Michael Bastian

“Anyone can be James Dean for a day.”

“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.”

“Flip-flops are a privilege, not a right.”

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

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

“A cheap suit is a cheap suit; there's nothing you can do about it.”

“I still don't think I'm a fashion guy. I think I'm a clothes guy. I'm a little obsessive.”

“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.”

“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!”

“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.”

“There's nothin' wrong with the way men dress in New York!”

“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'm a big believer in small, dark, cozy bedrooms. I would describe myself as introspective - I feel things first, and then I think them through - and I need the enveloping comfort of a little squirrel's nest when I have to retreat from the world to recharge.”

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

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

“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.”

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

“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.”