Culture

Karl Lagerfeld in style

Karl Lagerfeld, especially for his look outside, has been enigmatic but at the same time a stylist’s icon. Even if he never revealed his true birthday, Lagerfeld interpreted at the top every fashion trademarks giving a plus without watching the others.
He declared about his artistic process: “I design like I breathe. You don’t ask to breathe. It just happens”.
As tribute to Karl Otto Lagerfeld – 10 September 1933 Hamburg, 19 February 2019 Neuilly-sur-Seine – some statement signed by the master through the memories of friends and colleagues.

“I have the fashion industry, I have photography books and publishing – that’s enough! I like to watch the world, but I don’t want to be watched”.

“I love the physical presence of books, and I can hardly call it a bedroom because I pulled down every wall. It’s like a huge box of frosted glass – no doors, just a huge studio where I sketch, read and Choupette lives”.

“I’m not French and I never intended to become French, because I like to be a stranger. I’m a stranger in Germany. I never wanted to be part of something I couldn’t get away from. I love to be an outsider. In fact, I’m part of nothing. I’m totally free in the best sense of the word”.

“My father was a very nice person, very sweet, but he wasn’t as funny as my mother. So, sometimes I felt guilty that I was not as nice to him, as I was a slave to her”.

“I have no archive. I never go to the Chanel or the Fendi archives. No! No! No! No! No! The archives I need are in my mind”.

“One should not over-act emotions. I hated being a child. I wanted to be grown-up”.

“Fashion is about change, and I like change. I’m not attached to anything. I’m quite easy to work with, because you can read my sketches. I am not sure that there is anybody in the business today that knows as much as I do”.

by Alain Chivilò