In September 2016, at the Chanel HQ in Paris, I sat down with Karl Lagerfeld for a 20-minute chat. It was midnight the night before the show. What I didn’t know at that moment was that: A) it would be the last time the genius would speak publicly to our region. This was to be his last interview, and B) I would still be sat in his office one hour later, chatting away. I got to known a Karl very few people get to see, he was witty, intelligent, self-depreciating, generous, vivacious, sharp fascinating and curious. He said some things that I will never forget, and so as a tribute to the great visionary, here I note the most memorable quotes from our conversation. RIP, Karl…
“I can lie to everybody but not to myself”
1993 – 2019
“I don’t see myself as an icon. I would drop the ‘I’ and keep the ‘con’ ”
“I don’t have to collaborate with artists. I like their work, but I respect their work enough to not interfere”
“There are a lot of designers I adore, like Hedi Slimane,
but I don’t see them as ‘different’ to me
because I don’t compare myself to them”
“I am unbearable because I’m so used to things being done the way I want them to be done”
“I never went to school, but I wanted to be informed. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have any friends, but I do like to be alone”
“Do I have a passion for books?
It is not a passion, it is a sickness”
“I’m never pleased with myself, I always think I could do better.
I always think I’m lazy , I’m grotesque”
“I can’t get no satisfaction, like the Rolling Stones song.
I must die unsatisfied”
And now to the future, Virginie.
Onwards and upwards.
Love, Team Sorbet
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