I don't get my inspiration from books or a painting. I get it

When Carolina Herrera declared, “I don’t get my inspiration from books or a painting. I get it from the women I meet,” she revealed the living source of her artistry. For women, in their strength, elegance, struggles, and triumphs, are themselves the greatest works of art. No canvas, no written word, however beautiful, could surpass the living stories carried in their posture, their laughter, their sorrow, and their perseverance. She reminds us that the truest inspiration is not bound to the past, but walks among us in flesh and spirit.

The ancients too knew this truth. Homer sang not only of gods and kings, but of women like Penelope, whose patience and cunning were themselves heroic. Artists carved muses into marble, not as lifeless statues, but as embodiments of the living women who stirred their souls. So it is with Herrera: she seeks not a distant ideal, but the immediacy of human presence, drawing her vision from the women she encounters daily, in their diversity and reality.

History gives us radiant examples. Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel transformed the world of fashion not by bowing to tradition, but by observing the needs and spirit of modern women who longed for freedom from constraint. Like Herrera, Chanel found her inspiration not in abstract forms but in the lives and desires of real women. Each garment she designed was not just clothing, but a declaration of independence and individuality.

Herrera’s words also teach us about humility. To draw inspiration from others is to acknowledge that one’s genius is not self-contained, but nourished by the community of human experience. It is to admit that art is not created in isolation, but in dialogue with life itself. In honoring the women she meets, Herrera confesses that her legacy is not hers alone, but woven from the countless lives that passed before her eyes and touched her spirit.

Thus, let this lesson endure for generations: look for inspiration not only in books, nor solely in paintings, but in the living world, especially in those whose strength and grace often go unseen. For every woman carries within her the poetry of resilience, the painting of endurance, the music of her own story. To recognize this is to see life itself as the highest art, and to honor the presence of others as the wellspring of creativity and truth.