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

In the same way Andy Warhol was a voyeur?
Oh no. I was in an Andy Warhol movie, hmm? L’Amour. A German aristocrat. I looked terrible, it was terrible. Those were different days.

Do you sometimes feel you’re like an enormous sponge, absorbing everything?
I’m a computer by myself. I have a memory also for unnecessary things. Telephone numbers are a problem, but historical details are not. You see? I like to be informed. My favourite books are dictionaries about every type of subject. I’d love to speak more languages than I speak, even dead lan-guages. Latin and Greek I love. For Germans, Latin is very easy. It’s the same constructions. I could speak Latin like German when I was young. When I see it now I can still read it. I love, I love Greek.

Me too. I studied both.
Yes. I’m very much in favour of teaching that culture in schools. People are so uninformed today, hmm? The other day I had an interview with someone from a French magazine, who was so uninformed, I said, “Are you sure you were the right person sent to interview me?” I had to keep saying, “I don’t know what you’re saying, I don’t know what you want, so let’s just talk shop.”

Sounds like you’d have made a great classics teacher.
I don’t want to be a teacher. I don’t want to inform others through myself. In that way, it’s all for myself. I’m the most selfish person in the world. Being selfish, I can take care of others. My mother always used to say, “Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you.’ Take care of you. That allows you to take care of others. That’s my way of looking at life.

Don’t you get tired of all the chaos of the modelling world? Don’t you sometimes wish you could stop?
When I was in dance school it was extremely difficult and sometimes I would cry. My feet were blistered. My bones would ache, yet still I had to continue. You were forced to carry on even when your body was saying no. I would cry a lot. But though it was difficult, now I appreciate all the discipline involved. There are also a lot of similarities between dance and the things I do now.

But surely you must want to pass on things to others?
No, it starts with me and it stops with me. I like to collect things, but I don’t like to own things. In truth, I like to get rid of things. So, no, I’m very selfish. I also don’t want to do business on my own. I hate responsibility. I don’t want people to enter my life, to depend on me. To me, freedom is when nobody depends on you, hmm?

That’s a great definition of freedom.
I think so, no? It’s very good. [Smiles.] I like to be free even if I can’t use the freedom. I like the idea of freedom. I don’t go on holidays. People always need to go on holidays, but I always say, “We have to do the couture,” so it doesn’t bother me. I’m 100 percent professional that way. I hate amateurs. I hate improvisation. Serious work can only be improvised if you have a real base. It’s like the piano. When you master it, you can improvise everything. But I cannot. I’m not gifted enough and that is the drama of my life. I can’t play the piano.

I was surprised to discover you have this bookshop and that you’re a publisher.
My publishing house is my personal taste. I don’t do publishing to make money. But even in this little bookshop the other day, they had the best day ever. They made €56,000 in one day. Unbelievable, hmm? I only get five percent from sales at my own shop, though. You know who are the best clients? Interior designers. Now it’s all coffee tables, design shelves, good books. It used to be that people put leather-bound old books on shelves, but now designers are afraid of being judged by their bookshelves by clients and friends, so they buy all the best books they can.

Are you a businessman or an artist?
I’m not a businessman but I am very gifted at throwing money out of the window and waiting for it to come back. [Smiles.] You know, I have no guilt feeling about spending a lot on myself and my friends when it comes to clothes. I am in that business, I make a lot of money, so I can spend it how I like. Things I buy are things I like from people I like. Otherwise I wouldn’t buy.