Iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died in February 2019 after a period of ill health.
Instantly recognisable for his distinctive style and aesthetic, the German style icon was also known for his acerbic wit.
Here are a few of our favourite quotes from the legend to remember Lagerfeld and his enormous life.
On work and success
“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."
"Work is making a living out of being bored."
“There's a price you have to pay for fame, and people who don't want to pay that price can get in trouble. I accepted the idea of celebrity because of a French expression: 'You cannot have the butter and the money for the butter.'"
“A sense of humour and a little lack of respect: that’s what you need to make a legend survive.”
"I remember a designer who said that intelligent women don't wear her dresses. Obviously, she went bankrupt."
"If you throw money out of the window throw it out with joy. Don’t say: 'one shouldn’t do that' - that is bourgeois."
On fashion
"Vanity is the healthiest thing in life."
“Never use the world ‘cheap’. Today everybody can look chic in inexpensive clothes (the rich buy them too). There is good clothing design on every level today. You can be the chicest thing in the world in a T-shirt and jeans - it’s up to you.”
“Beauty—or the desire to be beautiful—is in itself a dangerous motivation. Someone (I forgot who) once said, ‘Does the person who loves someone for their beauty really love them?’ So don’t focus on beauty . . . a respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul. It is the sum of our experiences that makes us interesting, and having been through a time in your life in which you were in a bad place (or what you perceived as a bad place) physically can be useful. It can even be necessary.”
"There are not too many people with an opinion I care for. I'm not crazy to discuss fashion with men. I couldn't care less about their opinion.”
“Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.”
"Chic is a kind of mayonnaise, either it tastes, or it doesn't."
"I am a kind of fashion nymphomaniac who never gets an orgasm."
“I think everyone should go to bed like they have a date at the door.”
“Elegance is an attitude.”
"Life is not a beauty contest, some ugly people are great. What I hate is nasty, ugly people. The worst is ugly, short men. Women can be short, but for men it is impossible. It is something that they will not forgive in life... they are mean and they want to kill you."
“A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soul."
On himself
"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."
“When I was four, I asked my mother for a valet for my birthday.”
“The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.”
“I’m very much down to earth. Just not this earth.”
"I don't do selfies. But other people do, and they all want to do selfies with me. No, no, no. We live in a world of selfies now...Thank God, Sébastien, my assistant, he's mean to the people in the street, mean and rude. I'm a nice person."
“When people talk about the good old days, I say to people, 'It's not the days that are old, it's you that's old.' I hate the good old days. What is important is that today is good.”
