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.
Interpretation
The quote reflects the idea of evolving and redefining a legacy.
In this quote, Karl Lagerfeld emphasizes the importance of innovation and personal interpretation within the context of the fashion brand Chanel, which was originally established by Coco Chanel. He acknowledges that while staying true to the brand's heritage, he feels a responsibility to transform it for modern times and make it relevant in a changing world, marking a clear distinction between past and future directions in fashion.
In practice
In a fashion seminar discussing legacy brands and innovation.
I believe in sketching because there is something very sensitive in sketching, you know, in sketches that you don't have out of a computer that looks the same like everybody even if, later on, the dresses are OK, but I like to sketch, and I like to see trails made after my sketches that look the same. It is you know, what I like.
I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.
If I could be reincarnated as a fashion accessory, it would be a shopping bag.
Chic is a kind of mayonnaise, either it tastes, or it doesn't.
Why should I stop working? If I do, I'll die and it'll all be finished. 'm lucky to work in the most perfect of conditions. I can do what I want in all kinds of areas. The expenses are not expenses. I would be stupid to stop that. Work is making a living out of being bored.
Elegance has nothing to do with fashion.
There are mothers who sew for six months to make a fashion collection - someone's grandmother, someone's sister. We come in and get paid to walk for 10 minutes at the end. Whenever I think about that, I realise it's not about me. I was just the one chosen to represent those women and sell the clothes.
It's not true that clothes look better on skinny girls; what counts is the attitude.
I love black dresses. I think everyone should own a lot, but black dresses don't sell online because on the computer they don't read like anything.
It's not about what it looks like in the studio or on the runway. It's what it looks like on a real person that matters.
Fashion can be about escapism but I have always been interested in the aspirational side of it - wanting to present the self you hope eventually to become.
Buy less. Choose well. Make it last. Quality, not quantity. Everybody's buying far too many clothes.
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