Karl Lagerfeld

“I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern.”

“Reinvent new combinations of what you already own. Improvise. Become more creative. Not because you have to, but because you want to. Evolution is the secret for the next step.”

“Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.”

“The secret to modeling is not being perfect. What one needs is a face that people can identify in a second. You have to be given what’s needed by nature, and what’s needed is to bring someth...”

“Fashion is about going ahead, not about memory.”

“I do my job like I breathe — so if I can’t breathe I’m in trouble.”

“Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite.”

“I had an interview once with some German journalist—some horrible, ugly woman. It was in the early days after the communists—maybe a week after—and she wore a yellow sweater that was kind of...”

“The elegance is as physical, as moral quality that has nothing common with the clothing. You can see a countrywoman more elegant than one so called elegant woman.”

“Forgiveness isn’t something I’m preoccupied with — turning the other cheek isn’t my trip.”

“I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon.”

“Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore – and then you get something out of her”

“Fashion does not have to prove that it is serious. It is the proof that intelligent frivolity can be something creative and positive”

“The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engine”

“For me, Chanel is like music. There are certain notes and you have to make another tune with them”

“Success nullifies. You then have to do it again, preferably differently”

“For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.”

“Youthfulness is about how you live not when you were born.”

“I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.”

“There are less than 1 per cent of anorexic girls, but there more than 30 per cent of girls in France - I don't know about England - that are much, much overweight. And it is much more danger...”