WHITE PAPER WORK - THE NEW MODESTY A LA KARL

hautecouturechanel09chanelhautecouture09chanelhautecouture1karllagerfeldchanelkatharinakowalewskikarllagerfeld __ Interview with Karl Lagerfeld__

Katharina Kowalewski meets Karl Lagerfeld after his Haute Couture Show to chat about VIP front rows, house cleaning and Japanese talent.

We met one year ago I hope you still remember me? Yes of cause – (laughs) you are taller than all the others.

What was your statement with this show as it was so special for everyone sitting in here? People were fascinated by this collection and it was a more intimate atmosphere than in the Grand Palais. How was it for you? You know when I am working I have no time to think, but I am happy you told me that. You know the sitting arrangement was „how to avoid the front row story?” So, there is no front row. There are only tables. It’s like being in a nightclub and as it is a nightclub that has never opened before there is no VIP corner. Nobody knows where the VIP corner could be because there was no time to make a VIP corner. The VIP club was my favourite nightclub in Paris (laughs) – but this is a one-night stand or one day stand party and I think it’s a good idea to sitting down here. I think this you can only do for couture, because there are not as many people as for ready-to-wear. Ready-to-wear is a little different. Sand I was happy that this time the Grand Palais – where normally is he show- wasn’t free, because they have a photo exhibition there. The scale for this is kind of perfect. This kind of scale would have been lost in a huge thing and I like the – if we can talk about it - intimacy and privacy of this room like a kind of fragility and a very very pure touch of the white paper - the cut out. You know this all had to be done. I didn’t do it myself. I had the idea but I was not sitting there otherwise there would not have been any collection. You know the white page of a writer is also the white page of a designer.

But you wrote a lot on it? I don’t write I sketch.

What kind of materials did you use? Paper, paper. You know this show was mostly paper. It’s not exactly paper it becomes something different. Some of it was a treat – like paper woven into cotton and something like this. I wanted nothing else in that. This is very elegant luxury, because it is fragile. It’s luxury for the rich not fort he nouveaux rich. You know old money.

Haute couture is getting smaller but you’re getting bigger? I don’t know what kind of diet the others have, I don’t know. How it is in the other houses. You know Chanel has the biggest Haute Couture clientele in the word.

Was this special collection more work than the other collections? I don’t carry around a watch that tells me how much time a collection takes and how much work. You do what you can do when you can do it. You know I am helped by marvellous people. It’s team work. It’s a job I love to do. I am lucky I can do it in the most perfect conditions with no budget restriction.

Was your budget not even bigger than for the other collections in this time of recession? I never was told or asked I don’t now what it means. The owner of Chanel came to me and said: “2009 – no problem for you – you do whatever you want”. You know I don’t care about budget.

What was your inspiration behind this collection? Cleaning. House cleaning. Taking the trash out. A new beginning. The paper work in the set on the hats was all made by a Japanese hairdresser called Katsuya Kamo – He made also the flowers. I of cause made the sketches – but to make it you need Japanese fingers. I send sketches and the week before they all came to Paris and they worked on the floor side twenty hours a day, because in those countries the motivation is a little different. They made all this it was magic! I mean we were looking with an open mouth on the way they glued it and they cut it out. It was very very impressive.

Which way Haute couture is going right now? I only know the real of Chanel; I don’t know the real of the others. So, on general ideas of the business – I only take care for my personal Chanel Haute Couture. The Haute Couture will remain important for he image and for the prestige.