I was like, I won’t be able to wear this for three to five months, but I don’t care. That’s why I’m buying it—because I want it. Need isn’t the reason for buying fashion. It’s want, desire. (...)
I might ask Nick, who works with me, “I need three new T-shirts, would you order them from American Apparel?” But I wouldn’t go into Prada or Comme des Garçons like, “Gee, I need a floral coat in fur.” It’s a different conversation if you’re a fashion person. I need to eat, but do I need to eat a five-course meal with edible flowers around the plate? That’s probably not what I need in terms of nourishment, but it’s delicious. It’s special that I get to have it, and it’s visually attractive on the plate. It serves a very different purpose, but both are valid. Sometimes I just have to eat because I’m hungry, so I’ll grab anything."
"I have this attitude about being this foreigner in Paris. It’s sort of make believe in Paris. New York is very real to me—it’s where I grew up, it’s where my friends are, it’s where I feel most comfortable. In Paris, I embraced the idea that I lived in this bubble and I always saw Paris the way I wanted it to be…I don’t need to know about politics, I don’t need to know about the economy. I just see what I want to see. I live in this beautiful home on the park that overlooks the Eiffel Tower. I go to work…I make beautiful stuff and then somebody else decides what’s being made, what’s being shipped. There isn’t tension. I saw just what I liked, not having the same emotional attachment to it. I tried to write that in the [Vuitton] program. The love for the superficial is just as real a feeling. That superficiality that I see in Paris is just as real a love as loving something because I have a deep, emotional attachment on a more spiritual level. I don’t want to get all philosophical but it’s very genuine. It’s funny when people feel they have to justify. Love is a feeling. When you love something you feel happy. Happy is happy.
Whether you’re happy in New York because your friends are there and you grew up there, or you’re happy in Paris because the lights at the Place de la Concorde are so beautiful when you drive through. I’ve gone through enough therapy to know that in honoring one’s feelings, you don’t have to assign weight: “I’m happier…” Going with your feelings, honoring your feelings, embracing them, they are just as valid for whatever reason."
full interview at WWD.com
