Karlsbad

Mar 05, 2008 @ 9:33am

Karl cover Prestige.jpgKarl Lagerfeld recently granted a cover story of himself to Hong Kong glossy Prestige.


Some choice quotes:

"When people talk about the good old days, I say to people, 'It's not the days that are old, it's you that's old.' I hate the good old days. What is important is that today is good."

"Love is a subject I don't analyze publicly, love is only an interesting subject when it's beyond. When it's down to earth, it ceases to become interesting. It's a very dangerous subject."

"I hate all children."

"In the old days there was luxury and no market. Today there is all market and no luxury."

"I consider myself a kind of Ferrari, so I take care of myself."

And after the writer, Stephen Short, questioned Karl about Vlada, whom Karl had been photographing at the beginning of the interview, Karl gave perhaps the most Karl-like sound bite of all:

"Yes, new Russian girls are like this. But this is a subject I won’t discuss. You know why? In France, there are a large percentage of young girls who are overweight and less than one percent are skinny. So let’s talk about the 25 percent who have a weight problem, or are overweight. We don’t need to discuss the less than one percent. Anorexia is nothing to do with fashion. These Russian girls are so young. Chinese ones are skinny, too, and bony. I don’t think it’s a subject to discuss. And in today’s world, many people take drugs, not only models, hmm? It’s an unnecessary subject. Let’s talk about the fat ones."

Also of note: Karl gave Short one of the little action figures of himself as a gift.

We know some of this might be hard to believe, so we suggest reading the interview in full for yourselves.

Comments

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 10:40AM

He sure sounds like a secure person!

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 11:10AM

I'm in the midst of reading the article right now, as I type, and I just have to say that I'm always blown away by this man. He's brilliant...

posted by sarahchivonne

Mar 05, 2008 11:35AM

what a hideous sounding man. this is why i only aspire to emulate his fashion, and not his attitude. his gift to others is his work, and not him as a person, which he obviously thinks if he's giving away little miniatures of himself as "presents"...

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 11:47AM

"i hate all children" & "anorexia is nothing to do with fashion" ?!?!?

ugh. lagerfeld should be seen and not heard.

lets be honest, this man is not saving the world, so why should we care what he says? obviously he has a horrible take on reality - he's been wallowing in his little chanel oyster for too long to realize that these are not the kind of statements that should be put out there for people to take seriously. ("karl lagerfeld is fabulous and hates children; i want to be fabulous, so i'll hate children as well!")

unlike his lowly minions that constantly fawn all over this man's every doing, i for one wish that he would just wise up and realize his only contribution to this world is cloth, and not insightful intelligence.

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 11:49AM

I'd rather have a meglomaniac in fashion (where they are sort of entertaining) than in government (where they aren't...well, as much).

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 12:07PM

ahahahaha i love karl lagerfeld.

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 12:18PM

I think KL might be my new hero. Hilarious!

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posted by Nikki

Mar 05, 2008 12:27PM

Q: Diane von Furstenberg told me she thinks you may not be the best designer aesthetically, but that you’re by far the smartest. What do you make of that statement?
KL: And look at her prints, hmm?...If she were an expert, perhaps her designs may be more impressive...You have to be a genius so other people can make such statements...[Coco] Chanel herself was not limited. At 86, perhaps, she was limited and when the miniskirt arrived she went out of fashion by resisting it, but I’m not stupid in that way.

Wow. Handbags at dawn.

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posted by trentnyc

Mar 05, 2008 1:37PM

HE,not Clinton nor Obama, should be the democratic party's presidential candidate.

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 1:56PM

"I hate all children"-hahaha, i love karl lagerfeld...

posted by hannah

Mar 05, 2008 4:41PM

He is just hilarious.

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 5:37PM

way to focus on just the negative.

Q: I want to talk to you about fashion, photography, book publishing and your various other in-terests. But we can’t ignore Chanel . . .
KL: This year is my 25th at Chanel. But I have the feeling I have no sense of yesterday. I have no sense of time. You live the moment you live in. If you look at your own past and think it was better before than now, then you have a problem. If you say things were more elegant before, it’s not true. Everything changes. You have to find your place, your space, your mood, adapt to the world you live in. You have to follow the world. The world does not follow you. Maybe I’m an intellectual opportunist, if the word intellectual is not an overrated way to be. I don’t judge, I take things the way they are. I don’t try to improve the world. It’s horrible, there’s nothing I can do. I’m not in a position to do that. I’m there to give jobs to a lot of people. That’s what I do, hmm?

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 5:52PM

He is my hero.

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posted by hipstersdontlie

Mar 05, 2008 7:11PM

wow he is a classic politician - all he does is redirect.

Q: Karl, what about skinny girls?

A: What about them? Let's talk about fat unicorns. Now that's an issue.

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posted by guest

Mar 05, 2008 10:16PM

finally, something that isn't about skinny girls!

i totally agree. there are WAY more people in the world who are overweight, and more attention should be paid on getting them help (as opposed to the, as he said, less than 10% of the population with a BMI under 18)

nice to hear a charge about more pressing, relevant issues for a change

posted by RayBay

Mar 06, 2008 11:24AM

10:16 --- The most distressing aspect of the weight issue (in fashion, in America, and in general) is not that more people are morbidly obese than dangerously thin. It's the fact that there is no middle ground any more. All the actresses and models in the '80s and '90s were considerably larger than they are now ----- and yet, the average today woman is fatter now than the average woman then.

This is a dangerous and incongruent disconnect. It makes people feel as though they have got only two choice: be rail thin, or completely let yourself go.

I can't be too mad at Karl though. He's basically a cartoon character, and being pissed at, um, anti-child statements, or his assertion that too-skinny standards are not an issue in the fashion industry, makes as much sense as mourning for Wile. E. Coyote every time he gets pushed off a cliff by the Roadrunner.

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posted by guest

Mar 07, 2008 3:32AM

remember how large he used to be i the 90s?? if not google it! hes surely had some eating disorders aswell because losing 70 kilos in a few months (140 pounds) is ... not normal

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