Michael Bastian Quotes

As a group, the fashion industry has been one of the strongest in the effort to fight HIV and AIDS. There are many groups dedicated to fighting this disease; GMHC’s Fashion Forward is just one of them. But I think everyone in this industry fights it in their own way.

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

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

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.

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

I’m actually really obsessed with folk art.

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

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.

Flip-flops are a privilege, not a right.

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

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.

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.

Boston’s such a unique city. I feel like 50 percent of its DNA turns over every semester.

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

I know how to cane chairs – how’s that for a useless skill? My mom once took a course and taught me how to do it when I was stuck at home sick with the flu. Now I’m all set if I ever decide to drop out of fashion and join an Amish community.

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

Most guys open their closet and tend to wear about 10% of what they own – and they wear that 10% over and over again. So the trick is to be honest with yourself and figure out what that 10% is.

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.

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

I’d like to think my brand shares some of those characteristics we like to think of as classically American – a certain straightforwardness, honesty, a sense of humor, inclusiveness, practicality – all those great Yankee traits. And I don’t mean the baseball team.

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

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.

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.

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.

Swedish winters are not for the faint of heart.

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

I never doubted my place in the world.

My big mission in life is to get guys out of those big, baggy board shorts down to their knees. It always looks like they’re trying to hide something, like skinny legs.

I feel like design school might ruin people, particularly if you’re a menswear designer, as there’s not much focus on business.

When you buy a new suit, take the time to get it tailored, and you’ll thank yourself every time you put it on.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

When you think mid-seventies, you think of Studio 54, but there was a whole other thing going on. Where I was, it was more deep-woods preppy. Real-guy preppy.

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

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.

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

I still don’t think I’m a fashion guy. I think I’m a clothes guy. I’m a little obsessive.

A cheap suit is a cheap suit; there’s nothing you can do about it.

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

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

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.

Good clothes are good clothes, and they don’t need whales and tricks and too many jokes. Sometimes you just need something to wear.

Preppy never goes away. It just has its moment every 15 years, and then it goes back underground.

Anyone can be James Dean for a day.

I have a very wonderful bath ritual.

At a certain point, this is a brand. It’s got to be bigger than me as one little person. We have a lane – and it’s a good lane – and want to drive faster down that lane.

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