Karl Lagerfeld on why fashion rivals who don't draw their own designs are 'fake intellectuals'

He also described Kendall Jenner as a 'nice kid' and talks about photographing her sister Kim
Kendall Jenner, Karl Lagerfeld and Cara Delevingne
Pixelformula/SIPA/Rex
Alistair Foster15 August 2017

Karl Lagerfeld has accused some of his fashion rivals of not drawing their own designs and being "fake intellectuals".

The designer refuses to name names but said his success was down to him sketching everything himself and, in the notoriously catty fashion world, being "quite polite".

Last year, Victoria Beckham admitted she used a team of artists to sketch her designs, while Kate Moss, who has had numerous collections with Topshop, has said: "I can’t draw a dress."

Lagerfeld, 83, says: "I don’t do a computer, I don’t have a studio [with] 20 people sketching. I sketch myself everything and I’m pretty good at it because I wanted to become an illustrator at the beginning."

Chanel SS17 at Paris Fashion Week

1/34

"Today it’s very different. First of all some of the younger designers are not that young. And also you know they are art directors - I’m not an art director - so they have people, and then they make a choice, and then they go out after the show and make believe they did it all. It’s the way every studio is organised today. But not mine."

He says some designers take themselves too seriously, telling CNBC’s Tania Bryer: "I don’t give you names… but the list is not that short."

"What I don’t like are designers who are fake intellectuals and who call themselves, ‘We are very intellectual.’ No, no, no. Dress-making is dressmaking. Philosophy is philosophy but you don’t have to mix it. I’m easy to work with because I’m quite polite... some are not. They are nice [and] conserved for the outside."

He describes Kendall Jenner as a "nice kid," and says of photographing the model and her sister Kim Kardashian: "I photographed them before... there was no problem at all because if you have to photograph famous people - and I will say something pretentious - if you are vaguely famous yourself it is much easier.”

The CNBC Conversation airs at 8pm tonight.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in