trait is something that I’ve retained over the years.”
“Marketing is not a nice word, but the world is about marketing now.”
“I’ve always worked. I have always been too responsible. But I don’t know how to live any other way. I think that this discipline was also demanded of me by my work.”
“In life you have to learn how to control your emotions. You must know self-discipline.”
“It would be very hard for me to do things somebody else’s way.”
“You have to have doubts. I have collaborators I work with. I listen and then I decide. That’s how it works.”
“Without insecurities, I think one becomes a little bit of an idiot.”
“My strong sense of discipline has always been with me, and it also gave me the need for deep affection. I have never been satisfied with acquaintances who are superficial, volatile, or quick to change. I have surrounded myself with people with whom I am in total complicity.”
“I’ve always had a great interest in sports that embody the values of commitment, hard work and teamwork—all values I strongly believe in.”
“Sports are fundamental for growing in a healthy way: they represent fair competition, strength, and exercise, which enhance the body’s healthy balance and strengthen the mind.”
“A well-maintained physique is a great business card. Ideas and intelligence are what matters, but if you have a well-maintained physique, it’s better.”
“If people want to change, they will. If they don’t want to, it’s hard to make them do so. The current interest in the environment is a good thing.”
“For me, couture is the kingdom of imagination, creativity and experimentation, and this is how I approach it. I do, however, remain pragmatic and realistic.”
“I would say that my idea of style and my taste are the same as when I began. They express my deep appreciation of all that is simple and linear. I always want to keep up with the times but without altering the essential characteristics of my philosophy.”
“Individual style is the correct balance of knowing who you are, what works for you, and how to develop your own personality.”
“I dress in my own ‘uniform’ or my own dress code, which reflects my personal method and work ethic.”
“Style is having the courage of one’s choices and the courage to say no. It’s good taste and culture. The difference between style and fashion is quality.”
“Acknowledge the elegance of simplicity.”
“Elegance is not catching somebody’s eyes, it’s staying in somebody’s memory. Elegance doesn’t mean being noticed, it means being remembered.”
“I love things that age well—things that don’t date, that stand the test of time and that become living examples of the absolute best.”
“I believe that my clothes can give people a better image of themselves—that it can increase their feelings of confidence and happiness.”
“On pushing boundaries… the only limit is good taste.”
“Luxury is obviously the direction that interests me the most, but there is a lot of confusion between luxury and exhibitionism. For me, the concept of luxury is more traditional, more exclusive, more sophisticated than luxury for the masses.”
“I like living with luxury, but I am not greedy for it.”
“Actually I am very glad that people can buy Armani, even if it’s a fake. I like the fact that I’m so popular around the world.”
“The stars I have worked with not only look good in my clothes, but they also embody a spirit of dedication and hard work that I relate to and admire.”
“You can think you’ve made it and yet the next day’s press will always be waiting for you, the public will always ask more of you. In short, you can always do better!”
“Why do I put myself in a position to be cast aside or not considered as I would like to? Because I am a creative mind, because I still aspire to be one.”
“Never in my wildest dreams did I entertain the idea that I would become a fashion designer.”
“When I started, I had nothing. I was not born famous.”
“That is always what I’ve had to do in life: to show I am capable of surviving.”
“My work today is perceived as being classic, but when I first started out, it was a break from the norm. Since then, I have continued to reinvent myself. I don’t change my style, but I allow it to evolve.”
“On vision… everything I do stems from a great passion combined with an almost maniacal attention to detail. My vision of style is crystal clear and perfectly formed, and is reflected in everything that bears my name.”
“My work has taught me to pay great respects towards human beings.”
“Relevance is a quality that others give to you. One cannot self-crown himself relevant.”
“I have chosen to make my work my life.”
“A balance between work and life is the key to happiness. I sacrificed my life for my work and if I had a chance I would do the opposite.”
“The more successful I become, the more I want to remain like me, with my defects and insecurities.”
“These days, as I am older and wiser, I realize that there is a danger in becoming an icon, as people can see you as remote and untouchable, and they are less willing to tolerate you doing things that don’t fit with their preconceived idea of you.”
“What has stayed the same is my desire to express myself. Because in this rapidly-changing world, you can be influenced, dragged in one direction or another, and lose your own identity.”
“Fame is not what pushed me towards this path. It wasn’t money either—it can’t buy elegance. Making things. That’s what has always motivated me.”
“Being famous very often means sacrificing your privacy and that of others. You have to impose on those close to you a pace and lifestyle that might be a bigger sacrifice for others than it is for you.”
“I am not in the stock market. I am beholden to no one in what I do. If I spend billions on a fashion show, I spend billions. It’s not public. And if I am in the stock market, I am obligated to account for things, and to show what the business is doing.”
“I am enjoying the subtle things of life. With this crazy race that I did to make myself known—to have some power, to have a position in the world, to have a name—maybe I often forgot some values that could seem less important but at the end give you a great deal of serenity. So I am learning to value even the simplest things in life. It could be a sentence; it could be a gesture, a way of dressing some woman; it could be the kindness of a look. Appreciating the things that I had forgotten.”
“I like the idea of having built this beautiful empire but I still like to think of myself as a stable boy.”
“There can be nothing without love. No money, no power. Love is very important.”
“The creative universe begins with its essentiality, and, whatever path the imagination takes, ends with its purity.”
Related: Vera Wang quotes.
