#1.  Rosie Huntington-Whiteley
“[The best advice I’ve ever gotten is] be kind to everyone you meet; you never know when or where you may see them again. It takes a long time to build a good reputation and one moment to destroy it.” —The Coveteur, January 2014

#2. Diane von Furstenberg
“I always tell young women or young designers to figure out who they are and be true to that. The most important relationship in life is the one you have with yourself.” —Refinery29, November 2014

#3. Marc Jacobs
“I don’t give advice but I can share my experience. What’s worked for me is not quitting, being more passionate about what I do and not giving up. And when I don’t believe in myself turning to other people who believe in me.”—WWD, January 2013

#4. Donna Karan
“That fashion requires more than talent – you have to also be dedicated and driven. Anne [Klein] fired me when I was 19 because she didn’t think I was taking my job seriously enough. She re-hired me a year later after I proved myself working with Patti Capelli.” —The Zoe Report, June 2014

#5. Tom Ford
“Remember that we all have it in our power to simply say, ‘F*ck it, I’m going to bed.’ And somehow, the next morning, everything seems a lot better. This was my father’s secret to staying calm and making it through anything that life threw at him, and it’s given me a lot of strength over the years.” —Fashionista, November 2013

#6. Glenda Bailey
“Keep your thumb on the outside, from my beloved Steve [Sumner]. Most women, when they make a fist, they put their thumb inside, which means that should you need to punch someone you will break your thumb. So often, women tend – when they’re in a conflict situation – to back away or keep quiet. And in fact, they hurt themselves, rather than dealing with the situation. This is a gross generalization, but I think we need to encourage more women to stand up, fight back and protect themselves, and know how to present an argument and not hurt themselves. Thank goodness, we have so much emotion, and so therefore it makes us, I think, great managers. But in a conflict situation — I’m talking from just generally dealing with a team mainly of women — we so often don’t want to have the argument, whereas of course in your job, sadly, if you want to do exceptional work, you have to often achieve the impossible. I’m all about achieving the impossible every day, and so you have to find a way of going forward, constantly pushing the barrier, and being strong.” —The New Potato, June 2015

#7. Carolina Herrera
“First of all you have to love it. Second you have to remember that it’s not going to be easy. You have a lot of problems. You have to have perseverance. You have to do it even if it doesn’t work and you have to keep going. You have to be strong about it. They have to have the talent to do it, because without talent, how can you do fashion?” —CNN, March 2012

#8. Vera Wang
“It seems to be a similar thread throughout everything, which is that your life isn’t always measured by tangible results. What it really is in the end is the process, and what you learn about yourself and about life. That’s something I’ve taken with me. No matter how bad things get, no matter how discouraged I feel, no matter how much of a failure I feel like — and that applies to motherhood, friendship, everything — I try to believe there’s a reason, there’s a process, and there’s a learning experience. Maybe the journey is where I gained wisdom, where I gained confidence, a sense of reality, a sense of creativity. None of this has been easy. There’s an old skater’s saying: Don’t be afraid of falling. It’s 90 percent falling — otherwise, you don’t master anything. You might hurt your ass. Or break your ankle. Or crack a rib. It’s the same thing in life. There are other places to go. Other things to try. So don’t be afraid of failing. I think not trying is worse than failing. Have the courage to try. Otherwise, what are we here for?” —The Cut, June 2015

#9. Michael Kors
“Your work has to be inspiring and aspirational but you must convey valuable information, too. Success lies in the balance.” —The Observer, June 2014

#10. Victoria Beckham
“I always say the best way to advance your career opportunities is to try to get as much experience as you can in the field you want to enter.” —Elle, March 2014

#11. Rachel Zoe
“Always let your passions lead you. My undying devotion to fashion and all that comes with it is what drives me to work every day – never the money. If you let a potential financial gain dictate any of your career decisions, you can be led astray from what you really love. Plus, with your heart as your compass, you will naturally be so much more invested in everything you do, which often results in a lucrative outcome on its own.” —The Zoe Report, July 2014

#12. Jenna Lyons
“Think about what you want to do and what you love. Because you will never be successful if you spend too much time thinking about how you’re going to get ahead. It doesn’t work that way. The way you get ahead is by doing something that you love and committing to yourself to do that, because then you’ll be happy, and you’ll work hard, and you’ll get noticed for that. If you’re trying to get somewhere because it’s important to you to get somewhere, those are often the people I don’t promote.” —The Cut, February 2015

#13. Carine Roitfeld
As told by Gigi Hadid: “We were shooting the Tom Ford campaign and I was going through stuff in my personal life. It was obviously hard, and having to push that away and try to be positive and look presentable when you’re shooting a Tom Ford campaign was tough. I think that even through all that, [Carine] wanted to know how I was doing. She was like, “Are you happy?” I was like, “Yeah, I’m so, so happy and excited to be here.” She was like, “Good, whatever it is in your personal life or work, you should be happy. Your job should make you happy.” That conversation reminded me that you should only do whatever you love and I should be in fashion as long as it makes me happy, which will be a very, very long time. But it’s a good reminder that anyone should only do anything that makes them happy.” —Style.com, January 2015

#14. Joe Zee

“You look at me and think that I just fell into the perfect job because I’m doing everything that I love? I created what I love within the job. I was a creative director atElle, but the creative director before me and after me are doing something completely different. The title is just nebulous. You can get a job, but when you get there, make sure it’s the best and most incredible experience for you. Make it what you want to make of it.” —Fashionista, March 2015

#15. Aliza Licht

“Work hard, challenge yourself and don’t expect a pat on the back. Be your own best motivator.” —Harper’s BAZAAR, May 2015