A PRESTIGE HONG KONG WORLD EXCLUSIVE
THE DOUBLE LIFE OF KARL LAGERFELD
by Stephen Short

I want to talk to you about fashion, photography, book publishing and your various other in-terests. But we can’t ignore Chanel . . .
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?

You also create surprises year in, year out for Chanel. Does the house still have the capacity to surprise you after 25 years?
It’s up to me to create the surprise. That’s what I’m here for. This is my job. This is also a well-organised company where I don’t have to discuss anything I do. I don’t have meetings. I don’t take care of the past, either. That’s none of my business. If I did, its image would be different. But it may change one day.

Some people say the way you reinvented Chanel after you took over in 1983 was a miracle. Would you agree?
Now people are into reviving brands and everybody says what I did with Chanel was a miracle. But no. It was dead, I took it over and when I did, I said, “I see it this way. I won’t give you a second option.” Chanel said, “Okay, we’ll do it.” I never told anybody what I wanted to do through meetings. It was all done on instinct. I said to the president, “I won’t take any advice,” and in that sense I’m a very fascist person. If someone tells me something has to be like this, I’m not interested. I could never be an art director selecting other people’s work. I’m only interested in my own work. I’m a very superficial person, but that is good for what I’m doing.

What’s your opinion of the so-called luxury market today as opposed to in previous times?
In the old days there was luxury but no market. Today there is all market and no luxury.

Do emerging markets like China and India help or damage the modernisation of Chanel from an aesthetic point of view?
If I could answer that question I would be a marketing person, but I’m not. I just do it like this. I don’t ask myself those kinds of questions. I have no idea. I simply look at everything, forget everything and do it my way. Whatever strikes my eye, or my view. I also hate this word emerging. The Chinese and their culture have been around far longer than you and I. We live in a dangerous world right now, but maybe a dangerous world is more exciting than peaceful times.

Do Asian women, particularly Chinese women, inhabit your clothes in a different way from Western women?
It’s interesting. The Chinese girls are from another planet. They are very tall and they can be very skinny. They are the kind of dolls you can dress and play with. They don’t really help you, but they can inspire you. But they are very civilised in a way. They are certainly not Gisele Bündchen, hmm? [Smiles.] When I was young there was a famous model. She was a house model at Dior called Alla. This look worked quite well. She had stunningly beautiful skin. Chinese and Japanese girls can take colour and make-up that looks beautiful on their flawless skin.

Because Chanel’s iconography was so strong, did you have a sense that no matter what you did, it would be hard to introduce new icons to the brand, so you made yourself the icon?
It’s like a game. I’m a gambler, you see. I can lose but I never ask myself those sorts of questions, they are too serious for me. May I tell you something? I like today better than before. The late ’80s were an awful time. I like today, or maybe I like my life today. I’m much happier today than I was then. And I never smoke, I never drink, I never take drugs. A lot of people today, they’re not that fresh, hmm? They don’t have that much energy. 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. You know my favourite line in life is from a very famous Jewish German, who said, “No credit on the past.” This is what I live with. That’s a bon idée, non? This is my vision of life.