Would you like more cheese for your Lagermelt?

June 16, 2008 10:13 AM

Lagerfeld Confidential documents the daily life of everyone's favorite eccentric fashion mogul and head of Chanel: Karl Lagerfeld (warning: peacock terms). Guaranteed to be brimming with more karlquotes than you can wave a fan at.

Personal favorites include:
"A dog with a hard on... The red is ultra-powerful," and a sign reading, "Pissing everywhere isn't very Chanel." housed in the Chanel HQ bathroom.

posted by Count (16 comments total)

He's a DJ on one of the radio stations in Grand Theft Auto IV.
posted by mattholomew at 10:39 AM on June 16, 2008

Yes, yes, oh God yes. Thank you. I need more Crazy Uncle Karl in my life!
posted by kalimac at 10:49 AM on June 16, 2008

I always get a nervous feeling when I see photos of Karl wearing his stiff, high-collared shirts. It looks like they're holding his neck in place, as if his head would flop over if he took them off.
posted by amyms at 11:03 AM on June 16, 2008

While I can't stand watching the reality TV versions of fashion production, and am anything but a fashion swan (I haven't purchased a piece of clothing in three years), I have an inexplicable fascination with the creativity, obsession, excess and sheer ego of couture design. I'll read Vogue at the drop of an Isabella Blow designed hat, Fashion TV always draws me in, and Unzipped was a revelation. Hell, even Prêt-à-Porter will do in a pinch. So... thank you, Count.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 12:21 PM on June 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

Karl Lagerfeld? The guy who did a collection for H&M and then complained when they made it in size 14 (that's a US 12)? The guy who said that he'd intended to create "fashion for slim, slender people?" The guy who wants you, too, to lose weight by buying his diet book in which he recommends you live on his protein sachets? That Karl Lagerfeld?

Yeah. Fuck Karl Lagerfeld.
posted by Pallas Athena at 3:53 PM on June 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

You're very welcome Bora Horza!
I have to call you out on something though: Isabella Blow (RIP) is the person pictured in the photo, not the designer of the hats. She was in fact a fashion maven who brought Philip Treacy to stardom by wearing his ostentatious hats.
posted by Count at 3:57 PM on June 16, 2008

Can we have a list of quotes without having to watch the clips, please?
posted by lukemeister at 5:22 PM on June 16, 2008

For many years, even before he lost the weight, I've thought he was one of the most disturbing looking human beings alive (well, amongst humans who appear in Vogue all the time).
posted by valis at 5:37 PM on June 16, 2008

This awesome New Yorker profile of Karl Lagerfeld achieves the seemingly contradictory goal of making the designer seem:

1. fascinating, admirable, even sympathetic; and
2. ten times crazier than we already suspected.

Seriously, there's a pull-quote in every paragraph. Highly recommended.
posted by Ian A.T. at 5:48 PM on June 16, 2008 [2 favorites]

Ian A.T. -- that IS an awesome article, I remember reading it in the print edition. Also, amyms -- I'm with you on the high collars, they skeeve me out a little. Thanks for putting a sharper point on why!
posted by bitter-girl.com at 6:21 PM on June 16, 2008

One of my favorite things about Go Fug Yourself is the imaginary conversations involving Karl Lagerfeld. Doesn't sound like they're too far off the mark, then?
posted by Space Kitty at 7:15 PM on June 16, 2008

A more interesting documentary of Chanel/Lagerfeld is Signé Chanel. (link is to first episode on youtube)

It's a series that followed the process of creating a collection. From Karl's sketches to the runway presentation. Minus the nauseating exchange between Oprah and some rich ladies discussing their country home getaways, I loved every minute of it. The seamstresses are the best part.
posted by quoththeraven at 8:56 PM on June 16, 2008 [1 favorite]

To be honest, before I started attending fashion school I thought Karl Lagerfeld was some old asshole who needed to be kicked out of the industry.
Among my professors, this movie was one of the reasons I realised why I actually appreciate him: he makes the joke, he is in on the joke and he is the joke.
Either way, he's laughing just as hard as you.
posted by Count at 10:43 PM on June 16, 2008

Lagerfeld frustrates me so much. As Count says, I get the impression that he is the joke, and loves it - this makes me laugh - but anyone who sees him as a role model, takes him just a little too literally must be toxic, right? I don't think I'd like to spend any time in his company, anyway. I mean, the dismissal of other people, the pomposity, glorying in excess and the superficial... maybe we need people like him in society to do the grand and ridiculous things and spur our imagination, or maybe people like him make society worse by fomenting such ridiculous self-obsession and short-term thinking (i.e. his hypocritical slandering of 'the past', as well as 'fashion' itself).

Oh, the inner struggle whenever I consider fashion! Put him up against the wall just for making me feel this way!

Does anyone else have this kind of conflict and frustration when thinking of the role of 'the fashion world' in modern society? I expect from what I've read in past metafilter threads that many here will write me off just because I'm not yet solidly in the 'anti' camp, but I can't be totally alone.
posted by thedaniel at 11:22 PM on June 16, 2008

Ah, thank you, Count: with a little research, I realised I was confusing Blow with her protege, Phillip Treacy. "Blow-inspired hat" would perhaps have been a better way of putting it.
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul at 11:24 AM on June 17, 2008

quotheraven, thanks so much for the link to that documentary! I'll be watching it tonight. It looks amazing. I love watching clothes being made. (I actually like watching anything being made -- I loved those videos from Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's where they would show crayons or ice cream or whatever being made).
posted by bluefly at 5:38 AM on June 18, 2008