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

Watchmaker Jacob Arabo told me you bought lots of his watches from Colette and gave them to your staff as presents.
Yes, that’s true. But I don’t like that people know or say that. I cannot go into a store, buy everything for myself and ignore all the beautiful people I work with. That would be bad taste, non? I like Colette and I like to buy everything with my own money. [Two days later, coincidentally, I’m in Colette when Lagerfeld queues up to buy some products.]

How much isolation do you feel in your life?
Yes, I live in certain isolation. I never take appointments in the morning. I leave my house only after lunch. I don’t want to have a social life. I’ve had enough of that in my life. It’s démodé. It’s another era. Perhaps people are still excited by that era, but not me. It’s uninteresting today. It says nothing. It’s boring, pretentious and vulgar. But you have to have a certain amount of time to yourself to be informed. And you know sketching takes time. I love the physical idea of sketching, hmm? That’s why I’m now working on some illustrations for short stories by Kaiser Ling. I did one for German Vogue. [He asks an assistant to pick out a magazine from a huge pile on the floor.] You see, I have a good eye. Even with the books and magazines piled up, I still find what I want. Everything I really like is here. [Lagerfeld flicks through the magazine, showing me his work, including photographs of Claudia Schiffer on a beach.] It’s not just art for art’s sake. This is an illustration of a Kaiser Ling short story from 1912, based on a child on a beach. My photos are part of my double life, another story. I wanted to be an illustrator and cartoon artist as a child.

What’s been your most fun spend?
You know, the most fun is when you don’t have to count. I don’t know. It should be always fun. You never should spend if it’s not fun. There is no scale for spending. Spending is spending, whatever it is. Somebody once said you can never overpay for a real sensation. I like to buy useless, practical things, but I like things I cannot use, like antique jewellery and stones.

You certainly have a love for jewellery.
Yes, although I’m wearing none today, hmm?

True, but you have gloves on.
Yes, but you wear shoes, too. Have you never heard of pollution? Look [he takes off his gloves], I have no age spots on my hands. It’s not because I’m wearing gloves to cover them. I never went in the sun, so I don’t have them. I stopped sun because I saw how it worked on other people I knew and decided to stop a long time ago. I consider myself a kind of Ferrari, so I take care of myself. I’m not sick, I don’t like being sick and I’m not used to that.

Do you drive in gloves? In fact, do you drive?
No, I never drive. I stopped driving very early because I’m a very bad driver. I had two accidents in which the cars were totally destroyed but I had nothing. After that, I thought it would be better not to tempt fate. I find it boring.

Where did you get your iconic look? What’s the inspiration?
I dress like this because old men in Germany, the Weimar Germany, used to dress like this - Walther Rathenau or Count Harry Kessler, people of that period, from another era.

Going back to the Asian market, does mainland China do anything for you aesthetically?
I like the idea of Chinese. I liked the exhibition in London of the three emperors. This is divine. But the China of today, I don’t know too much. Sometimes, to be inspired by things or places, it’s better not to go there. You have to imagine. I imagine the world from my window. I am not a traveller. I hate it.

The imaginative leap has been lost today, don’t you think?
Sure, but don’t compare yesterday and today. It’s different. The world was more modest but there was something magical. A lack of modesty today has perhaps taken away some of what people called the magic of then.

Are you a practical sort of person?
I don’t know how to do practical things. Thank God people help me, as I’m the messiest person in the world. My mother always said you must learn to make your bed, or at least make an effort and pay somebody to do it for you. If you’re a failure, who cares? I cannot cook, I cannot do anything like that. For me, the top of my knowledge about the kitchen is that I know how to open a fridge door. [Smiles]