Karl Lagerfeld Says He's Too Famous to Walk in the Street, Hates Selfies, Doesn't Care What You Think
Karl Lagerfeld may very well be fashion’s most quotable personality. The designer, who works on Chanel, Fendi, and his own collection, loves a good soundbite, and happily reveals his eccentricities to anyone who asks. In recent months, we’ve learned about his mysterious familial relationship with male model Brad Koenig and his son, Hudson. We found out he has a sister living in the United States, whom he hasn’t seen in 40 years. And now, with a new interview in the New York Times, the Kaiser has revealed how much he dislikes what other people think or say, his distaste of anything old (and selfies), and how he might have multiple personalities. Here, the most interesting new information Lagerfeld has let out.
He hopes his cat, Choupette, will one day be more famous than him.
The Birman has a parody Twitter account with more than 40,000 followers, a makeup collection, book, and more. Lagerfeld hopes the cat’s infamy only grows. “Then I can disappear behind Choupette,” he said.
Karl doesn’t care what you have to say.
”There are not too many people with an opinion I care for.”
And if you’re a guy, that’s especially true
“I’m not crazy to discuss fashion with men. I couldn’t care less about their opinion.”
Lagerfeld gave Hervé Legér his now famous name.
Hervé Peugnet worked as the designer’s assistant at Fendi, but eventually became Hervé Legér, the surname meaning French for light, because Lagerfeld found the name weighty. “I said, ‘Hervé, this name is not possible, it’s too heavy,’” Lagerfeld said.
Even though he designs 17 collections every year, he thinks stress is for the weak.
“I don’t believe in it. It’s a job, one should not become hysterical.”
Lagerfeld doesn’t like the word anniversary or old things.
"This is one of the sicknesses of our period, to look back. No, forget about it. Fashion is now and tomorrow. Who cares about the past? But at Fendi, they like to tour the past.”
He hates the past so much that he won’t visit the massive upcoming showcase at the Bundeskunsthalle museum featuring his work.
"As long as you’re in the business, you must not think about your own work. In Germany, they made a huge exhibition of everything I did, Fendi, Chanel, Lagerfeld, Chloé and all that. I’m not even going to the show. I don’t care.”
And he doesn’t archive anything.
"I keep nothing. What I like is to do — not the fact that I did. It doesn’t excite me at all. When people start to think that what they did in the past is perhaps even better than what they do now, they should stop. Lots of my colleagues, they have archives, they look at their dresses like they were Rembrandts! Please, forget about it."
He doesn’t walk in the street.
Because he’s too famous. “Exactly, all over the world. We live in the world of selfies.”
Lagerfeld hates selfies and his assistant helps keeps people who want to take them away.
"I don’t do selfies. But other people do, and they all want to do selfies with me. No, no, no. Thank God, Sébastien, my assistant, he’s mean to the people in the street, mean and rude. I’m a nice person."
He designs for many different labels and maybe has a different personality for each.
"When I’m at Fendi, I don’t even remember what I am doing somewhere else, and if I am somewhere else, I forgot what I did here," Lagerfeld said. "What I do for Chanel never looks like Fendi. I have no personality. Perhaps I have three."
More from Yahoo Style:
Everything You Need to See from This Morning’s Chanel Couture Show
Chanel Stages a ‘Feminist’ Protest in the Name of Fashion
10 Things You Didn’t Know About Karl Lagerfeld’s Cat, Choupette
