Karl Lagerfeld on The Exchange with Amanda Lang

legendary iconic and instantly recognizable few people have dominated an industry the way Karl Lagerfeld has dominated fashion his leadership of some of Couture's best-known brands has established him as one of the most successful and charismatic designers of modern times welcome to Toronto even in his 70s he still causes a commotion wherever he goes always a standout in his signature sunglasses high colored shirts and pony tail in Canada for the first time to show off his latest creative endeavor Lagerfeld is designing the lobby of Toronto's latest condominium development owners are keen to connect with his international cachet while lending the launch party a little star power this creative chameleon has stretched his stylings beyond fashion before designing everything from hotels to coins even coke bottles he's a photographer filmmaker publisher costume designer and advertising creative director but it is his clothes that count the most leading some of the world's top luxury labels like Chanel where he's worked for more than 30 years Fendi of Italy and his own Lagerfeld label while some of his work costs as much as a car he's in tune with trends like fast and affordable fashion designing lines for low budget chain H&M creating what he calls accessible luxury Lagerfeld's condo lobby is just the latest twist in a lengthy career when I caught up with him I wanted to know why he chose this Toronto project I have never been in Canada and I wanted to go one day to Canada but I need a professional reason I'm not a tourist I hate to be a tourist I feel like an idiot of a tourist so I did so many houses for myself that I can hardly add any because I even had houses where I never spent one day and I like interior design but not for other private people so I saw this idea was quite funny because you know it's not the first time I do that I did a similar thing in Taiwan and I'm doing a huge hotel in Macau but where I do all the rooms everything but in Taiwan I do the same thing here the only one apartment and you know to show people how it could be and the lobby huh and also the I did the facade to the wood building it was different about this kind of design architecture interior design from what your you know it's different it's not different because the technique is completely different but as I was already interested in architecture designing all that for me it's something very personal at the same time like fashion I don't have to think that it's something I have never done or what it's an unknown kind of thing for me no I feel very at ease with it and I have an instant vision of what I could do so - and would do maybe it's on potential but for me it's a project I can easily identify with and to put your name on it you must trust that it will be a quality project yes but I mean I put my name or things I like so I don't have to hide my name it's not some oral project I mean they have possibly to make something beautiful so why not my idea what I think they should do and it's still early is in my own eyes and for my own standard good enough that I can put my name on it I don't do jobs by my name could not appear because I never do and you as you say it's all the same process yeah what is that what is that thing creativity to you that is the same from photography to fashion to architecture very difficult to explain because nobody else really that is the same way so I don't know it happened one after the other and it melt it all together and became something what helps me for everything one helps the other it's a very strange thing I cannot and I don't want to analyze too much are you ever insecure about your creativity ever uncertain that you will be able to produce the kind of work no no no people who are very much to burnout and those stuff today you know I have a position in life in terms of work what is so pleasant that it's very difficult to be that difficult and thinking that's too much I have great people working with me unbelievable team some people who for 30 40 years worked with me and never back for somebody else so this is like some Swiss watch you see huh so III don't even what you ask me even the question what isn't on my mind you're definitely on the record saying you want to look forward exactly you know in session what I like it's next step next step six months six months six months now it's even three months because there's so many connections the crew that the media diets and all that but I think it's a healthy way of doing for people like me if the other thing it's too much for their creativity that's their problem that not mine so is it really invention that you do if it's the next thing if it's always forward yes yes I'm never pleased of what I did I always hope that I can do better that the next time it will be better I consider myself lazy I mean Cortez is ridiculous but thank God I'm like this and yet at this point it's impossible almost not to look back at what you've done and what you've achieved and but I don't think about that time you know huh for me I'm already the beginner the next connection is always the first the sketch I make it always the first you know that I don't work that way and what shouldn't work that way I sing so what is the starting point for you when you design is there a moment is it a sketch what's the moment that begins that creative process it's sometimes it's sometimes it's very different because of the there are no rules either you know some time I have idea into all these places and then I have to run to find a paper to put the idea on the paper it because I can forget it it's a very strange thing you know and it should stay is wrenching because it's not a recipe there are no rules for this kind of thing people can't learn from what karl lagerfeld us oh no you have to be myself alone for me you talked about the pace now three months is fast fashion at yes it's like fast food but I mean you know it's very often the cuckoo has done by other workers and there's ready-to-wear so it's not that faster for them it's fast for me but for the Atelier that we're going to work it's not that faster and also you know they have big people like Chanel they have the biggest go to operations work over 250 workers in the integral from doing the clients of nobody has that nobody huh there is a sense though that fashion is more accessible now even at the highest end people want to feel like they can yes but you know what I think it's great that you know I did HTM the first designer eh and I'm very happy to do that because there was a kind of misunderstanding specially with my own label because the people who we're behind it because I never business my hate business I mean I like business to be good but not run by me it's not my job it's a job for everybody and this is not part of my job so so they always wanted to be in competition with Fendi what does LVMH or with Chanel but you know then they have to invest billions but then or not always ready they want to begin to come and without investing it that doesn't exist and I always wanted seen as I'm vaguely popular to say it in the very modest way to do something also people who like fashion who can buy it with not as too expensive and this is what I wanted the lack of a label to be so I would like the idea of being a designer or different levels and I think I cope quite well isn't either do you prefer one to the other the one that is no no you know you know when you start to have a preference you have to forget about it no no no I don't prefer photography to fashion I don't prefer fashion to making books because I'm a publisher - no no there's all different job and at the same time when you start to think this I prefer to listen no no it has to be a kind of same level but different I never mix things up it is very strange when I add Fendi I don't remember what I'm doing at Chanel but I don't remember what I'm doing it Lago part of what I'm doing at Venice bass string so that's why I never make the same stuff because I don't care the people think oh it's typically for him maybe it is but I'm not the designer who needs his name attached to the labor like some you know SunEdison everybody knows that I'm doing Sun air that's all when you're doing we think of those in the business world as brands yeah do you find that offensive that it's a brand that has its own kind of identity that you need to protect what whether it's Chanel or Fendi right offensive well because you are different from designers that have before no one is the way I wanted yeah oh no no they love me the way I wanted I work for a label a member but they used to call him a thin air you know a hired gun Karl Lagerfeld has kept his Pitt place atop the notoriously fickle world of fashion for more than 60 years after evolving and always unmistakable he's synonymous with style and sophistication leica fells latest chanel show is as always a major media event every look every move choreographed every eye looking for this year's silhouette Lagerfeld's public image is polished even posed for all the scrutiny the man behind the sunglasses remains mostly a mystery born in Hamburg Germany in 1938 Lagerfeld soon found himself in Paris winning awards and work with top talent his first break was being hired by celebrated designer Pierre Balmain he never looked back in 1983 he was lucky enough to be hired by Chanel founder Coco Chanel's decline had left the brand in need of rejuvenation Lagerfeld not only turned Chanel around but built it into the largest Couture business in the world he's still in charge today his life seems like one big party not many can celebrate decades of success and celebrity while remaining relevant I wanted to know more about the man and his motivations and which of the lucky breaks he's had matters most to him you know I'm that stupid obviously if you like interested to come I don't know you know I never seen that way I made so many efforts to forget even the good things in the thing were not said quite that I don't live that way because the minute you start to think that was the best no no the best are still to come because always I think I can say improve I can feel better you know maybe it's ridiculous but thank God that's the way I am there is a hunger to improve and do better ya know III like this job because I like to go ahead and the drop and have more knowledge to know the technique better and everything and you know don't forget I can do those things in the best of conditions there's one what what doesn't exist no huh never has protected the path but the people I work now with they are successful enough that that world has to be officer you're not a marketing person I improvise I totally improvised but maybe that's better than marketing as a job I think so me too you're a success are built over one thing that's healthy if not you know too much too early it's very very dangerous sir too much hype for young designers can kill them huh oh no no that's very dangerous because when I was young being young was not the best thing in the world because you hadn't proved that you are good so you had to battle in a way to get accepted and I think that's a good thing today even for very little they can think they are geniuses but the drama is they have to stage geniuses do you'll enjoy the celebrity that comes with your craft you know it's a very valuation expression they said you cannot have the butter and the money of the butter so it is what it is there are pleasant moments and they're very unpleasant moments so you know you have to cope with it but I hardly go into the street so I don't really serve up on that my public appearances go from your daughter car you can't go on the street really no that's over it's my fault I'm too easy to identify and then they want selfies and I hate to reshape it with unknown people because I don't want to be on the telephone so I don't have to be rude either celebrity has changed yeah in the last few years yeah it was for the worse that D'Amato and brother debated huh we cannot even discuss it one thing that does come with celebrity now it seems with people like you your fellow designers is that that your public doesn't want to see you just as a designer they want to know what you think about things and they want you not to be controversial on things that's fair more less I've seen a view of yours that you don't believe in gay marriage you don't support it know if some of your fans found that offensive do they have a right to find that offensive what can I do but does not such a problem and I'm too easel ated the same way to really suffer from that time hmm I live in a tower but not an ivory tower because I live in it in a high building but I can capture everything what's going on like a TV until are you serious I like to be informed I love to to read newspapers to look at news and think that I like really to be informed in fact you probably need to be in order to be the invention oh and I don't watch TV that much because I prefer to imagine things that I mostly watch news and things like this because everything's interesting and even politics are interesting good or bad but in a way they have an influence on fashion - are you are you happy does your creativity give you joy no you are happy as long as you don't ask yourself this kind of questions or get the mast exactly huh you know but you know what happy means I can do what I want in the best of circumstances if people are not happy with that then they have to have a look somewhere else and what do you want what's on the list that you haven't yet done anything civilian to think but there's a little thing I have not gifted for I would lose my time and think like this no you know what I'm doing is perfect with me fashion photography books the rest other people can do is I'm not needed say huh that's why this project what is on the borderline of what I'm doing it's interesting because it opens another door is there anything you've tried to do that you stopped and thought I'm not going to be good at this in the design world I don't even have to tell myself I know that by instinct and so you don't do it yeah no no when I feel it's not good for me I wouldn't do it no no no no if I don't feel it imma do it and I have to you know if I could say something but I don't have to make a living so that's different I can make the choice in things I'm into I think it's interesting huh it's hard I know you don't like to look back but it's hard not to ask somebody like you who gone from Balmain to hmm yes maybe that's a great thing that I could do and can do in most inexpensive I didn't say that sheet because I hate that well to the most expensive but man I was a young assistant that's I don't even have to remember huh but now I think it's fun that I could do hmm at the same time the most expensive clothes in the world - Chanel could you I mean it's quite a scale and in your time how fashion changed what time in the time that you began designing tentative fashion exchanges mother the world woman have sent a good thing it's like on another planet but you don't feel that because it comes slowly but in fact it's like it was on or 2 or 20 years ago do you think about technology at all and yes social that's very important you know even for addresses and clothes away I made today you have to be informed about everything that's very exciting because it's interesting to work with materials you had never had before oh no no no and I like iPods I like iPhone I like all the worst things of today and does that shape your designs in a way in a way you know it's not an influence where I can say this shapes my design but I think there is a kind of general confusion of everything and out of that comes something what is your work and your collections and when you talk about how things are made the technology that makes them the places they may be made is that exciting to think about for instance where if you're doing something for H&M that's made somewhere much less expensively then you know this is I know it's very strange I do it without telling myself to do it that way that way it comes naturally you know I'm not a machine I'm somebody with a strange instinct who can adopt to all kinds of situations without making an effort in that area for the rest I don't make a force and will you ever slow down is there ever will you ever just stop no we don't think about those things it starts with me the entries me but I don't have this kind of ideas you know all my contracts are life long so I have to die on the job and that's what you want I love to like on the battlefield greater but not in a hurry you have a place in history no question I don't know myself I don't know the only person who will never know it's me so forget about it huh you know I'm not I really don't care about posterity there are a lot of people who were very famous and did in their days and totally forgotten and they may people who are we're hardly known as they're that it became the most famous man in question is painted there very few people knew him the famous one by people like Boog things like this who are more less forgotten now you'll see no no this is you know it they're people who can survive but there are people who can be become more important after but not in fashion because that's another area fashion is not painting and it's not art fashion is an applied art and you're looking forward alright good we'll leave it there thank you so much thank you

Channel: CBC News

Views: 113,612

Keywords: CBC News, CBCNews, CBC broadcasting media, public broadcasting news, Canadian News, Canadian Broadcasting Corportation (TV network), CBC News Network

Id: tC5V8ox7K8Q

Length: 18min 28sec (1108 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 24 2015