From the PEOPLE Archives: Karl Lagerfeld on His Weight Loss, Signature Style and Staying Relevant in Fashion
The legendary fashion designer, who took the reigns at the Chanel Fashion House in 1983, died Tuesday in Paris at the age 85
On Tuesday designer Karl Lagerfeld, the iconic creative director of Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous line, died in Paris at the age of 85. Ever since the news broke there has been a outpouring of love, respect and admiration from the fashion community. Many are remarking on his incredible design abilities, his transformative shows, and of course, his sharp wit.
In addition to being a creative force of fashion (where his tenure at two of the leading design houses is unparalleled by any other in the industry), his personal life and witty remarks will also live on as part of his enduring legacy.
In honor of the late designer, we went back through the archives to uncover a candid interview from 2007 where Lagerfeld opened up about his eating habits, his signature styling choices and why, oh why, he owned 150 iPods at the time.
On his diet
“It’s no real diet. It’s healthy eating, but I eat very little. Cornbread in the morning, toasted. Grilled fish. Grilled vegetables. Twice a week meat. And pineapple and things like that, and a little protein [pointing to his chocolate mousse] sometimes. I don’t know, I manage it in a way where I don’t even understand myself, I only like what I am allowed to eat. The rest for me doesn’t tempt me. Other people they have problem with the diet, they eat, they want chocolate, they want this, but I want nothing! What I can eat, I eat.”
On maintaining his weight loss
“I always stay with it. If you have the feeling that attraction to the earth doesn’t exist, then you float all but six, seven hours at night, you prefer to stay in that state. It’s quite pleasant. I live quite well with myself. I forgot how it was before. I don’t even remember.”
On his signature fingerless gloves
“Good for the glove industry. Really I don’t want to touch a dirty world. All the pollution, all that. It’s not that I have spots on my hands. I like that look. After all, we wear shoes. Why shouldn’t we wear gloves?”
On always wearing sunglasses
“I wear sunglasses to be nice and polite to the world. Tinted glasses make everybody look younger and better. So they shouldn’t ask me to remove them because it takes [off] ten years in a second.”
On hating holidays
“My whole life is a vacation. I’m lucky to work in conditions I like. I hate boredom. I hate unemployment. I hate the emptiness of holidays. Holidays, that’s something you do with children when school is over and you have to take them to the beach. I hate the word ‘holiday’ or ‘cruise’. I like cruise collections but I would never want to take a cruise.”
On his sleep routine
“Seven hours, it’s a good number. I don’t think one has to sleep that much more.”
On not being able to walk outside without being harassed
“Going out means the car, the driver and the bodyguard. I love the idea of walking in the streets but I cannot because of people talking to me. They think as if I were public property. They say, ‘Can I have a photo with you’ and then they pinch your ass. A man my age, it’s unbelievable, no?”
On staying current in fashion
“Being in fashion means you have to be updated with what’s going on in the world. With what’s going on today. It’s normal for me. You don’t ask yourself to breathe — you breathe, you know? I breathe the air of our time of what’s in the air. I’m curious. I want to know. The past we know. Now what’s interesting is tomorrow, I want to know everything. I want to see everything. And if there’s something I don’t understand immediately, I question myself. I don’t like it. But I don’t like people who think they always know better, because no, it’s different. Never compare. Never compete. Especially not your own past with the present. The future we never know what it is. But whenever we start to compare… better or worse doesn’t exist.”
On owning over 100 iPods
“I think I have 150 now. I travel with a little piece of luggage only full of iPods and I have notes behind them so I know what’s on them. I’m not very good on that [uploading songs to iPods], because I’m not very patient. No, thank god I have people for that. I listen to everything. Classical, modern, pop. Everything. Cat Power, everything what’s right for the moment and what’s new. I listen to the CDs first, and then I put on my iPod what I like, what I want to hear again. What I will never want to hear again, I don’t put it on the iPod. So I buy them, because I think that one should buy them.”