Fashion: Oxygen

"I do hope that, now she is engaged to Prince Edward, Sophie Rhys- Jones [right] is not going to be expected to become a fashion icon. The mere fact that she is marrying a prince has no bearing on whether or not she has good taste - in fact, in general something closer to the opposite seems to be true."

Alexandra Shulman, `Vogue' editor, on royal style in the `Daily Telegraph'

"I had declared my interest in fashion and the good things in life at an early age; shortly thereafter, Nora rejected fashion and luxury and became a strong trade unionist."

Anna Wintour, editor of American `Vogue', on sibling relations

"Gianni gave me the benefit of his experience, but perhaps I gave him tranquility and sincerity. He worked with so many people and some didn't have the courage to tell him if something was not as beautiful as it could be. I did and that's why he respected me."

Gianni Versace's bereaved boyfriend, Antonio d'Amico, in the `Sunday Times'

"Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much individuality in fashion today. The most powerful labels in fashion have such a stronghold that they tend to dominate the market. We try to make clothes that are not worn as a uniform - clothes that a person can play around with and make their own."

Suzanne Clements of Clements Ribeiro, being `Frank'

"Am I the only Vogue reader who found the pictures of Erin O'Connor in the September issue disturbing? The model looked to me as if she had just been released from a PoW camp."

Reader's letter, `Vogue'

"When I'm doing the moulded pieces and plunge my scissors into it, that's my character, my feeling. Then, when it's on somebody, it goes into another realm, into another feeling."

Rising star Robert Cary-Williams on the whole creative thang, `Frank'

"I don't have a budget and really don't have an idea how much the outfits cost, as I have a very generous, understanding husband and all the bills go straight to him."

New York socialite Nan Kempner on her haute couture spending, `Sunday Times'

"I think haute couture is fundamentally fraudulent. It bears little relation to the high street or even to cutting-edge fashion. It largely exists to diddle the masses into buying perfume and Y-fronts, and a few sad fools with rich husbands and damaged egos into squeezing themselves into harlequin suits."

Johana Briscoe on expensive frocks, `Guardian'

"Six months before they appointed John [Galliano], I was secretly informed M Arnault disliked my association with Eurotrash. He felt it was inconsistent with the importance of the role at Dior."

Jean-Paul Gaultier (below) on his colourful past, `Harper's Bazaar'

"When I think of the women who have traditionally defined glamour, I think of Marilyn Monroe, Marlene Dietrich, the young Elizabeth Taylor, and Bette Davis, not Kate Moss or Shalom Harlow. And wasn't Marilyn [an American] size 12? Or Elizabeth curvy and voluptuous?"

A reader's indignation at December's cover girl Oprah Winfrey, who succumbed to the Skinny Police, American `Vogue'

"In a world where clothes and stores and magazines and catalogues can all look dangerously homogenised, I believe there's a valuable place for fashion and design that pushes the envelope a bit. If everyone plays it safe, stagnancy threatens to set in, choice is limited, and the joy of shopping is destroyed - which is precisely the kind of environment that sets the economy into downward spiral."

Liz Tilberis, editor of `Harper's Bazaar', gets revolutionary