I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like a mask. And for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.
Interpretation
The quote expresses the idea of embracing one's persona as a performance or art form.
Karl Lagerfeld's quote reflects the notion of identity as an artifice, suggesting that he enjoys exaggerating aspects of himself, akin to a caricature. By comparing himself to a mask and likening his life to a perpetual carnival, he highlights the playful and theatrical elements of his existence, suggesting that one can find joy and liberation in embracing different facets of their personality.
In practice
In a motivational speech about expressing individuality.
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.
I believe your home tells a story about who you are and who you aspire to be. We represent ourselves through the things we own. I don't believe in trends. I believe in collecting things that you connect with. We should surround ourselves with things we care about, that have meaning.
It was not the story of design or clothes, it was the fantasy of women that made me want to work in fashion.
I had given up ( around 1950, fh) any ambition of making a career as an artistβ¦..I had lost all interest in the art shown in galleries and museums, and I no longer aspired to fit in that world. I loved the paintings done by children, and my only desire was to do the same for my own pleasure.
An artist may have burdens the ordinary citizen doesn't know, but the ordinary citizen has burdens that many artists never even touch.
Anyone who has ever been privileged to direct a film also knows that, although it can be like trying to write 'War and Peace' in a bumper car in an amusement park, when you finally get it right, there are not many joys in life that can equal the feeling.
Nothing I force myself to write about ever turns out well, and so I've learned to wait for the voice, the incident, the image that reverberates.
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