The Vogue Interview: Karl Lagerfeld

For the November issue of Vogue, Alexandra Shulman met the man who inherited the magic and mythology of Chanel - and made it his own aka Karl Lagerfeld


Lagerfeld at the opening of the Mademoiselle Prive exhibition in London
Picture credit: Rex
FOR three weeks in October, London's Saatchi Gallery will undergo a personality change, morphing from a clinical, white-walled, contemporary-art venue into the richly textured world of Coco Chanel with Mademoiselle Privé, an exhibition of the original designer's stylish orbit. Chanel, who died in 1971, was the woman who created the template for both the business and the lifestyle that so many of today's designers wish to emulate. Her hugely successful creations - the neat bouclé tweed jackets, the braided leather- and chain-handled quilted bags, the double-C logo, the famous perfumes (the list goes on and on) still exist in ever more profitable quantities today. And her glamorous, extravagant existence - with whole mornings spent at maquillage in her permanent suite at the Ritz, exquisite homes, wealthy lovers and legendarily immaculate entertaining - has become part of the compelling mythology which supports this astoundingly successful fashion house.

Since 1983 the Chanel staples have not only continued to be produced but have flourished under the creative direction of a ponytailed German male with a penchant for high starched collars, Chrome Hearts rings, Givenchy and Dior Homme jackets, opaque black sunglasses and vintage Suzanne Belperron diamond tiepins: Karl Lagerfeld. Flip back to July and it is the night before Chanel's couture show. Paris is boiling hot - still 36C at nearly 8pm - and Rue Cambon, where in 1910 Coco opened her first Chanel Modes store, and which remains the epicentre of the house, is lined with chauffeur-driven cars with the Chanel logo in their windows, dropping off and collecting the models and actresses who are attending final fittings for the next day's show.


Picture credit: Getty
Lagerfeld's studio is on the fourth floor, reached via either an unprepossessing small lift or several narrow flights of stairs. In an antechamber there is a table covered with black boxes displaying one piece of diamond jewellery, each with a pink sticky note attached - Geraldine Chaplin, Rita Ora etc. From the next room the commanding English tones of Amanda Harlech can be heard interspersed with Lagerfeld's brisk, gruff bark of a voice with its interrogative "huh" at the end of many of his sentences.

Lagerfeld sits at a large white desk at one end of the room, the surface covered with crayons, iPhones and photographs from the show's press dossier. At one corner of the desk Amanda Harlech is positioned, dressed in Celia Birtwell-print chiffon and smoking a cigarette as she provides a stream of endorsement and repartee. Like a human echo, she amplifies his curt pronouncements, projecting them into the room and back to visitors like myself or, today, the constant parade of actresses and models presenting themselves to Karl for the final verdict.

It is Lagerfeld, with his seemingly unquenchable energy, who has consistently raised the bar for fashion shows, not only creating ever-larger visual spectacles but also adding more to the calendar, such as Chanel's Métiers d'Art - an annual tribute to the rich craftsmanship of the house held in a different city each autumn - and the travelling cruise shows such as that held in Seoul in May. Now other houses have followed suit, to the extent that there is scarcely a month when journalists are not required to travel around the world to an exotic destination to see a single, lavish, publicity-generating fashion show. Asked whether he feels this proliferation of activity - with the accompanying demands on designers to create more and more - is a force for the good, his answer is emphatic.

"If you think it's too many, you don't take those contracts. You know, I hate the designers who take the money and then go, [he gasps theatrically] 'It's too much!' For me, it's normal. But I'm not normal so I don't know. I like to do it. I don't have to force myself." Nor does he care that this original idea has been copied by other labels. "As long as I have done it before. It's OK with me."

Continue reading more from Karl for Vogue here