Lagerfeld’s Latest Quotes

At this point, we’re not sure Kaiser Karl could say anything that would shock us. He famously chided curvy women looking for some representation in fashion as fat mothers sitting with bags of chips in front of the television, then went on to surprise everyone by shooting the curvy burlesque star Miss Dirty Martini for V’s size issue.

Karl Lagerfeld and Bruce LaBruce

Lagerfeld’s latest interview was with Vice magazine where we find out who still sends faxes (Karl and Anna!), why he doesn’t believe in gay marriage, his own personal burka and other gems that could only come from one person. Our picks for the most interesting excerpts:

on his omnipresent glasses

BLB: I like that you make it clear that you don’t want to be photographed or filmed without your sunglasses on. I don’t either. Who would?
KL: They’re my burka.

BLB: Exactly. A burka for the eyes.
KL: A burka for a man. I’m a little shortsighted, and people, when they’re shortsighted, they remove their glasses and then they look like cute little dogs who want to be adopted.

speaking of adoption

KL: I don’t like the idea of taking people out of their lives and their contexts. If there were a child I wanted to adopt, I would try to find the family of the child and give them the money for an education in his life and his context. [Don’t look for Christmas cards from Angelina or Madonna in his mailbox]

on being judgmental

KL: I have not one prejudice. I don’t judge things. [ed. note: really?]

on legalizing gay marriage and taking up the cause of gay rights

BLB: You are against the idea of gay marriage. I totally agree with you on that.
KL: Yes, I’m against it for a very simple reason: In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life.

For me it’s difficult to imagine—one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don’t know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.

KL: I’m in fashion. Politics is not my job. I don’t vote in France even though foreigners here can. I will never vote in my life.

on porn

KL: I admire porn. And I personally only like high-class escorts. I don’t like sleeping with people I really love. I don’t want to sleep with them because sex cannot last, but affection can last forever. I think this is healthy. And for the way the rich live, this is possible. But the other world, I think they need porn. I also think it’s much more difficult to perform in porn than to fake some emotion on the face as an actor.

on fur

KL: That’s why I always say, when people talk about not using fur, “Are you rich enough to make an income for the people in the north who live from hunting? What do you want them to live off of when there’s nothing else to do?” It is farmers who are nice to the cows and the pigs and then kill them. It’s even more hypocritical than hunters. At least the hunters don’t flatter the animals.

on modern communications

KL: …I hate telephones. I prefer faxes because I like to write. People I’m really friendly with have faxes. Anna Wintour has one. We speak via fax. And in Paris I send letters to people. I have somebody to deliver letters all over every day.

Well, you certainly can’t accuse the man of not having a point of view.

Read the full 7-page Bruce LaBruce interview here for an interesting allusion to Lagerfeld’s relationships with models (that would probably be Baptiste at the moment) in comparison to artist Francis Bacon’s relationship with male prostitutes.






The Latest