Karl Lagerfeld Quotes & Sayings

Things have to be beautifully made, even if they are full of fun, fantasy and futility — Karl Lagerfeld

The iPod is genius. I have 300. — Karl Lagerfeld

It's not the days that are old, it's you that's old. — Karl Lagerfeld

People who can't be alone have a problem. Loneliness is a luxury for people like me. — Karl Lagerfeld

I prefer to be in a video than to play with it. — Karl Lagerfeld

I am physically allergic to flip-flops — Karl Lagerfeld

These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly. Fashion is about dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women. — Karl Lagerfeld

My mother did not like children. — Karl Lagerfeld

What I hate most in life are people who are not really the peach of the day but who want to be young and sexy. You can fool nobody. There is a moment when you have to accept that somebody else is younger and fresher and hotter. Life is not a beauty contest. — Karl Lagerfeld

They're my burka ... 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. — Karl Lagerfeld

People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can't live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm not a marketing person. I don't ask myself questions. I go by instinct. — Karl Lagerfeld

I get along with everyone except for men my age, who are bourgeois or retired or boring. — Karl Lagerfeld

I can do whatever I want. — Karl Lagerfeld

Dress for yourself and the man you love (if there is one). Women dressing to impress other women
forget about that. Forget about that. It's a very bad way of thinking. — Karl Lagerfeld

Clothes if they are not well cut, you can kill nobody. A building poorly built can kill people. It's a much more difficult work. I would not compare myself with that. — Karl Lagerfeld

change is the healthiest way to survive — Karl Lagerfeld

Some models who aren't the most beautiful end up becoming the greatest of all time. — Karl Lagerfeld

The iPod completely changed the way people approach music. — Karl Lagerfeld

What I do Coco would have hated. The label has an image and it's up to me to update it. I do what she never did. I had to find my mark. I had to go from what Chanel was to what it should be, could be, what it had been to something else. — Karl Lagerfeld

Don't use your film for ugly purpose. — Karl Lagerfeld

I like today and perhaps a little future still, but the past is really something I'm not interested in. So, as far as I'm concerned, I like only the past of things and people I don't know. When I know, I don't care because I knew how it was. — Karl Lagerfeld

Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants. — Karl Lagerfeld

Yes, some people say to me you're too skinny, but never a skinny person says that to me, only people who could lose a few pounds say that. — Karl Lagerfeld

If someone gives me a to-do list, I say 'thank you, this is nice.' One needs things to throw in the wastebasket. — Karl Lagerfeld

We need houses as we need clothes, architecture stimulates fashion. It's like hunger and thirst - you need them both. — Karl Lagerfeld

Trendy is the last stage before tacky. — Karl Lagerfeld

Kate Middleton has a nice silhouette and she is the right girl for that boy. I like that kind of woman, I like romantic beauties. On the other hand, her sister struggles. I don't like the sister's face. She should only show her back. — Karl Lagerfeld

Beauty is also submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today, so beauty is something that changes with time. — Karl Lagerfeld

A collection is not just one basic idea. It comes from something that is in the air, something you suddenly like and put down on paper and then work out. — Karl Lagerfeld

We live in a dark and romantic and quite tragic world. — Karl Lagerfeld

If I could be reincarnated as a fashion accessory, it would be a shopping bag. — Karl Lagerfeld

Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English
but are great in remembering signs — Karl Lagerfeld

Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stability — Karl Lagerfeld

I am a sort of vampire, taking the blood of other people. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm a very down-to-earth person, but it is my job to make that earth more pleasant. — Karl Lagerfeld

I never go anywhere. I do sketches and make phone calls, and people visit. It's more fun to come to Paris. — Karl Lagerfeld

Bears are very nice, as long as you are nice to them. — Karl Lagerfeld

Buy what you don't have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping. — Karl Lagerfeld

My only ambition in life ... is to wear size 28 jeans. — Karl Lagerfeld

I don't do meetings. — Karl Lagerfeld

I am not a fashion victim. Fashion is my victim. — Karl Lagerfeld

To reinvent a newly impeccable you in the most modern of outfits, don't skip on makeup and be sure to have flawless skin and hair. That will have more impact than expensive clothes. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm very much down to earth, just not this earth. — Karl Lagerfeld

I forget nothing and then, one day, there will be revenge. Innocence isn't exactly everywhere. But I will say innocence also takes you far in photography. — Karl Lagerfeld

I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes
it's about all kinds of change — Karl Lagerfeld

I have no scene, I
go everywhere, I adapt — Karl Lagerfeld

I've only wanted paper and beautiful colors. It was my dream, and it still is my dream. And books. They're all I need, and the rest I can do without. — Karl Lagerfeld

The motivation is doing for doing, not [for] having done, — Karl Lagerfeld

I have one instinct stronger than any other thing in life, and that is the instinct for survival. — Karl Lagerfeld

I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm like a rock singer with one-night stands on the road. — Karl Lagerfeld

You cannot fight against it. There's a price you have to pay for fame, and people who don't want to pay that price can get in trouble. I accepted the idea of celebrity because of a French expression: 'You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter.' — Karl Lagerfeld

I like to reinvent myself - it's part of my job. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm not an employee who goes to the office every morning at the same time. Then, vacations are needed. — Karl Lagerfeld

People can drink with their eyes; I can eat with my nose. — Karl Lagerfeld

No, I'm not a French designer either. I'm from nowhere. I'm a European, old European is all I am. — Karl Lagerfeld

Black-and-white always looks modern, whatever that word means. — Karl Lagerfeld

You were never told that Saint-Tropez is paradise? — Karl Lagerfeld

I didn't play with other children. — Karl Lagerfeld

Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret for the next step. — Karl Lagerfeld

There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married - who divorce in three seconds - don't want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married. — Karl Lagerfeld

Seduction is, first and foremost, an art form. And seduction should not always be treated as a wild celebration. In fact, it's more of an evocation of what you do. It's more an evocation of seduction. — Karl Lagerfeld

Sunglasses are like eye shadow: They make everything look younger and pretty — Karl Lagerfeld

I imagine the world from my window ... Traveling, I think it's a nightmare today. The airports and things the people in the street with the selfies ... I like to stay at home and read. — Karl Lagerfeld

My opinion can be completely different after a show. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm totally myself. — Karl Lagerfeld

Music is part of the life of fashion, too. — Karl Lagerfeld

Why should I stop working? If I do, I'll die and it'll all be finished. — Karl Lagerfeld

It's up to you to make everyday as perfect as possible.
It's a question of will and discipline. — Karl Lagerfeld

I have moved to a smaller house in Paris, and I don't fancy having so much staff now. — Karl Lagerfeld

I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door. — Karl Lagerfeld

I don't eat bubble gum, but I like the smell. — Karl Lagerfeld

I don't have any stress. I'm very lucky. I live a very healthy life. — Karl Lagerfeld

If you attach no importance to weight problems, if not being able to wear new, trendy small-sized clothes does not cause you any regret, this book is not for you. — Karl Lagerfeld

You have to like the present; if not your life becomes secondhand, if you think it was better before. Or that it will be better in the future. — Karl Lagerfeld

There are so many third-rate people now who are more famous than people who should be famous, but sometimes people who could or should be famous are very boring, too. — Karl Lagerfeld

Yes, and I can sit down on a white piece of paper and work because I don't believe too much into inspiration, only I'm waiting for inspiration, work and then inspiration may come. It's a little too easy to say that. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm a working-class person, working with class. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm kind of fascist with myself, you know. — Karl Lagerfeld

I hated the company of other children. I wanted to be a grownup person, to be taken seriously. I hated the idea of childhood; I thought it was a moment of endless stupidity. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm an iPod person. — Karl Lagerfeld

I only know how to play one role: me. — Karl Lagerfeld

I have now exactly the same weight I had when I was 18, 20. — Karl Lagerfeld

We built everything - toilets included. I think those islands in the middle of nowhere are quite poetic. It's kind of an Oriental Atlantis. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm all self-taught. I never had a teacher. Even for English, and French, and German, I hardly went to school. — Karl Lagerfeld

Youthfulness is about how you live not when you were born. — Karl Lagerfeld

Absurdity and anti - absurdity are the two poles of creative energy. — Karl Lagerfeld

Life is not a beauty contest, some [ugly people] are great. What I hate is nasty, ugly people ... the worst is ugly, short men. Women can be short, but for men it is impossible. It is something that they will not forgive in life ... they are mean and they want to kill you. — Karl Lagerfeld

I have no human feelings. — Karl Lagerfeld

For me, New York is comfortable, not strange. — Karl Lagerfeld

I'm very happy that I have an Italian version, a French version, and then I have my own company, but I'm not obsessed by my name. Some people are, "Oh, my name," but I couldn't care less about my name. What I like is the job. The ego trip of that comes later. — Karl Lagerfeld

You have to lead your life according to your ideas. Spend all your money and live life in line with what you are fighting for. I hate it when rich people try to be Communists. I think that's obscene. — Karl Lagerfeld

Doing collections, doing fashion is like a non-stop dialogue. — Karl Lagerfeld

Truth is only a question of point of view. — Karl Lagerfeld

Don't overact the story of your name. Overact the story of your work. — Karl Lagerfeld

I think it's horrible that people have to be told. Don't smoke! Everybody knows it's bad for the health. But they have to forbid it. — Karl Lagerfeld

People in magazines are 50% bimbo and 50% pregnant women. — Karl Lagerfeld

It's great that in life you do something that you want to do because you like doing it and you're not bored. I'm not bored at all. I'm even interested in lots of things, more so today than before. — Karl Lagerfeld