With women, there's a basic female instinct of caring deeply about the way they look women stars have a narcissist complex.

I always wear beige, black or white. For one thing I look good in them. For another, when I'm beside a star at a fitting, and she looks into the mirror, I don't want to be competing in any way.

Before you are interviewed for the job you want, try on the complete outfit you intend to wear.

Many women have asked me if it is possible to have a well-built complete wardrobe on a limited budget. Money, I tell them, is no guarantee of taste and the fitness of things, and an overstuffed closet is often as bare as a skeleton when it comes to wearable apparel.

What a costume designer does is a cross between magic and camouflage. We create the illusion of changing the actors into what they are not. We ask the public to believe that every time they see a performer on the screen he's become a different person.

I've dressed thousands of actors, actresses and animals, but whenever I am asked which star is my personal favorite, I answer, Grace Kelly. She is a charming lady, a most gifted actress and, to me, a valued friend.

Just imagine dressing the two handsomest men in the world, and then getting this!

There are three fashion periods: the past, the present and Mae West.

Marlene Dietrich and Roy Rogers are the only two living humans who should be allowed to wear black leather pants.

Even the most beautiful legs - Marlene Dietrich's, for instance - look better when the kneecap is covered.

We ask the public to believe that every time they see an actress or actor that they are a different person.

You can lead a horse to water and you can even make it drink, but you can't make actresses wear what they don't want to wear.

Growing old gracefully used to begin at about 35, but today women prefer to 'stay young gratefully' with thanks to designers, beauticians and plastic surgeons.

You can have anything you want in life if you dress for it.

If you hunger for certain types of clothes, for which you have little use, put yourself on a diet. Just as you resist too much whipped cream and French pastry to keep your figure in shape, you can say no to those yearned-for but unneeded purchases that lead to a wardrobe that is shapeless and without form.

I have yet to see one completely unspoiled star, except for the animals-like Lassie.