Karl Lagerfeld is a great fan of technology, despite not using it himself (he has people to do that for him). He explained to the Business of Fashion, “I don’t use [computers and things] because, as I said before, I use my brain and it’s up to me to imagine — I don’t want to have ready-made images. I want to see images of my imagination.” (Actually, we’d rather see that, too — can someone make an app? Like, “In Karl Lagerfeld’s Imagination”? You certainly wouldn’t have to think very hard about theme music!) “There is no touch of what is considered bad taste or bad design [with technology], because bad design is bad taste today,” the Kaiser continued. “They are flawless in a way. Facebook is a flawless object it’s for me like a Brancusi.” Karl also stressed the importance of staying current: “You have to read the newspaper — I like paper better than screens for that.”
And while Tom Ford has been running around talking about how the Internet’s immediacy would ruin his clothes for his customers, Karl would disagree. In fact, people won’t not want a Chanel bag just because other people have known what it’s looked like for a long time. When asked if the Internet ruins fashion’s exclusivity, Karl replied, “Expensive things of high quality are exclusive by the price. So the copies — it’s not good to make copies, perhaps. But if you touch it, if you are used to luxury, if you are used to buying couture or even expensive ready-to-wear, all this is unnecessary to say because the quality makes it that. Luxury is luxury, and copies are not luxuries, so it’s completely different.” He also reminds us that the word luxury is overused. Anyone can save up and buy a Chanel bag, but that doesn’t mean they’re luxurious people. “Tons of people who buy that don’t have a life that you can call a life of luxury … private jets and all this. In fact, real luxury is limited to very, very few people.” And just because people see pictures of clothes on the Internet in advance of their release, that doesn’t mean they will all of a sudden start flyin’ first class and livin’ their lives like truly luxurious people. They’ll still be poor by comparison and probably never wear that stuff anyway! Hear more from Karl in the video.
Quotable | Speaking about Technology, Karl Lagerfeld says Facebook is a “Flawless Object” [BoF]
