I was always interested in making clothing that is worn by people in the real world.

I did not want to be labelled 'the designer who survived the atomic bomb,' and therefore I have always avoided questions about Hiroshima.

Indian clothes are usually tight.

I make clothing, and I don't care about trendy things.

I respect men and women who age and are proud and don't lose energy. I think fashion forgot those people.

Paris is an old and traditional place; it needs new blood.

The joining of the Japanese with the French should make a new movement. I think it should be good for Paris.

In the past, art was admired and revered from afar. Today, there is more of an interactive relationship between the art and the person who admires it.

There are no boundaries for what can be fabric.

I realised I wanted to make clothing which was as universal as jeans and T-shirts.

Frank Gehry not only understood my sense of fun and adventure but also reciprocated it and translated that feeling into his work.

I became a fashion designer to make clothes for the people, not to be a top couturier in the French tradition.

The future of fashion is light, durable clothes.

A-POC unleashes the freedom of imagination. It's for people who are curious, who have inner energy - the energy of life and living.

A-POC respects that there is a fine balance between the value of the human touch, which can be called artisanal, and the abilities of technology. I like to think of it as poesy and technology.

I am always looking to the future of making things.

Our goals must be to find new, environmentally-friendly ways by which to continue the art of creation, to utilize our valuable human skills, and to make things that will bring joy.

The combination of human skills with technology will always be at the root of any solution to the future of making clothes.

In the Eighties, Japanese fashion designers brought a new type of creativity; they brought something Europe didn't have. There was a bit of a shock effect, but it probably helped the Europeans wake up to a new value.

I am neither a writer nor a theorist. For a person who creates things to utter too many words means to regulate himself - a frightening prospect.

When I first began working in Japan, I had to confront the Japanese people's excessive worship for foreign goods and the fixed idea of what clothes ought to be. I wanted to change the rigid formula of clothing that the Japanese followed.

Men have been buying my women's coats for years.

I tried never to be defined by my past.

Many people repeat the past. I'm not interested. I prefer evolution.

I gravitated towards the field of clothing design, partly because it is a creative format that is modern and optimistic.

I never thought fashion was the job for me, because I'm Japanese. Clothes! That was a European, society thing.

I am very interested in the culture of paper.

In Paris, we call the people who make clothing 'couturiers' - they develop new clothing items - but actually, the work of designing is to make something that works in real life.

The important thing is to make something. In reality, it's not important that a designer be known by name - you can remain anonymous. Even the status of a designer will undergo changes, I believe.

I am most interested in people and the human form.

Clothing is the closest thing to all humans.

Function alone does not make clothing appealing.

I try to be free. The women also must be free.

I like women who have their own idea of life: the woman who is assured, comfortable with herself, strong inside, proud of herself - not in an arrogant way, not showing off.

Think of things that can be created, not destroyed, and that bring beauty and joy.

If Mr. Obama could walk across the Peace Bridge in Hiroshima - whose balustrades were designed by the Japanese-American sculptor Isamu Noguchi as a reminder both of his ties to East and West and of what humans do to one another out of hatred - it would be both a real and a symbolic step toward creating a world that knows no fear of nuclear threat.

Clothes have become more personal, more a matter of very individual taste.

Clothes should fit comfortably - not too tightly - so that you have space to move in and think freely.

I always wanted to create clothing that was universal - easy to wear, to care for, and that was also beautiful. As such, I became interested in polyester, and its potential, from the beginning of my career.

Polyester is easy to work with and results in clothing that is well suited to the needs of a modern lifestyle.