Karl Lagerfeld opens up

10 April 2012

It's 5pm and Karl Lagerfeld was due at 3.30pm. Surrounded by his press team, I sit in his private office on Paris's Left Bank. A staffer offers me a pink bottle of Diet Coke which is emblazoned with one of Lagerfeld's caricatures and designed by the man himself. I pour the soda into a sleek, cube-shaped Orrefors glass created by, yes, you guessed it, then sip my drink underneath a giant crystal antique chandelier.

Finally, Lagerfeld arrives looking impenetrable in dark glasses and leather but he has the sniffles. "This is Karl's world," I think, "a contradictory mixture of the old-fashioned and thoroughly modern, the rarefied and the mass market, the untouchable and surprisingly vulnerable."

Nice to see you again. Have you read all these books?
Yes, but you know most of the books are books you look at. This is not a library with reading books. My reading books are somewhere else. I haven't looked at every book. I don't buy them by the metre to make a wallpaper, hmm? But you can spend hours looking at these. So when I'm late, I think people have so much to look at, to learn, that I don't feel too guilty. But you know, it's not my fault because when the first appointment is late, you're late after all the time. I had an appointment at 11, they arrived at 12.30. What can you do, huh?

It's nice to know you're human.
I look the part. But I'm not that human, hmm? But more down to earth than me you will never find. You cannot be more down to earth.

You're about to relaunch your Karl Lagerfeld brand as two collections, both to be sold online, one of which is very affordable. Why now?
These days, it's much easier to use decent fabrics for not so much money. Really great. When I did H&M, which was already seven years ago - I cannot believe it - I had a kind of appeal for people who buy inexpensive. I don't say cheap because people are cheap but clothes are not supposed to be cheap - they are supposed to be well designed and not expensive. There's a big difference, ah? So [the Karl Lagerfeld launch] has the top and the top of the inexpensive. I don't say low - there is nothing low.

When I did H&M, everyone said don't do it. And it worked. When I took over Chanel, everyone said, don't do it, it's dead, it doesn't work. It worked beyond. So I better not listen and follow only my instincts.

Do you spend time on the internet?
Yes. I spend a lot of time - no, time passes so quickly that nothing is ever a lot of time.

Do you shop online?
Not personally, I don't do it because I don't have the internet, you know. I don't do the internet myself but everyone around me does it for me. And if I want to buy, I buy things from the internet but it's not me personally. I don't give the number of my credit card and all those things.
Excuse me one second. Why do we have a visitor? I didn't know we were going to have a visitor. [Speaks in French] This is why I'm late you know, because people come who don't have an appointment and say they had an appointment.

Is this what life is like with Karl Lagerfeld?
Yeah, but it shouldn't be, you know? [laughs] I don't make meetings, it bores me to death. You know what I call meetings?

No, what?
Salary justification. That's why people meet for hours. Whenever they want to talk to me, they meet for hours.

What is your response, to people who say you do too many collaborations?
I couldn't care less. It depends if I know the people. If unknown people say this, they should send me a note and explain why. The limit is up to me to decide.

You're known for constantly moving forward and really capturing the now. But are there moments from the past that you hold especially dear?
I'm not a vintage specialist. For nothing. Not for my life, not for my work, for nothing. I have no archives. Maybe the houses keep archives. I have nothing. I'm not interested in what I did. I'm just interested in what I'm doing, what can be inspired.

You've influenced many people. Who has influenced you?
You know, don't put influence into words. Influence has another name and that's called copying. You see? It's in the air, I don't know. I'm like a TV antenna.

Do you watch a lot of television?
I like to be on TV but I don't watch TV. I have no time for that. You know, that's another thing. When I'm at home alone, I hate voices. I like music or singing, but I hate voices and stories. It has the feeling that they enter my life. I love to be alone to read, to sketch with music but I don't like ready-made images. I prefer to live on my imagination.

You live in six different places - where are those?
I have one where I live and sketch, here is my private office, then I have a townhouse for entertaining, my photo studio and I have all of this on the corner here and then I have two apartments that are guests' house, because I don't want people in my house. I don't care so much, but they have to go home. I don't want any promiscuity, I'm not into that.

Speaking of promiscuity, do you have much of a sex drive?
Huh? I want you to repeat that.

Do you have much of a sex drive?
No, I'm not very much interested in that. But it's not a question of time, people can make quickies you know. If you ask this kind of question, you get this kind of answer. [laughs]

Quickies can be fun.
Good, good, good! I find you talk like Europeans [laughs]. I think sex is an overrated subject.

But it's the French way, though.
You know, I'm not French. I'm a bloody German.

When were you last in love?
I don't know. I like freedom.

Do you find relationships too constricting?
Relationships happen for everybody, it can never be a problem. But it's not really my main thing.

If you had a child or a pupil or someone to whom you had to pass down words to live by, what would you pass down?
That's why I don't have children, mmm? There's nothing to pass down, everybody has to invent his own thing. I don't believe very much in this because what I learned, saw, and all that happened in other periods and the world is different now. I have a godson, who is three-and-a-half, genius. He's got real personality and his parents have no authority. He loves clothes. He wants everything like me. He sleeps with his gloves and goes to school with black glasses on. It's so funny.
But I believe you have to find your own way. What I hate about children is they put you in a generation mode. I don't want to be anyone's father generation, grandfather generation, I'm of no generation. I'm from every generation.

Have you ever had pets?
Yes, but they die, so I don't like them. I had two I really liked and after they died I don't want another one. That's too depressing.

Are you afraid of death?
I couldn't care less. Shelley said, death may be a waking up from the dream of life. But if you ask me, I think it's like a sleep where you don't wake up. You don't remember before, you don't remember after. The only thing is, I don't want to be seen dead, huh?

Karl Lagerfeld opens up

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