Design is not for philosophy it's for life.

Even when I work with computers, with high technology, I always try to put in the touch of the hand.

The purpose - where I start - is the idea of use. It is not recycling, it's reuse.

My fascination has been the space between cloth and the body, and using a two-dimensional element to clothe a three-dimensional form.

I started to work with cotton fabrics. I used cotton because it's easy to work with, to wash, to take care of, to wear if it's warm or cold. It's great. That was the start.

I'd rather look to the future than to the past.

We yearn for the beautiful, the unknown, and the mysterious.

Clothing has been called intimate architecture. We want to go beyond that.

Many people will say, well, clothes should be worn; but I think people can look at them in public, like seeing a film. I think museum exhibitions are very important.

I love to be free to explore, research, and evolve.

Everything is an experiment.

Design is a vital component to the enrichment of our everyday lives. Japan has a very rich history and culture of design, and I feel it is a very important dialogue to open and keep evolving.

From the beginning I thought about working with the body in movement, the space between the body and clothes. I wanted the clothes to move when people moved. The clothes are also for people to dance or laugh.

My design is no design.

By the way, Marilyn Monroe was a size 14.

Of course there are many ways we can reuse something. We can dye it. We can cut it. We can change the buttons. Those are other ways to make it alive. But this is a new step to use anything - hats, socks, shirts. It's the first step in the process.

I sent 200, 300 of the clothes that I had made, and the dancers chose what they liked.

All of my work stems from the simplest of ideas that go back to the earliest civilizations: making clothing from one piece of cloth. It is my touchstone.

My touchstone started out being - and is still - exploring the ways by which to make clothing from a single piece of cloth.

The core spirit of Pleats Please is joy, and what better emotion to wear on your skin every day?

I do not create a fashionable aesthetic... I create a style based on life.

When I close my eyes, I still see things no one should ever experience: a bright red light, the black cloud soon after, people running in every direction trying desperately to escape - I remember it all.

Boys have been wearing skirts for some time now. My three assistants wear mini skirts. They come to work on their motorcycles wearing mini skirts. The French saw the idea on the streets and have done it in better fabrics, and now everyone says, 'Ah!'

I am not really interested in clothing as a conceptual art form.

I've never been involved in any kind of political movement.

With imagination and personal creativity, people who sew can design the way they look to suit themselves.

Architects always have a feel for time - the generation they live in - as we do, and they are always striving toward boundless adventure.

I feel it is urgently necessary to train people who are capable of tackling the various problems we face today in regards to environmental turmoil and the relevancy of clothing.

Most of us feel some kind of uncertainty, with the population increasing and resources decreasing. We have to face these issues.

You see it in the many bouncing clothes that are not just pleats. To make them, two or three people twist them - twist, twist, twist the pleats, sometimes three or four persons twist together and put it all in the machine to cook it.

Technology allows us to do many things, but it is always important to combine it with traditional handcrafts and, in fact, use technology to replicate dying arts so that they are not lost.

Paul Poiret did wonderful things because he was so influenced by motifs, but Vionnet really understood the kimono and took the geometric idea to construct her clothes - and that brought such freedom into European clothes in the 1920s.

We can also cut by heat - heat punch. And we also can cut by cold - extreme cold. When you cut with heat, it makes a mark. With cold, no mark. It depends on the fabric.

To be honest, I think we should find first the possibility to make it. Research is first - if you're not interested, you never can find something. Many things happen from forgotten machines - ones that are no longer used.

We have to keep a very tight check on quality.

A few of the influences on my career so far have been Isamu Noguchi, Irving Penn, and seeing the riots of 1968 in Paris.

I am not sentimental about the past. I like to think about what is next.

Indian paper is famous, Egyptian papyrus, Chinese paper... every country has used this natural material. But the problem is it's going to run out because it's very difficult work.

One of my assistants found this old German machine. It was originally used to make underwear. Like Chanel, who started with underwear fabric - jerseys - we used the machine that made underwear to make something else.

Retire? Never! We are far too busy!

I believe that all forms of creativity are related.

If you look back throughout history from the ancient Egyptians onwards, most cultures started making clothing from a very basic premise: a single piece of cloth.

My generation in Japan lived in limbo. We dreamed between two worlds.

Designers must be increasingly sensitive to our Earth's dwindling resources. It is our responsibility.

I suppose there are many, but I cannot imagine ever having a more perfect collaboration than that which Penn-san and I shared. It was based upon mutual trust, respect, and a desire to have our own work pushed to new places. And it always resulted in delight.

In fashion, you need to present something new every six months, but it takes time to study things. Development is very important.

Well, what I'm doing is really clothing. I'm not doing sculpture.

I very much like dance and dancers.

I have worked with several dance companies.

A great thing happening now in art is that artists are using the figure, the body, clothing, life.