It's traditional in my corner of The Herald's vast and expansive fashion department to end the year with a selection of the best, the oddest, the funniest, the wisest and the most nonsensical things Vivienne Westwood has said in the past 12 months.
This year, we're giving her the day off and casting the net a little wider to see who else we can haul in from the trash-choked fashion canal. All shopping trolleys gathered will be sold for scrap metal to fund our trip to New York Fashion Week. All useful quips, quotes, brain farts and mis-speaks are recycled below for your Yuletide delight.
“I might have had my mid-life crisis in my 30s. I started wearing fur coats.”
Noel Gallagher confesses.
“They’re dumb clothes and they’re expensive, dumb clothes. I’ve always said the only thing dumber than his clothes is the people who buy them.”
New York fashion guru Tim Gunn on Kanye West and his, er, fashion line.
“I went through a long phase of just wearing Vans and having wet feet all the time. But I had to get out of that habit now I'm in my mid-30s. Some things start to be a no-go, don't they?”
No mention of Gallagher-style fur coats from Ben Whishaw, though he is now partial to a nice pair of Oxford lace-ups, apparently.
“My fragrance? Oh, it's coming, it's coming. Toe-Rag it's going to be called. And the bottle's going to be a massive toe.”
Noel Gallagher again, this time in jest. Hopefully.
“I love clothes. If you come out and look the way you want to look, you will create a mood before you open your mouth. Sometimes that can be enough to get your audience in the groove, where you want them.”
Soul great Nina Simone, in a “lost interview” from 1968 released in January by US broadcaster PBS as part of its Blank On Blank series.
“I would like a computerised closet that helps me choose the clothes, has them all organised, takes care of it and somehow fits it all in a small space. You go 'OK, today I'm this weight, give me options' because I have to have clothes for the different weights.”
Salma Hayek's Christmas list, as told to Glamour magazine.
‘‘There was a moment when designers draped in ermine would be reading Proust – or pretending to.’’
Karl Lagerfeld gets literary with The New York Times.
“My latest Interactive Particle Physics dress commission was an incredible experience. I designed a couture gala dress with an engineered digital particle collision print for a UX designer … We ended up collaborating and making the dress a wearable technology piece that had heartbeat-reactive LEDs. The dress even has its own cloud-based app that allows anyone to vote on the colour.”
Well, you did ask: fashion designer and science fan, Holly Renee.
“Although I do not believe in fame, what it brings me is the fact that I can ask someone to work with me and they do not say no.”
Ever modest Comme des Garcons founder, Rei Kawakubo. Among those who haven't been able to refuse her: Mick Jagger, Pharell Williams and Cindy Sherman.
“I’ll often look at a piece and say: ‘That’s so Jedi’.”
British designer Justin Thornton of fashion label Preen. Clearly a man who regularly feels the Force.
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