Karl Lagerfeld was famous for his quick wit and his cutting put-downs.
Here are some of his best quotes:
“When I was four I asked my mother for a valet for my birthday.”
“When I was 14, I wanted to smoke because my mother smoked like mad. I wanted to smoke to look grown-up. But my mother said ‘You shouldn’t smoke. Your hands are not that beautiful and that shows when you smoke’.”
“The iPod is genius. I have 300.”
“People I’m really friendly with have faxes. Anna Wintour has one.”
“I send notes. I’m not a chambermaid whom you can ring at every moment. Today, you know, most people act like they work at a switchboard in a hotel.”
“I think tattoos are horrible. It’s like living in a Pucci dress full-time. If you’re young and tight, maybe it’s OK, but…”
“Sweatpants are a sign of defeat. You lost control of your life so you bought some sweatpants.”
“I’m a kind of fashion nymphomaniac who never gets an orgasm.”
On his cat Choupette to British Vogue: “I don’t even think I’m that famous. Now, Choupette really is famous. She has become the most famous cat in the world. I even get propositioned by pet food companies and things like that, but it’s out of the question. I’m commercial. She’s not. She’s spoiled to death. Obviously.”
On Yves Saint Laurent to Observer Magazine: “He is very middle-of-the-road French, very pied-noir, very provincial.”
On Andy Warhol in Vice magazine: “I shouldn’t say this, but physically he was quite repulsive.”
On Adele in Paris Metro: “The thing at the moment is Adele. She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice.”
He later clarified his comments to CNN: “I never said that she was fat, I said that she was a little roundish; a little roundish is not fat. But for such a beautiful girl, after that she lost eight kilo so I think the message was not that bad.”
On the Duchess of Cambridge and Pippa Middleton in the Sun: “Kate Middleton has a nice silhouette and she is the right girl for that boy. I like that kind of woman, I like romantic beauties. On the other hand, the sister struggles. I don’t like the sister’s face. She should only show her back.”
On Heidi Klum in GQ Germany: “I don’t know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn’t know who she is.”
On Diana, Princess of Wales, in New York magazine: “She was pretty and she was sweet, but she was stupid.”