Thirty Seven

Style: it’s what everyone wants, and a decent amount of lucky people actually have. But who is the best teacher for understanding the delicate balance of fashion and style? An expert, of course. Instead of taking it from your best friend or a magazine article, why not pay attention to what some of the experts have to say about style? After all, those experts can talk the talk and walk the walk and they more than anyone else understand what it’s like to have everyone looking at you.

At the epicenter of a movement of clever artists, models, and filmmakers, Andy Warhol understood what it meant to create fashion and style. Never one to go underquoted, his words of wisdom continue to enhance the lives of aspiring fashionistas. One memorable quotation: “I love Los Angeles. I love Hollywood. They’re beautiful. Everybody’s plastic, but I love plastic. I want to be plastic.”

One of fashion’s heavyweights, Christian Dior is always creating a collection that has jaws dropping regardless the year or season. Famous quote: “Zest is the secret of all beauty. There is no beauty that is attractive without zest.”

Part model, part musician, part actress, Grace Jones was one of the seminal figures of the 1970s downtown New York scene. Her influence in the modeling world is still felt, and she was one of the few performers who did a truly decadent job of dressing herself: “Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.”

Proving that one’s not born a woman but rather, becomes one, RuPaul has been setting the bar for her own unique brand of fashion since the 1990s. Still kicking, her incredibly witty insight on the world at large is worth repeating, and her search for the next best drag queen netted tons of viewers recently. One notable quote of hers: “With hair, heels, and attitude, honey, I am through the roof.”

More than just the host of “Project Runway,” Tim Gunn is a fashion icon in his own right, from his time teaching at Parsons and The New School to his impeccable taste for smart suits. Always well-dressed and quotable, his insight on fashion is unparalleled: “The larger-than-size-4 market is robust and is in need of good designers.”

Not necessarily a fashion icon of our time, the wit and wisdom of writer Oscar Wilde has inspired many a fashion designer with an interest in biting satire and foppish dandyness: “Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

One of the first supermodels, Cindy Crawford definitely saw the world of modeling change in the middle of one of the most prolific times for fashion in the States. Her candid interviews have led to helpful words of wisdom, like this one: ” Even I don’t wake up looking like Cindy Crawford.