Remembering Karl Lagerfeld and his history of cutting, sexist insults

The designer left a legacy of au courant luxury and outré fat-shaming.

February 20, 2019 at 6:04PM
FILE - In this Monday, Jan. 28, 2013 file photo, Karl Lagerfeld poses for photographers prior to the start of a press conference, in Rome. Chanel's iconic couturier, Karl Lagerfeld, whose accomplished designs as well as trademark white ponytail, high starched collars and dark enigmatic glasses dominated high fashion for the last 50 years, has died. He was around 85 years old. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia, File)
Chanel’s iconic couturier Karl Lagerfeld dominated high fashion for the past 50 years with his accomplished designs as well as trademark white ponytail, high starched collars and dark enigmatic glasses. Top right, Lagerfeld with Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault, left, and model Karlie Kloss. Bottom right, Lagerfeld and Vogue editor Anna Wintour. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Karl Lagerfeld was known for his scandalous statements as much as his elegant designs for Chanel. The fashion designer who died Tuesday had a habit of commenting on the weight of famous women. He mocked the #MeToo movement. He even slammed the looks of Kate Middleton's famously attractive sister Pippa. In memory of the late fashion icon, here's a rundown of Lagerfeld's most outrageous remarks.

On #MeToo

"I'm fed up with it," Lagerfeld told French fashion magazine Numéro last year of the movement against sexual harassment and assault. "What shocks me most in all of this are the starlets who have taken 20 years to remember what happened. Not to mention the fact there are no prosecution witnesses."

And while discussing allegations against a magazine creative director who was accused of yanking models' breasts and pulling their underwear down during shoots without asking them, Lagerfeld added, "If you don't want your pants pulled about, don't become a model! Join a nunnery."

On Pippa Middleton

When the-now Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton wed Prince William back in 2011, her younger sister Pippa stole the show in a form-fitting gown that showed off her backside. The next year, Lagerfeld praised Kate's looks, but trashed her sister. "I don't like the sister's face," the late designer told a U.K. newspaper. "She should only show her back."

On Adele

English singer and songwriter Adele now has 15 Grammy Awards among dozens of other honors. But apparently her talent, fame and good looks weren't enough for Lagerfeld. "She is a little too fat, but she has a beautiful face and a divine voice," he told Metro Paris in 2012. After much backlash, the designer apologized and told Metro, "I'd like to say to Adele that I am your biggest admirer. Sometimes when you take a sentence out of the article it changes the meaning of the thought."

On Heidi Klum

German-born Lagerfeld added to the trashing of his countrywoman in 2009. After German designer Wolfgang Joop said Heidi Klum was "no runway model" and "she is simply too heavy and has too big a bust," Lagerfeld claimed "I don't know Heidi Klum." By then, the supermodel had already been on the cover of Vogue magazine several times, was a Victoria's Secret Angel, and was host, judge and executive producer of the fashion-themed reality show "Project Runway."

On curvy women

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's aware of his other comments, but Lagerfeld didn't want curvy women on the catwalk. "No one wants to see curvy women," he reportedly told magazine Focus in 2009. "You've got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly."


FILE-- Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue editor Anna Wintour sit in a classic car during the premier of his movie, "The Return," at Fair Park in Dallas, Dec. 10, 2013. Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Feb. 19, 2019, in Paris. He was 85. (Mark Graham/The New York Times)
Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue editor Anna Wintour sat in a classic car during the premier of his movie, “The Return,” at Fair Park in Dallas, Dec. 10, 2013. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
FILE -- Karl Lagerfeld speaks with Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault, left, and the model Karlie Kloss at a cocktail reception in Paris on March 2, 2016. Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Feb. 19, 2019, in Paris. He was 85. (Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times)
FILE -- Karl Lagerfeld speaks with Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault, left, and the model Karlie Kloss at a cocktail reception in Paris on March 2, 2016. Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Feb. 19, 2019, in Paris. He was 85. (Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times) (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
FILE -- Karl Lagerfeld speaks with Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault, left, and the model Karlie Kloss at a cocktail reception in Paris on March 2, 2016. Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Feb. 19, 2019, in Paris. He was 85. (Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times)
FILE -- Karl Lagerfeld speaks with Louis Vuitton Executive Vice President Delphine Arnault, left, and the model Karlie Kloss at a cocktail reception in Paris on March 2, 2016. Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Feb. 19, 2019, in Paris. He was 85. (Dmitry Kostyukov/The New York Times) (The Minnesota Star Tribune)
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Gina Salamone, New York Daily News

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