Top 55 Michael Bastian Quotes

I think the secret of my brand is that I speak to the guys who just get it. They don’t want something all logo’d and tricked out. But they go to the gym. They still go out; they want to look hot. And they want an upgrade, but they don’t want to look like their dad.

I’ve always had this thing for swimming pools – I think they’re much sexier and far more glamorous than the beach, in a way. You dress differently when you’re spending a day at an amazing pool than you would dress for the beach.

You get to a certain age, and you learn what looks good on you.

Men and women shop very differently, and where women are open to edgy, conceptual looks, very, very few men are.

When you live in a city where you’re always in and out of a car or a building, I feel it’s… better to treat a heavier, tweedier sport coat almost as you would outerwear.

People talk to me about celebrities all the time and which ones do I admire, and it’s so hard because you can’t tell who’s doing it for themselves and who hired a stylist.

Honestly, I’m not so much of a tech guy.

I’m always asking, ‘How do you give a guy a new reason to buy a polo?’

Guys look best when they have a healthy disrespect for their clothes.

I never doubted my place in the world.

With tailored clothing, you can really see where the money went. How it’s constructed, how it fits your body – this becomes very apparent in tailored clothing.

It’s easy to get wrapped up in the season-to-season business, but to have real longevity in this field, you’ve got to always maintain your point of view and what makes your brand unique. Your business is always going to have ups and downs, but there needs to be a certain consistency.

My goal is to elevate the whole casual end of the guy’s wardrobe.

You don’t want to have a boring runway presentation, but you don’t want to show stuff nobody is going to wear.

My favorite animal on the Galapagos is the Galapagos Marine Iguana. The first rule of iguana-dom is that iguanas hate the water, yet somehow, these poor iguanas landed there and had to figure it out.

I love doing these little collaborations. We collaborate with Stubbs & Wooton on the shoes for Michael Bastian.

The guys who like chinos and cords never went away. They’ve always been there. They’re remarkably loyal, just not remarkably vocal.

I kind of have a uniform for office parties and Christmas parties. What I do is put on a basic tuxedo shirt with a solid navy or black tie, a tweed jacket, a red pocket square, and some sort of fancy shoe or velvet slipper.

Celebrities, the beach, and Coachella, that’s what everyone thinks about when they think of Los Angeles. Then you see these people living in Bel-Air and Beverly Hills, and they’re so chic and have so much style.

Flip-flops are a privilege, not a right.

I think women are much more open to new ideas but approach a line more from a more personal and skeptical place – you need to seduce them into your clothes, whereas most men just like to be told what they should be wearing. Women are a bit like cats and men like dogs in that respect when it comes to clothes.

Menswear remains steady. It’s a difference of a pleat versus flat-front pant or two buttons versus three in the jacket.

Gray has this crisp, neat-as-a-pin thing going for it, whereas black seems lazy and, at the same time, like it’s trying too hard.

Swedish winters are not for the faint of heart.

I’m a New Yorker, so I don’t own a car, but I rent a lot of cars.

I’ve been to parties where I’ve seen guys mess up. They’ve been dying to bust out those crazy embroidered corduroys all year long, and it doesn’t always fly.

All it takes is for one person to say, ‘Wow, that looks great on you’ – and then they wear it for the next 10 years. That’s the great thing about guys. They just need that little bit of encouragement.

I’m always much more inspired by random people on the street. I live down by NYU and The New School, and I’d almost say close your eyes and pull a student out, and they’re gonna be a little bit cooler than the average celebrity.

I prefer simpler shirts, like a solid oxford or pinstripe, and with a solid cashmere crewneck or V-neck.

I just love walking around the Upper East Side and seeing those guys who didn’t just take an extra 10 minutes in the morning to get ready, but an extra 40 minutes.

I’ve always envied Thomas Jefferson’s bed at Monticello. It’s in a tiny alcove, bound by walls at the head and foot.

Guys are leery about putting on something they don’t think is them. They have a fixed idea of themselves.

There’s nothin’ wrong with the way men dress in New York!

What I know of Hawaii is from watching the ‘Brady Bunch’ shows from the seventies.

I feel like everyone should buy less but buy better.

I’m actually really obsessed with folk art.

I’ve always had this idea that I would love to do a Boston-inspired collection, whether it’s for my own line or whether it’s for Gant.

You can have a real ongoing dialogue through social media that wasn’t possible before.

Everyone looks better and more alive in a pink shirt.

I don’t know if I would use that word, ‘trailblazer.’ That implies that this huge crowd followed me, and that certainly is not the case!

Gray feels like the city.

The minute a male model looks like he’s doing a runway walk, it falls apart. It should look like they’re just walking.

Women are more open to trying on a new personality every season; they can go from goth to bombshell to librarian, whatever.

Anyone can be James Dean for a day.

I have a very wonderful bath ritual.

I seem to go through phases with collecting stuff: vintage Japanese men’s magazines, coconut monkey carvings, ’70s belt buckles.

I like the idea that we settle into what looks best on us. Then it becomes a game of finding the perfect version of those things.

I get my best ideas in that state of suspended consciousness just before sleep.

If everything is a little baggy, then everything will look sloppy when you layer one piece on top of another. Your sport coat should easily fit over a shirt and a fine-gauge sweater.

I personally would rather layer up than put on a big, heavy coat.

I stay in a lot of hotels, and the best part of travel is getting back to my own bed.

Michael Bastian is a designer line and priced a certain way because of where it’s made and the materials we use, and Gant is the more accessible version of that: more sports-inspired, more branding. It has the same DNA; it’s just a different time and place.

If you’re a New Yorker, there are two things that are most important: a car and a washer and dryer. Literally everyone else in America has those things! It’s so weird to them that these are our luxuries. You can eat at Per Se every night, but I don’t have a car or washer and dryer!

I consistently go back to myself: What am I looking for or wanting to wear myself, right now, that I don’t already have? I always figure if I’m looking for it, a lot of guys are.

Designer pricing should hurt, but it shouldn’t kill you. You wince when you hand over your AmEx, but once you get it home, you never regret it. You divide it by how many days you’re using it, and suddenly it becomes affordable.