Coco Chanel

Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.

Don't spend time beating on a wall, hoping to transform it into a door.

Innovation! One cannot be forever innovating. I want to create classics.

Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.

Look for the woman in the dress. If there is no woman, there is no dress.

Nature gives you the face you have at twenty; it is up to you to merit the face you have at fifty.

I imposed black; it is still going strong today, for black wipes out everything else around.

I gave women a sense of freedom. I gave them back their bodies: bodies that were drenched in sweat, due to the corsets and underwear, the frills, the lace, the trimmings.

Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.

Men always remember a woman who makes them laugh more than one who makes them cry.

I adore luxury, but I also adore simplicity. It's a matter of balance.

The most beautiful thing you can wear is confidence.

If a man talks bad about a woman, he is less of a man.

I freed women. I gave them back their bodies, which were shapeless from the corsetry and the padding. I gave them real waists, and I gave them back their legs.

A woman can be overdressed but never over elegant.

Fashion is a party. When you go to a party, you don't want to see a lot of other people wearing exactly the same thing.

There are people who have money and people who are rich.

I wanted to give women a comfortable suit that they could wear to work and still feel elegant.

Elegance is not about being noticed, it's about being remembered.

I had to be my own person. I couldn't be a copy.