Karl Lagerfeld: The Quotes 1973-2015

 

 

 

 

 

 

2004 – On weight loss:

“I lost 200lb to wear suits by Hedi Slimane.”

 

2006 – On music and technology:

“The iPod is genius. I have 300.”

2006 – On staying healthy:

“Vanity is the healthiest thing in life.”

2007 – On his feelings prior to a fashion show:

“I have no human feelings.”

2007 – On furnishing a home:

“The most important piece in the house is the garbage can.”

 

2008 – On the ongoing fur debate:

“The discussion of fur is childish.”

2009 – On Heidi Klum:

“I don’t know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn’t know who she is.”

2009 – His thoughts on the recession:

“Bling is over. Red carpetry covered with rhinestones is out. I call it the new modesty.”

 

2009 – On his bedtime routine:

“I’m very impeccable and clean before I go to bed. It’s just like right before I’m going out. When I was a child, my mother always told me that you could wake up in the middle of the night and be deathly sick, so you always have to be impeccable. I laugh about it now, but I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door.”

2010 – On interview ettiquette:

“I had an interview once with some German journalist – some horrible ugly woman. It was in the early days after the communists – maybe a week after – and she wore a yellow sweater that was kind of see-through. She had huge tits and a huge black bra, and she said to me: ‘It’s impolite; remove your glasses.’ I said: ‘Do I ask you to remove your bra?'”

2010 – On fame:

“You cannot fight against it. There’s a price you have to pay for fame, and people who don’t want to pay that price can get in trouble. I accepted the idea of celebrity because of a French expression: ‘You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter.'”

 

2010 – On political correctness:

“Be politically correct, but please don’t bother other people with conversation about being politically correct, because that’s the end of everything. You want to create boredom? Be politically correct in your conversation.”

2010 – On his childhood:

“I was very much like a grown-up. I have photos of me as a child wearing a tie, and it’s the same as I am today.”

2010 – On crime:

“Frustration is the mother of crime, and so there would be much more crime without prostitutes and without porn movies.”

2010 – On fur and animal cruelty:

“It is farmers who are nice to the cows and the pigs and then kill them. It’s even more hypocritical than hunters. At least the hunters don’t flatter the animals. I don’t like that people butcher animals, but I don’t like them to butcher humans either, which is apparently very popular in the world.”

2010 – On faxing Anna Wintour:

“People I’m really friendly with have faxes. Anna Wintour has one.”

2010 – On phones:

“I send notes. I’m not a chambermaid whom you can ring at every moment. Today, you know, most people act like they work at a switchboard in a hotel.”

 

2011 – On designers who complain:

“Please don’t say I work hard. Nobody is forced to do this job and if they don’t like it, they should do another one. If it’s too much, do something else. But don’t start doing it and then say, ‘Aaaah, it’s too much’. Because a lot of people depend on it. What we do at Chanel, thousands of people work on these things; these things are sold in hundreds and hundreds of shops all over the world. People like the big machine, and the money the big machine involves, but the effort… Then, suddenly, they become artists. They are too weak. Too fragile. Non. We have to be tough. We cannot talk about our suffering. People buy dresses to be happy, not to hear about somebody who suffered over a piece of taffeta. Me, I like to make an effort. I like nothing better than concrete reality. I’m a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant.”

2011 – On Coco Chanel:

“What I do Coco would have hated. The label has an image and it’s up to me to update it. I do what she never did. I had to find my mark. I had to go from what Chanel was to what it should be, could be, what it had been to something else.”

2012 – On retirement and work:

“Why should I stop working? If I do, I’ll die and it’ll all be finished. ‘m lucky to work in the most perfect of conditions. I can do what I want in all kinds of areas. The expenses are not expenses. I would be stupid to stop that. Work is making a living out of being bored.”

2012 – On his distaste for tattoos:

“I think tattoos are horrible. It’s like living in a Pucci dress full-time. If you’re young and tight, maybe it’s OK, but…”

2012 – On his famous white ponytail:

“When I was tired of the fashion for long, curly hair-because my hair was curly-I started to attach [the ponytail]. It was in 1976. So that means that I have had the ponytail for 35 or 36 years! Not bad, no? It’s the easiest hairdo. I’m not very gifted for hairdos. I don’t like gel and all those products. It’s perfect with this white powder, because my hair is not that white at all.”

 

2012 – On his beloved cat, Choupette:

“You know, personally, I don’t even think I’m that famous. Now, Choupette really is famous. She has become the most famous cat in the world. I even get propositioned by pet food companies and things like that, but it’s out of the question. I’m commercial. She’s not. She’s spoiled to death. Obviously.”

2014 – On selfies:

“They are this horrible thing where you are distorted. The chin is too big, the head is too small. No, this is electronic masturbation.”