Top 25 Donna Karan Quotes

Design is a constant challenge to balance comfort with luxe, the practical with the desirable.

When I first started designing, all women were dressed like men, and I said, ‘Hey, guys, let’s be women, put the two together – it’s not either/or. Let’s celebrate our bodies. Our bodies are different.’

I always thought what you wore underneath was as important as what you wear on top.

I’m truly, truly boring! I don’t change. If people know me, I have not changed.

We’ve come a long way. Power dressing now is designed to let the woman inside us come through.

I live for what I haven’t done.

I’m really quite simple.

I really feel that we need to scale back and get to what is important on so many levels.

I truly believe that philanthropy and commerce can work together.

I’ve always been about the power of a woman – accentuating the positive, deleting the negative, whether you’re talking her body, her voice or her leadership.

Basically, I was a hippie and still am a flower child.

I design from instinct. It’s the only way I know how to live. What feels good. What feels right. What is needed. Give me a problem and I will approach it creatively, from my gut.

I love skiing, I love the sun, I love my children, I love my grandchildren, I love my family and friends… and whatever I haven’t done.

If it’s a regular day, I won’t wear any makeup, just leave my hair down and head out to the car.

I love building spaces: architecture, furniture, all of it, probably more than fashion. The development procedure is more tactile. It’s about space and form and it’s something you can share with other people.

Scheduling me is not easy, as most people know, because once I start, I don’t stop.

I always thought I should have been a better mother.

Age and size are only numbers. It’s the attitude you bring to clothes that make the difference.

Everything comes out of what works for me.

Everything in life… has to have balance.

I start my day with a mind, body, soul practice – yoga, Pilates or meditation.

I wouldn’t be who I am without my husband, who handled the business end of Donna Karan so I could be creative.

I feel very strongly about dresses on every level – a dress feels like underpinning.

It used to be only yoga, but now I do Pilates as well; I feel like I need the balance.

I give Reiki, which is energy, but I don’t tell too many people that.