10 Style Truths from Karl, Diana, Coco, and More

March 11, 2014

Yohji Yamamoto (Photo by Nicolas Guerin)

This month, we’re focusing on mentors and mentees. But when it comes to style, there is a lot of conflicting advice out there. It seems for every rule, there is another rule to contradict it.

Sometimes we need to head back to the source to get our heads straight. Here, we soak up some wisdom from the pioneers (Coco Chanel, Yohji Yamamoto), the tastemakers (Diana Vreeland), the icons (Katharine Hepburn, Sophia Loren), and of course, the eccentrics (Karl—I’m looking at you) who make fashion so endlessly fascinating.

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“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”—Leonardo da Vinci

“Elegance is refusal.”—Coco Chanel

“I mean, a new dress doesn’t get you anywhere. It’s the life you’re living in the dress, and the sort of life you had lived before, and what you will do in it later.”—Diana Vreeland

Diana Vreeland. 

“A woman’s dress should be a like a barbed-wire fence: serving its purpose without obstructing the view.” —Sophia Loren

“Buy less, choose well, and do it yourself!”—Vivienne Westwood

“Bling is over. Red carpet covered with rhinestones is out. I call it ‘the new modesty’.”—Karl Lagerfeld 

“I wear my sort of clothes to save me the trouble of deciding which clothes to wear.”—Katharine Hepburn

Katharine Hepburn (Photo by Haynes Archive/Popperfoto/Getty) 

“Fashion is what you’re offered four times a year by designers. And style is what you choose.”—Lauren Hutton

“Black is modest and arrogant at the same time. Black is lazy and easy, but mysterious. But above all, black says this: ‘I don’t bother you—don’t bother me’.”—Yohji Yamamoto

“When in doubt, wear red.” —Bill Blass

– Tory Hoen