Lagerfeld Confidential Page #2

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"You're 6 years old.

Make an effort or shut up."

Was she loving?

Most likely.

She wasn't an abusive mother.

She was relatively distant,

her favour had to be earned.

Not the abusive type

who smothers you and kisses you.

I'd have hated that.

I wouldn't have swapped her.

I thought she was great.

Other mothers seemed stupid.

It's time.

Are you a loyal friend?

Yes. Although my friendship

mustn't be abused.

I don't remain friends come what may.

I have a view of things.

Friendship is like love.

You can't take things for granted.

You need a sword of Damocles

hanging over a relationship.

That shows how good it is.

Both of us have to make an effort.

Because indifference is just...

Friendship is often used to describe

something you're indifferent about.

You mustn't trivialise these things.

With people you really care about,

you need a certain tension

in the day-to-day relationship,

otherwise it becomes trivial

and I don't want that.

Thanks for your help.

See you tomorrow...

The ballet with the dresses is good.

I've seen it 3 times.

As I was telling someone.

I could dance the thing.

We've seen you do it 3 times.

As I told one of the dancers.

I like the choreographer a lot.

I know him.

I photographed him 2 years ago.

Cherkaoui?

Yes.

Cute as anything.

Le Millefiori.

Do you want to eat

before leaving tomorrow?

All right.

Goodnight, Sir.

See you tomorrow.

See you later...

After a while, you have to stop

boozing and go to bed early.

I'd hate to die in perfect health!

You're lucky.

Goodbye, Karl.

I'll be able to lunch outside.

Would you like fruit?

This one, you can open...

I don't know what that's like.

This is for Madame Gallico.

These two we'll take back to Paris.

We'll put these two away...

That's for Madame Clotilde,

and her daughter...

Madame Gallico...

Princess Antoinette and her daughter.

I'll write a card for this and this.

Your cushion...

It's so old and worn,

I put it in a case.

My nanny made it for me.

It had a train on it.

I've always had a nervous stomach,

in cars and on trains.

Even as a child.

I have to put something here.

Weird, isn't it?

But it's in rags now.

It had "bon voyage" on it.

Not any more.

Why is it in a case?

There's hardly any of it left.

Look, there are marks but nothing there.

You can see the train...

You've had it since you were ten?

That's what's so funny.

I hate travelling without it.

You put it on your stomach...

I can't stand air conditioning.

Even in cars.

Even if it's 40C, I have to sleep

with something on my stomach.

It must be hereditary because

my father suffered from it as well.

Weird, isn't it?

If I sleep without something

on my stomach,

I feel dreadfully sick.

Check.

Anti-ice.

Check.

Off.

Rotation...

Activate lift.

- Undercarriage up.

At what age

did you begin to feel...

You were still in Germany

when you began to feel,

let's say, the beginnings

of a certain orientation...

Spit it out or change the subject.

I don't know.

There again, you see,

the story has no great worth.

When I was 11 and I heard

about homosexuality,

which is what you mean, judging

by the hesitancy and strange looks

when you asked the question.

My mother said it wasn't an issue,

it was like the colour of your hair.

So where's the problem?

But I didn't exactly live

in a backwater.

I was active quite young.

But that's a private matter.

A lot of people say when you reach 20...

No, that's hypocritical.

No, I was practising

by the time I was 13.

I knew earlier.

But it didn't seem important.

I didn't see the issue.

It was accepted.

My half-sister was a lesbian

so it didn't matter.

She was expelled from schools

for sleeping with the teachers.

It was common knowledge,

so we were hardly news.

I don't know anything about

my parents' past.

They'd been through the mill a bit

in their youth:

my father in Vladivostok

and my mother in Berlin in the 20s.

They were no angels.

They were cool.

It wasn't discussed.

It wasn't a family of bigots

with a sense of sin.

No, but it was an age when people...

Well-oriented desires?

No, no, I told them everything.

I told them. And I remember

one summer when I was 11 or 12

I was assaulted by

both a man and a woman.

The Germans are rather like that.

The first thing I did was tell my mother.

Guess what she said.

"It's your own fault.

Look at you."

"Be more discreet and it won't

happen. It's your own fault!"

Nowadays there would be court cases,

sexual harassment,

paedophilia, the lot.

It's your own fault.

Look at you.

Which is much better.

When you see kids parading around brashly,

talking beyond their years,

dressed eccentrically,

people are bound to feel at liberty,

if it's their inclination...

I remember, we had a literature teacher...

He said,

"Have you read 'Death In Venice'?"

I replied,

"Do you think I'm so pathetic?"

Do you want me to tell my father

the kind of literature

you recommend to pupils?

He went bright red!

It happens, right?

It's a chance to...

I had a relatively ideal childhood

in times that were less than ideal.

People forget that now.

My impression is that,

when you were young...

maybe you were lucky

but it was pretty modern.

If anyone has been lucky, it's me.

I never studied or

got any qualifications.

I'm a complete improvisation.

I'm not even reliable.

Although I work hard.

You do work hard.

But I hate hard workers.

Things must appear to be casual.

You have to be serious

but don't flaunt it.

Like being politically correct:

be so but don't go on about it.

Pissing everywhere isn't very Chanel

The bag has to be stuffed,

I need to see it.

I have no imagination.

The chain looks nice, Laetitia.

It's good.

Only they put it on the wrong side.

It's not in the collection,

so I can wear it.

Can't they alter it?

They'd better.

It's the fourth time.

They might not have the leather.

They can do it all again.

Four times they got it wrong!

I started with Chanel

in 1982 with the first

haute couture collection.

January 1983.

It's so long ago

I can barely remember.

When I took on Chanel,

it was a sleeping beauty.

Not even a beautiful one.

She snored.

But the owners knew that.

That's why they called me.

They saw that respect doesn't sell.

Respect never works.

So I was to revive a dead woman

who most people believed

to be definitively dead.

I was told,

"Don't do it, it'll never work."

Because the notion of revitalizing

brand names didn't exist in 1983.

What I'm saying isn't arrogant,

it was the reality of the times.

There was no glory in it.

Also, when this happened in the

people said,80s,

"Chanel will turn in her grave."

A good thing too.

It proved she wasn't dead.

A violent reaction is a reaction.

No reaction at all is death.

The floating ribbon is tulle,

which is often why they do it.

Funny how you always frame them.

It's my Vienna Secession side.

Or Toulouse Lautrec.

The Nabi side of things.

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