19 March 2010

Kaiser Karl Lagerfeld, the Vice Magazine interview



You’ve said that possessions are a burden and one mustn’t get attached to things, that owning things victimizes and imprisons you. 
It’s nice when you can afford something, but the minute you become a victim of it you shouldn’t keep it. 

Coming from you, some would think that’s quite a contradiction.
It’s exactly like people who say they don’t like money. Be rich first, and then you will know. If you have never touched money, you don’t know what money is. If you’re rich, get rid of it. It’s very easy. 

It’s lightness.
Yes, for me the most important thing is light. Nothing overweight, anywhere. Not on the body, not on the brain. 

And a certain detachment, too.
Yes, totally. I was brought up to be detached. You can take nothing with you. There are very few important things, and they are not possessions. 

Yoga is such a trend. There are all these rich people who study yoga now. I heard a story about a famous yoga master who was working with this woman who had a lot of wealth and money. He was in her mansion and he walked over to the mantle and took a Ming vase from it and he dropped it on the floor, smashing it. She was freaking out. That was the first lesson for her about not being attached to the material world. 
That’s the best lesson there, because I don’t believe too much in yoga. It’s another culture; it’s not my culture.

People treat it like it’s exercise. There’s no spiritual dimension to it. 
Yes, I know. One of my best friends does it all the time. It’s not my culture because I have not got much time. 

Which brings us back, I think, to trying to avoid distraction in the digital age.
I don’t know how people can concentrate today when they have their cell phones ringing and all that. I like to be with music, books, and paper and to sketch and think everything over. To brainwash my own head and to write letters. I never have the feeling of being alone. For me loneliness is when you are old, sick, have no money, and nobody’s around. But if you are vaguely known and vaguely not poor, to say it nicely, then it’s the top of luxury. 

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