Every Unbelievable Thing Karl Lagerfeld Said in His Latest Interview, Translated From the French
From the designers who make him feel suicidal to how he’s fed up with #MeToo to how Choupette grooms his beard by licking it.
Karl Lagerfeld is famous for his design capacity, helming not just Chanel but also Fendi and his own namesake brand simultaneously. At the same time, though, he also has a real capacity for putting his politically incorrect, often offensive foot in his mouth. Among many other things, he’s said that if he were Russian, he’d be a lesbian because the men are so ugly; called Adele “a little fat,” then later took credit for her weight loss; claimed that Kim Kardashian’s life-threatening robbery was her fault; and dared to call Meryl Streep cheap.
In that regard, the latest bunch of quotables he served up in a new interview with Numéro do not disappoint: The designer sounds off on the late design legend Azzedine Alaïa, before noting he’d rather kill himself than spend time with the buzzy new names in fashion right now. There’s plenty more where that came from, too. Just read on.
On designers who make him suicidal:
When asked to rank the buzziest names in fashion today—Simon Porte Jacquemus, Jonathan Anderson, and Virgil Abloh—Lagerfeld instead responds by pointing to his appreciation for the Rihanna- and LVMH-approved up-and-comer Marine Serre. (Even though, as he points out, she’s only four-foot-nine.) When pressed on those three initial names, though—specifically whom he’d choose to spend his life with on a deserted island—he responds quite succinctly: “I’d kill myself first.”
On not mourning Alaïa:
In quite a departure from pretty much everyone who’s familiar with Azzedine Alaïa, when Lagerfeld gets to talking about the legendary designer, who died last November, he opts to go off about how absurd it was that he apparently credited Lagerfeld with setting the unsustainable pace expected in fashion today. When acknowledging his death, he simply refers to it as losing one of his enemies—along with Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent’s longtime partner, whose death he says prompted his florist to ask if he wanted to send a cactus as his condolences. Getting back to Alaïa, though, Lagerfeld attempts to clarify that he doesn’t criticize the designer, before going on to do exactly that, adding that by the end of his career, “il ne faisait plus que des ballerines pour fashion victims ménopausées.” (You might want to take a breath before reading this translation: “all he did was make ballet slippers for menopausal fashion victims.”)
On not designing for coke heads:
When discussing the many, many collections he designs for Chanel each year and how they extend far beyond the four he’s contracted to create, he mentions Coco Snow—and pauses to assure his interviewer that it’s not a capsule collection for cocaïnomanes, aka cocaine addicts.
A Look Back at Karl Lagerfeld’s Biggest Runway Controversies at Chanel
The ’90s marked the height of Lagerfeld’s experiments with many of the most storied Hallmarks of Chanel, including the house’s classic chains. It wasn’t Helena Christensen‘s belted waist or short shorts, though, that caught the eye during the house’s spring/summer 1996 show, but instead the proto-shutter shades she wore that came complete with a muzzle-like extension for her mouth.
Say what you will about Chanel’s fall/winter 1995 collection, but you can’t deny that Lagerfeld didn’t place emphasis on the house’s logo. The most striking example of which was an itsy bitsy bikini worn by Stella Tennant, whose nipples were just barely obscured by a pair of interlocking C’s.
To be fair, at least Lagerfeld made sure that Tennant had company.
Though Lagerfeld later protested that he “had no idea what the original meaning was,” that didn’t change the fact that his spring 1994 couture collection for Chanel featured three dresses printed with what turned out to be passages from the Koran, thereby sparking an international controversy. Eventually, Lagerfeld conceded to “apologize to Muslims” and Chanel destroyed the extant versions of the dress.
Chanel’s spring/summer 1993 couture show saw Naomi Campbell parade her nipple down the runway just as proudly as the crucifix around her neck.
While full of Chanel’s signature chains and pearls, Chanel’s spring/summer 1991 collection saw Lagerfeld take inspiration from hip-hop and rap. Needless to say, not everyone approved of his source of inspiration, and criticisms of cultural appropriation soon followed. As usual, though, Lagerfeld stuck to his guns: “Rappers tell the truth—that’s what’s needed now,” he said backstage after the show.
A few years later, Lagerfeld—who later appeared in a music video with Snoop Dogg—proved he wasn’t finished with referencing the “theme” of rap. His spring/summer 1994 collection for Chanel featured not only chains, but also bandanas that seemed to be a high-fashion (and tone-deaf) take on signifiers of gang affiliations.
Lagerfeld’s reimagining of the classic Chanel bouclé tweed suit reached new heights in his collection for spring/summer 1994, with hemlines that seem likely to have cut down the house’s costs on fabric that season.
Of all of Lagerfeld’s reinterpretations of the classic quilted Chanel leather bag, the most, um, singular was the hula hoop version that appeared during Chanel’s show for spring/summer 2013, which promptly became the talk of the season. The bag, Lagerfeld later explained, “is for the beach! You need space for the beach towel. Then you can put it into the sand and hang things on it.”
Several years before Fendi debuted the baguette bag, Lagerfeld showcased an early version of the oblong object, making the case for redubbing the Fendi version the demi-baguette.
To set the scene of what he intended as a “feminist” protest, Lagerfeld handed models signs emblazoned with slogans like “history is her story” and “ladies first.” However pure his sentiment may have been, the move did not go over well, prompting many to criticize Lagerfeld of attempting to co-opt a serious and timely political movement.
It wasn’t so much the clothes that caused a stir at Chanel’s fall 2010 show, but rather the enormous 265-ton, 30-foot tall iceberg that Lagerfeld took great pains to import from Sweden, as a symbol of sorts for global warming. (Never mind that it took six days and a careful maintenance of a temperature of 25 degrees Fahrenheit for it to make it all the way to Paris.)
Climate change apparently forgotten, Lagerfeld put the emphasis of Chanel’s spring 2018 show on clear plastic, which covered that season’s collection as if it were a squeaky couch.
On #MeToo:
When asked about his thoughts on the movement #BalanceTonPorc—aka #OutYourPig, or the French version of #MeToo—Lagerfeld responds by saying he’s had enough of it. (And pointing out that, haha, he does not eat pork.) To him, it’s more shocking that it’s taken all these starlettes 20 years to remember being assaulted or harassed. Lagerfeld is definitely inaccurate on that point, but he does manage to at least agree with something that the entire world agrees on: hating Harvey Weinstein.
On models:
Unsurprisingly, then, Lagerfeld goes on to say that neither movement has remotely affected how he operates his workplaces, and that something he’d read about how one must ask models if they were comfortable when posing is akin to opening the doors for creators to stop being able to do anything anymore. As an example, he brings up “poor” Karl Templer, whom three models accused of sexual harassment in February, and who was until yesterday Interview‘s creative director. Lagerfeld, of course, doesn’t believe a word of the accusations, and is outraged that a girl complaining that he’d pulled down her pants would excommunicate him from the profession in which he’s so venerated. Opening things up to the industry at large, he continues: “Si vous ne voulez pas qu’on vous tire sur la culotte, ne devenez pas mannequin !“, or, “If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model!” (He follows this up by adding you’d be better off joining a convent.)
Chanel in the ’90s: The Best Supermodel Runway Moments, Including Kate Moss, Cindy Crawford, And More
Models walk the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1990-1991 in October, 1990 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1990-1991 in March, 1990 in Paris, France.
Naomi Campbell walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1990-1991 in October, 1990 in Paris, France.
Gisele Zelauy walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Wear Fall/Winter 1990-1991 fashion show during the Paris Fashion Week in March, 1990 in Paris, France.
Cristina Cordula walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1990-1991 in October, 1990 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1990-1991 in October, 1990 in Paris, France.
Linda Evangelista walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1991-1992 in March, 1991 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1991-1992 in March, 1991 in Paris, France.
Model Linda Evangelista walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Wear fashion show during the Spring/Summer Fashion Week on October, 1990 in Paris, France.
Linda Evangelista walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1991-1992 in March, 1991 in Paris, France.
Helena Christensen walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1991-1992 in March, 1991 in Paris, France.
Model Veronica Webb attends the Bergdorf Goodman and Chanel “Off the Street” Runway Show and Gala to Benefit the Citizen’s Committee for Children of New York Adolescent Alternatives on September 12, 1991 at Industria Superstudio in New York City, New York.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1991-1992 in October, 1991 in Paris, France.
Model on the catwalk for Chanel during the 1992 Ready-to-Wear Fall-Winter fashion show.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1992-1993 in March, 1992 in Paris, France.
Yasmin Le Bon walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1992-1993 in March, 1992 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1992-1993 in March, 1992 in Paris, France.
Linda Evangelista walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 1991-1992 fashion show during the Paris Fashion Week in October, 1991 in Paris, France
Claudia Schiffer walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1992-1993 in March, 1992 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
Claudia Schiffer walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
Naomi Campbell walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
Linda Evangelista walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
Linda Evangelista walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
A model walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Spring/Summer 1992-1993 in October, 1992 in Paris, France.
Claudia Schiffer walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1993-1994 in March, 1993 in Paris, France.
Amber Valletta walks the runway during the Chanel Ready to Wear show as part of Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 1993-1994 in March, 1993 in Paris, France.
Kate Moss walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 1993-1994 fashion show during the Paris Fashion Week in October, 1993 in Paris, France.
Cindy Crawford walks the runway at the Chanel Ready to Wear Spring/Summer 1993-1994 fashion show during the Paris Fashion Week in October, 1993 in Paris, France.
On his new beard:
Apparently, the idea for growing out his facial hair came after Lagerfeld revisited a portrait that Helmut Newton took of him about 40 years ago, long before he turned gray.
On Choupette:
What Lagerfeld has found funny since revisiting the gray look is that now he resembles Choupette, his multimillionaire cat whom he says will be the heir to his fortune, making them “really an old couple.” Indeed, Lagerfeld says that Choupette is in fact the one who now maintains his beard, as she’s fond of licking it when they’re in bed. (They sleep on the same pillow.) He also expresses his wish to be incinerated, and to have his ashes mixed with those of his mother and Choupette, if she dies before he does.
Karl Lagerfeld and Choupette.
On his armpit hair:
It’s apparently pretty much nonexistent. In fact, besides his very full head of hair, which he’s quite proud of, Lagerfeld claims not to have any hair on his chest, on his thighs, or—”Dieu merci!“—on his back.
Related: Karl Lagerfeld Opens Up About Former Boyfriend, Jacques de Bascher
