Karl Lagerfeld Reveals His Feelings On Coco Chanel
Edited by Nicole Vardo
“The problem was Chanel was, when I took over, everyone said don’t touch it – it’s a sleeping beauty. In a way it was – still beautiful but sleeping – because people had tried to redo it with respect. If you want to revive anything you shouldn’t do it with respect because that is the final death. After that it really is over,”- KARL LAGERFELD
“Coco did a lot but not as much as people think or as much she herself taught at the end of her career,” he says. “She survived them all – she could pretend things people like Madame Vionnet couldn’t because they were not around and they didn’t have the personality to say the things Chanel did. She wasn’t only a designer – she was a woman of her time.”
Talking at the International Herald Tribune’sLuxury Heritage conference on Tuesday, the Chanel legend said Coco made two vital mistakes towards the end of her career.
“The first was when she said ‘Not one man I have spoken to likes a woman in mini skirts’. I think no one dared to tell this 86-year-old lady that miniskirts are great and really sexy,” he says. “Number two was when she decided blue jeans were horrible. This was the fashion of the world at that partuclar moment – it was the Sixties. No one wanted to be told by an old lady that miniskirts and jeans weren’t chic. The result was that she lost her power and in the end no one cared about what she did.”
Lagerfeld says he uses the iconic label’s key components to construe an aesthetic that is constantly relevant.
“I play with Chanel’s elements like a musician plays with notes. You don’t have to make the same music if you are a decent musician,” he explains.
