Alber Elbaz (Hebrew: אלבר אלבז, born 6 February 1961) is a Moroccan-Israeli fashion designer. After a number of other fashion houses, he was the creative director Lanvin in Paris from 2001 until October 2015.
I love to see old women. I love wrinkles. I love gray hair.
I don't think that you can write music if you don't know how to play an instrument. You have to know the basics, then you can go forward.
Style is the only thing you can't buy. It's not in a shopping bag, a label, or a price tag. It's something reflected from our soul to the outside world. An emotion.
If I wasnt a designer, I would love to be a doctor. That is my fantasy, my dream. A doctor will give you a tablet if you have a headache, and I will give you a dress, and we both make you feel good.
If you take something out of the freezer, it's cold, but what happens when it melts? It's a cool party, a cool person, a cool collection. What does that mean? I'm more interested in things that are uncool, things that have a certain individuality, a certain soul, a certain longevity, emotion, fragility.
I don’t take drugs because if I did I’d love them–I’d be a junkie. And because I’m Jewish, I’d probably be a dealer, too.
I think that if you want to pass emotion, you have to write a letter. Emotions do not pass in SMS or in e-mail.
Everybody's talking about the new democratic world and whether high fashion is relevant. But without high there is no low. I don't like to intellectualize. I've always said fashion is like roast chicken: You don't have to think about it to know it's delicious.
For me, the sketching of dresses was about fantasy and dreams. In my little room at home, I felt that I was somewhere else. In Paris, for instance.
I want to know where is that committee in Switzerland that sits to decide what is in and what is out. I don't listen to the formula makers. I think maybe I have a selective hearing disorder.
Fashion is like life. It needs fear and uncertainty if you are to move forward.
Fashion is not always about what's new, it's also about what's good. And I think if you need to see what's good, you have to be there.
I like the dream, like fantasy dresses. Women can dream at 9 in the morning and at 10 o’clock at night, it doesn’t matter. I think it is also important for me to make it pragmatic and practical and wearable. I always say, 'If you can’t eat it, it’s not food, and if you can’t wear it, it’s not fashion, it is something else. '
After every show, I say to Hania [Destelle, a friend], ‘They hated it. ’
All I want is beautiful. I mean, I like grey hair, I love wrinkles. But this is me.
When I'm traveling the world, I don't ever look anymore at the geography - just enough to catch galleries and paintings.
I feel more and more that the most beautiful people are the ones who are comfortable with themselves.
If you change a woman’s look, you change her persona
I spend my time backstage at the Lanvin shows, and when I come out at the end, all I see are people's eyes.
Run away from laziness; work hard. Touch intuition and listen to the heart, not marketing directors. Dream.