Hubert de Givenchy

I'd love to wear the big pant, like I see on the street, or the blouson, but I'd look ridiculous. I'm not that shape. You must respect yourself.

I haven't really got a green thumb, but I love gardens and their architecture.

I love to dance, and I love to see people dance. It is good exercise. It gives you a kind of energy.

It's a fabulous thing to give life to fabric, to make something move well, the harmony of colour.

Fabric is the most extraordinary thing; it has life. You must respect the fabric.

I am of tradition, but that doesn't mean I have an old outlook on life.

Life is like a book: one has to know when to turn the page.

To have lived your dream is very rare in life. I am a very happy man. I have been so fortunate.

A piece of material has a life. You must never upset it if you want the material to speak.

It gives you a good feeling. Each year, you rediscover in a garden the magic of life. A flower arrives, and it is a miracle. The leaves fall in the autumn, and it looks fantastic. There is a tenderness about a garden, and you can't help but be sensitive to that.

I don't think I am avant-garde. I made a lot of creations and created harmony with my fabrics, but I was not like Balenciaga, for example, although he was, of course, a great inspiration.

Of course everyone dreams of living in the 17th or the 18th century because of the costumes, but there were so many incommodities.