j'dore alber elbaz

in the sixth installment of style.com's "future of fashion" series, dirk standen spoke to alber elbaz. the interview is quite long and worth checking out. i just so, so love him!!

everyone i've spoken to says the designer has the hardest job.

i think so. and miss america.

do you think that our obsession with beauty and celebrity might change?

i think it's two different things. there is an obsession with beauty, and if there's an obsession with beauty, i want to be there, because i'm obsessed with beauty, but beauty in my own eye...but now when you talk about celebrity, that's another issue. i don't know anyone who doesn't read all those celebrity magazines on airplanes. i mean, everyone i know does that, so we're all fascinated with that. it's kind of like the dream of the 21st or the 20th century....but there i have another issue. i feel that some celebrities think that because they are famous, they can do fashion. imagine if i want to be now a dancer. trust me, i can't. i can't jump. i can't even limp from one point to another. i feel that there is this kind of confusion. everybody wants to do everything, everybody needs to do everything, and everybody feels that he can. and i'm still feeling that a dancer should dance and a chef should cook and a singer should sing and a designer of clothes should do clothes. because the moment we try to do everything for ourselves, we're becoming very mediocre in what we do, and we don't go to extremes and we don't touch excellence. and i prefer to touch excellence.

what's the balance between refining the signature of the house each season and doing something new? it seems to me there's tremendous pressure now to do something completely new every time.

you know i (said to) my partner a few months ago, "i have a question." he said, "what is it?" i said, "do you think we're still cool." and he said, "alber, we were never cool." and you know what? i prefer being relevant to being cool, because if you're cool, you're also cold the next day. so it's more about being relevant. the one thing that always scares me is to be like the miss america of the moment, because next year there is a new miss america.