Rei Quotes

I make clothes for a woman who is not swayed by what her husband thinks. ~ Rei Kawakubo

And now it was official: I loved REI more than I loved the people behind Snapple lemonade. ~ Cheryl Strayed

Idiot. Above her head was the only stable point in the cosmos, the only refuge from the damnation of the panta rei, and she guessed it was the Pendulum's business. A moment later the couple went off
he, trained on some textbook that had blunted his capacity for wonder, she, inert and insensitive to the thrill of the infinite, both oblivious of the awesomeness of their encounter
their first and last encounter
with the One, the Ein-Sof, the Ineffable. How could you fail to kneel down before this altar of certitude? ~ Umberto Eco

There are no limits - I endeavor to make clothes that didn't exist before. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I looked to Rei, wondering if his vague answer to Betsy meant he might let me slip away downstairs, but A'isha had once again engaged him, hooking one of the many melos scarves she wore around his waist in an attempt to draw him into the dance.
The crow looked at it with shock. A'isha plucked the scarf away with a flourish.
"No need to be shy, little crow," A'isha said. "If the gods didn't want people to admire you, they wouldn't have made you so stunning."
I got to see Rei flush for the first time, blood creeping into his tanned skin. A'isha flipped her scarf around his neck.
"One dance," A'isha implored. "I'm sure Zane would go elsewhere; you would be performing only for the nest."
"I'm sure Zane would," Rei said dryly, glancing at me.
I shrugged.
"What is your lady friend going to think, if she hears you are learning to dance but are ashamed to perform?" A'isha goaded the crow.
"One dance," Rei said, relenting. "And only because I know you'll never forgive me if I don't take my opportunity to make a public fool of myself." He turned to me. "You get out of here and thank A'isha for giving me an excuse to leave you alone."
I would indeed. ~ Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

It would have more meaning for me to hear what critics have to say if their values and their ways of living were deeper and more serious. ~ Rei Kawakubo

This is roughly the worldview for Neon Genesis Evangelion. This is a worldview drenched in a vision of pessimism. A worldview where the story starts only after any traces of optimism have been removed.
[...]
They say, "To live is to change." I started this production with the wish that once the production complete, the world, and the heroes would change. That was my "true" desire. I tried to include everything of myself in Neon Genesis Evangelion-myself, a broken man who could do nothing for four years. A man who ran away for four years, one who was simply not dead. Then one thought. "You can't run away," came to me, and I restarted this production. It is a production where my only thought was to burn my feelings into film. I know my behavior was thoughtless, troublesome, and arrogant. But I tried. I don't know what the result will be. That is because within me, the story is not yet finished. I don't know what will happen to Shinji, Misato or Rei. I don't know where life will take them. Because I don't know where life is taking the staff of the production. I feel that I am being irresponsible. But... But it's only natural that we should synchronize ourselves with the world within the production. I've taken on a risk: "It's just an imitation." And for now I can only write this explanation. But perhaps our "original" lies somewhere within there. ~ Hideaki Anno

I'll protect you. I'll stand by you if anything happens. ~ Fuyumi Soryo

Karate-do begins with courtesy and ends with rei. ~ Gichin Funakoshi

What you wear can largely govern your feelings and your emotions, and how you look influences the way people regard you. So fashion plays an important role on both the practical level and the aesthetic level of activity. ~ Rei Kawakubo

But despite its shared nature, language is also dangerous, a potentially isolating enterprise. Not all players are equal. In fact, Wittgenstein was by no means always a successful participant himself, frequently experiencing extreme difficulty in communication and expression. In an essay on fear and public language, the critic Rei Terada describes a scene repeated throughout Wittgenstein's life, in which he would begin to stammer while attempting to address a group of colleagues. Eventually, his stuttering would give way to a tense silence, during which he would struggle mutely with his thoughts, gesticulating all the while with his hands, as if he was still speaking audibly. ~ Olivia Laing

I work in three shades of black. ~ Rei Kawakubo

The first thing we do is sit around a table and discuss what we could pick up from daily life, from space. That's how it starts, completely abstract. There's no kind of, "Oh, let's do Peru," or "Let's do pleats," you know? ~ Rei Kawakubo

Feeling free inside oneself is being free. ~ Rei Kawakubo

The first stage of camping always involves a trip to an outdoor equipment store like REI. These stores are well known for their abundance of white customers and their extensive inventory of things for white people to buy and only use once. ~ Christian Lander

I'd make my whole collection with just one square of fabric. I wouldn't do anything else; everything had to be made from one square. This is just one example. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Beauty is whatever anyone thinks is beautiful. ~ Rei Kawakubo

It is not foolish to ask a question of the world. We of Vlar-rei make songs or our questions. It is only foolish to want answers. ~ Isobelle Carmody

Fashion is something you attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction the meaning of it is born. Without the wearing of it, it has no meaning, unlike a piece of art. It is fashion because people want to buy it now, because they want to wear it now, today. Fashion is only the right now. ~ Rei Kawakubo

What I want to express is a feeling-various emotions that I am experiencing at the time-whether it is anger or hope or anything else, and from different angles. I construct a collection and it takes concrete form. That's probably what appears conceptual to people because it never starts out with any specific historical or geographical reference. My point of departure is always abstract and multileveled. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Not only in the creative world but also in the sports world. The most successful achievers in sports are people that are really driven and have that spirit of hunger. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I think you need new boots," he said when I showed him my feet, echoing Greg's and Brent's sentiments. "But I can't get new boots. I don't have the money," I told him, no longer too ashamed to admit it. "Where'd you buy them?" asked Rex. "REI." "Call them. They've got a satisfaction guarantee. They'll replace them for free." "They will?" "Call the 1-800 number," he said. I ~ Cheryl Strayed

In terms of creation, I have never thought of suiting any system or abiding by any rules. In this respect I have remained free. The necessity has grown, as we have gotten bigger, to think about commercial aspects of the business more and more, because of the responsibility we have toward our staff and our factories. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I haven't yet made clothes that I have been totally satisfied with, and maybe I never will. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Something is always wanting to incomplete fortune.
[Lat., Curtae nescio quid semper abest rei.] ~ Horace

panta rei ("All things are in flux"), ~ Epicurus

Years ago, it was easier to make new things than it is now. The weight of experience weighs heavily, and the expectations; everybody wants to see something they haven't seen before. Now, with social media, with too much information, with the speed of information - all that is making it harder and harder to realize the objective. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I am a clothes maker, and that's all I am. I only want to talk about the making of the clothes. I don't feel the need to go out there and explain that. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I can't become naked for everybody. It's never going to be possible for the person to write the whole story completely, so I find bits of myself, bits of what I think in some articles. And I don't give lip service to journalists. I never make them feel comfortable. I say, "It's your job to make the story." ~ Rei Kawakubo

The idea was not to make a huge business, because the bigger you get, the more restraints I thought I might get. Number one was to do what I set out to do: make new and interesting things within the size of the business that is possible to do without restraints. The second goal was to do the business in order to achieve the first goal. That's what many people don't understand. ~ Rei Kawakubo

It was also never wanting to be part of any group or movement or anything that was the done thing. I hated organization. When you have a group, you have a leader who is going to put down the rest of the group. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Comme des Garcons is a gift to oneself, not something to appeal or to attract the opposite sex ~ Rei Kawakubo

Because the fundamental human problem is that people are afraid of change. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Rei glanced over at me and nodded. "Exactly, Dieter. Just avoid having the cattle and keep walking." I cleared my throat. "A cow. It's 'don't have a cow.'" Rei frowned. "I fail to see why it must be a female. ~ B. Justin Shier

There's always a pattern in order to make a thing, but the starting point must be something I've never seen before. It's not two-dimensional, but it's like a sample. I work with patterns like a sculptor. I try to get [the team] not to work on a body, [but] to work on a free space, on a table. The work is basically on flat surfaces. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Constant practice devoted to one subject often outdoes both intelligence and skill. - Assiduus usus uni rei deditus et ingenium et artem saepe vincit ~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

I am kind of like the guide, the leader of this discussion. It could be from me, it could be from other people, it could be a mixture. It's a real sort of guild. I lead it and direct it and inspire it. ~ Rei Kawakubo

What's good about many people liking the work is that when I want to collaborate or am interested in the synergy of artists working together, nobody ever says no to me when I ask to work with them. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is not art. The aims of fashion and art are different and there is no need to compare them. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Fashion is something that you can attach to yourself, put on, and through that interaction, the meaning of it is born. ~ Rei Kawakubo

The freedom I give myself for the business is in deciding to take part in the Paris collections, but also having other retail strategies that are unlike anybody else's. Not necessarily going into malls, doing the business my own way - having different brands to cover different concepts, to be able to have the cash flow to carry on. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I won't let you take advantage of women! Here's the Mars Power flame of anger! (ROAR) I'll punish you in high heels!
- Rei/Sailor Mars ~ Naoko Takeuchi

My physical eyes are like sunglasses, filtering out the colors, but when I'm out here, the aura that emanates from every living thing is clearly visible to me. People, animals, and even plants are surrounded by this transparent bubble of color. Over the years, I've learned that the colors can tell you quite a bit about a person. Like right now, Rei is surrounded by this lemonade yellow, which looks nice, but it's the same shade of yellow my mom has whn she's sold a house to someone and the loan falls through.
Sigh. ~ Gina Rosati

If I do something I think is new, it will be misunderstood, but if people like it, I will be disappointed because I haven't pushed them enough. The more people hate it, maybe the newer it is. Because the fundamental human problem is that people are afraid of change. The place I am always looking for-because in order to keep the business I need to make a little compromise between my values and customers' values-is the place where I make something that could almost-but not quite-be understood by everyone. ~ Rei Kawakubo

If you have total freedom to design, you won't get anything interesting. So I give myself restraints in order to kind of push myself through, to create something new. It's the torture that I give myself, the pain and the struggle that I go through. So it's self-given, but that's the only way, I think, to make a strong, good new creation. ~ Rei Kawakubo

For something to be beautiful it doesn't have to be pretty. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I always just wanted to have enough to carry on. I never had ambitions to take over the world or be a global enterprise. But I wanted to have a strong business in order to do the main objective. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Celebrity doesn't really affect the work. What affects the work is the expectations from the outside. This is what no one understands. ~ Rei Kawakubo

For me, creation can only come out of a certain kind of unhappiness. They say in Japan, this thing like the hungry spirit - the hungry mind - is what gets you going forward. ~ Rei Kawakubo

I'd rather [the collection] have no title. Journalists like titles. That's why I give them to you. ~ Rei Kawakubo

Love letters to the depressed and the future heart
broken
I'm leaving the light on in my old street
Hoping I see some surrender on the other side of
town
Blink twice if you can see me. Blink thrice if you need me.
We've been walking alone for too long, putting all our rotten eggs in the same basket
Skipping in the dark, singing do rei (forget) me. ~ Renee Ruin

I don't feel too excited about fashion today People just want cheap fast clothes and are happy to look like everyone else ~ Rei Kawakubo

The theme of the collection this time is MONSTER. It's not about the typical Monster you find in sci-fi and video games. The expression of the Monsters I have made has a much deeper meaning. The craziness of humanity, the fear we all have, the feeling of going beyond common sense, the absence of ordinariness, expressed by something extremely big, by something that could be ugly or beautiful. In other words, I wanted to question the established standards of beauty. ~ Rei Kawakubo