Style: it’s what everyone wants, and a decent amount of lucky people actually have. But who is the best teacher for understanding the delicate balance of fashion and style? An expert, of course. Instead of taking it from your best friend or a magazine article, why not pay attention to what some of the experts have to say about style? After all, those experts can talk the talk and walk the walk and they more than anyone else understand what it’s like to have everyone looking at you.

No list of quotes on fashion would be complete without the reigning queen of it all, Coco Chanel. Practically the most powerful woman to ever exist in couture, Chanel understood what it meant to work hard, and also understand what it was that made a woman beautiful. She also always had something to say about style, like this famous and often-repeated quote: “A style does not go out of style as long as it adapts itself to its period. When there is an incompatibility between the style and a certain state of mind, it is never the style that triumphs.”

For designer Issac Mizrahi, fashion just wasn’t enough–he had to have a television show, too. After years in the business, he’s got more than enough insight and zany quotes to fill several books, let alone a single article. Here’s one: “I don’t like people to feel completely described by the clothes they wear of mine. I want them to feel that they’re describing themselves.”

Part model, part musician, part actress, Grace Jones was one of the seminal figures of the 1970s downtown New York scene. Her influence in the modeling world is still felt, and she was one of the few performers who did a truly decadent job of dressing herself: “Models are there to look like mannequins, not like real people. Art and illusion are supposed to be fantasy.”

You can’t really talk about fashion without talking about Madonna. Though she might be all grown up now, her 1980s attire launched a thousand teenage girls to run around the mall and copy her style. On making it: “I think the ultimate challenge is to have some kind of style and grace, even though you haven’t got money, or standing in society, or formal education. I had a very middle, lower-middle class sort of upbringing, but I identify with people who’ve had, at some point in their lives to struggle to survive. It adds another color to your character.”

More than just the host of “Project Runway,” Tim Gunn is a fashion icon in his own right, from his time teaching at Parsons and The New School to his impeccable taste for smart suits. Always well-dressed and quotable, his insight on fashion is unparalleled: “The larger-than-size-4 market is robust and is in need of good designers.”

Fashion designer Jeremy Scott is known for his hilarious and fabulous fashion shows in Paris. Since relocating to Los Angeles, he’s managed to grab the attention of major States-side celebrities. Famous quote: “I’ve never met someone that I thought, oh my god what the — is she doing with my clothes? It’s always cute kids and that’s the most flattering. It’s people I would like to know or would like to talk to, people who have similar interests too. That’s the whole thing about fashion: it’s not only about the clothes but also about the people.”

When it comes to timeless fashion, it doesn’t get more pertinent than Aldo Gucci: “The bitterness of poor quality is remembered long after the sweetness of low prices has faded away.