1
Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you.Karl Lagerfeld
2
The only love that I really believe in is a mother’s love for her children.Karl Lagerfeld
3
We live in a dark and romantic and quite tragic world.Karl Lagerfeld
4
People who say that yesterday was better than today are ultimately devaluing their own existence.Karl Lagerfeld
5
I am a fashion person, and fashion is not only about clothes -- it's about all kinds of changeKarl Lagerfeld
6
A respectable appearance is sufficient to make people more interested in your soulKarl Lagerfeld
7
Don't look to the approval of others for your mental stabilityKarl Lagerfeld
8
In a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish.Karl Lagerfeld
9
Dieting is the only game where you win when you lose!Karl Lagerfeld
10
Clear thinking at the wrong moment can stifle creativity.Karl Lagerfeld
11
We need houses as we need clothes, architecture stimulates fashion. It’s like hunger and thirst – you need them both.Karl Lagerfeld
12
Fashion and music are the same, because music express its period too.Karl Lagerfeld
13
When people want to be liked for what they did, they should stop.Karl Lagerfeld
14
Don’t overact the story of your name. Overact the story of your work.Karl Lagerfeld
15
Stuff your brain with knowledge.Karl Lagerfeld
16
People who do a job that claims to be creative have to be alone to recharge their batteries. You can’t live 24 hours a day in the spotlight and remain creative. For people like me, solitude is a victory.Karl Lagerfeld
17
Fashion is a language that creates itself in clothes to interpret reality.Karl Lagerfeld
18
The woman is the most perfect doll that i have dressed with delight and admiration.Karl Lagerfeld
19
I want everyone to wear what they want and mix it in their own way. That, to me, is what is modern.Karl Lagerfeld
20
Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.Karl Lagerfeld
21
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.Karl Lagerfeld
22
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 something new.Karl Lagerfeld
23
I’m very much down to earth, just not this earth.Karl Lagerfeld
24
Fashion is about going ahead, not about memory.Karl Lagerfeld
25
I do my job like I breathe – so if I can’t breathe I’m in trouble.Karl Lagerfeld
26
Fashion is about two things: the evolution and the opposite.Karl Lagerfeld
27
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 see-through. She had huge tits and a huge black bra, and she said to me, ‘It’s impolite; remove your glasses.’ I said, ‘Do I ask you to remove your bra?Karl Lagerfeld
28
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.Karl Lagerfeld
29
Forgiveness isn’t something I’m preoccupied with – turning the other cheek isn’t my trip.Karl Lagerfeld
30
I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon.Karl Lagerfeld
31
Like poetry, fashion does not state anything. It merely suggestsKarl Lagerfeld
32
Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore — and then you get something out of herKarl Lagerfeld
33
Fashion does not have to prove that it is serious. It is the proof that intelligent frivolity can be something creative and positiveKarl Lagerfeld
34
The French say you get hungry when you’re eating, and I get inspired when I’m working. It’s my engineKarl Lagerfeld
35
For me, Chanel is like music. There are certain notes and you have to make another tune with themKarl Lagerfeld
36
Success nullifies. You then have to do it again, preferably differentlyKarl Lagerfeld
37
For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.Karl Lagerfeld
38
Youthfulness is about how you live not when you were born.Karl Lagerfeld
39
I'm open to everything. When you start to criticize the times you live in, your time is over.Karl Lagerfeld
40
Books are a hard-bound drug with no danger of an overdose. I am the happy victim of books.Karl Lagerfeld
41
Guilty feelings about clothes are totally unnecessary. A lot of people earn their living by making clothes, so you should never feel bad.Karl Lagerfeld
42
Logos and branding are so important. In a big part of the world, people cannot read French or English--but are great in remembering signsKarl Lagerfeld
43
Never use the word “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.Karl Lagerfeld
44
One is never over-dressed or underdressed with a Little Black Dress.Karl Lagerfeld
45
I love classic beauty. It’s an idea of beauty with no standard.Karl Lagerfeld
46
I never touch sugar, cheese, bread.. I only like what I'm allowed to like. I'm beyond temptation. There is no weakness. When I see tons of food in the studio, for us and for everybody, for me it's as if this stuff was made out of plastic. The idea doesn't even enter my mind that a human being could put that into their mouth. I'm like the animals in the forest. They don't touch what they cannot eat.Karl Lagerfeld
47
Fashion is neither moral or immoral, but it is for rebuilding the morale.Karl Lagerfeld
48
If you stick to something doggedly, you are off to a bad start.Karl Lagerfeld
49
You cannot fake chic but you can be chic and fake furKarl Lagerfeld
50
What i like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.Karl Lagerfeld
51
Music gives color to the air of the moment.Karl Lagerfeld
52
Absurdity and anti–absurdity are the two poles of creative energy.Karl Lagerfeld
53
Fashion is ephemeral, dangerous and unfair.Karl Lagerfeld
54
I like to reinvent myself – it’s part of my job.Karl Lagerfeld
55
The i Pod completely changed the way people approach music.Karl Lagerfeld
56
I'm very down to Earth, I'm just not from this Earth.Karl Lagerfeld
57
Respect is not creative ... Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat an institution like a whore – and then you get something out of her.Karl Lagerfeld
58
Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive. I prefer revenge.Karl Lagerfeld
59
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.Karl Lagerfeld
60
Think pink but don't wear itKarl Lagerfeld
61
Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.Karl Lagerfeld
62
Buy what you don’t have yet, or what you really want, which can be mixed with what you already own. Buy only because something excites you, not just for the simple act of shopping.Karl Lagerfeld
63
These are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly. Fashion is about dreams and illusions, and no one wants to see round women.Karl Lagerfeld
64
When I was a child I asked my mother what homosexuality was about and she said - and this was 100 years ago in Germany and she was very open-minded - 'It's like hair color. It's nothing. Some people are blond and some people have dark hair. It's not a subject.' This was a very healthy attitude.Karl Lagerfeld
65
Pfft, I hate Christmas Day. It's for children and families. Not for people like me.Karl Lagerfeld
66
I never had to learn English, French and German because I was brought up as all three languages. I had a private French teacher before I even went to school. That helped a lot.Karl Lagerfeld
67
I'm all self-taught. I never had a teacher. Even for English, and French, and German, I hardly went to school.Karl Lagerfeld
68
I'm not an employee who goes to the office every morning at the same time. Then, vacations are needed.Karl Lagerfeld
69
No one wants to see curvy women.Karl Lagerfeld
70
I drink Diet Coke from the minute I get up to the minute I go to bed.Karl Lagerfeld
71
I think it's horrible that people have to be told. Don't smoke! Everybody knows it's bad for the health. But they have to forbid it.Karl Lagerfeld
72
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 dangerous and very bad for the health.Karl Lagerfeld
73
Beauty is also submitted to the taste of time, so a beautiful woman from the Belle Epoch is not exactly the perfect beauty of today, so beauty is something that changes with time.Karl Lagerfeld
74
I never smoked. I never drank and I never took drugs. The funny thing is, nothing is more boring, people like this. For me, it's OK. But most of my friends, at least they smoke and drink.Karl Lagerfeld
75
But if I have a lot of imagination, I could tell myself whatever I wanted, you know. I handle myself quite well. I'm kind of fascist with myself, you know. There's no discussion. There is an order. You follow it.Karl Lagerfeld
76
Who buys French cars? Not me.Karl Lagerfeld
77
There will be gay couples; it will exist. It is not very nice that people who are married - who divorce in three seconds - don't want protection for the others. The legal system should protect everyone, not just the few people who think they are above everybody else because they are married.Karl Lagerfeld