Hot Under the Collar

The image, he says, has "come naturally. If I work on it, then it's marketing."

"It's good to have an image like this. You meet a person with a big smile and they are the meanest person in the world," he says. "It's good to be seen as unapproachable sometimes. People won't bother you."

Lagerfeld can be both pleasant and polite, witty and direct, catty and cruel. And on this promotional tour, he is unfailingly patient, willing to talk until his voice gives out. Given the designer's loquaciousness, it seems like a fine opportunity to ask about the recent fashion kerfuffle in which actress Reese Witherspoon was lent a Chanel dress for the Golden Globes that had already been worn by Kirsten Dunst to Globes afterparties in 2003.

The problem, he says, was a fresh transition in the publicity department at Chanel. "That woman at the press office left no files. You have to have files to know who bought what," he says, using the term "bought" very loosely. "I don't think you should give these girls recent vintage. The dress was only three years old. It's nobody's fault but the stupid cow who had no files." Oh my.

Lagerfeld is an extremely wealthy man, and so launching a new brand is not a long-awaited opportunity for fame and fortune. "This thing, I'm not doing it for money. My Chanel contract is more than enough for one person. For me, it's doing for doing."

But there is some hubris and ambition involved. The designer likes the idea of showing Fendi in Milan, Chanel in Paris and Karl Lagerfeld in New York. "I wanted an American adventure. I felt isolated in Europe," he says. "I felt it was the moment to do it. It's a new challenge. New spirit. New people. I like new. Maybe I'm very superficial."

Lagerfeld prides himself on being forward-thinking in his design work, never dwelling on the past. Indeed, his stature hinges, to a great degree, on the fact that professionally he scorns nostalgia and sneers at the idea of combing flea markets in search of ideas. In short, this means that he is appalled by 90 percent of what is produced by the fashion industry.

"Inspiration is not something where I do India this season, then I do Russia. That's not inspiration, that's lazy. That's too easy," he says. "I don't go to the flea market. . . . Vionnet, Balenciaga, I don't think they went to the flea market," referring to Madeleine Vionnet and Cristobal Balenciaga, two of the most influential designers of the 20th century.

Even within the traditions of Chanel, the collections are focused not on reviving the past but on taking an established aesthetic and riffing on it, putting it into a new context. He has a sensibility akin to that of a jazz musician or a hip-hop producer -- not a cover band.

"If there's something I don't like or don't understand, I say it's my problem, not the problem of the times. I have to adapt to it. I have to find my niche in the moment that's going on," he says. "Don't compare yourself to what happened before. Don't compare your life to what happened before. Every day has to be different. Don't compare. Don't compete. Don't think it was better before, because it was better before only if you think it was."

The new collection, he says, evokes the spirit of New York -- or more specifically the part of Manhattan that is south of 14th Street. It's important that the collection is based in New York, he says, because the surroundings give rise to specific sensibilities. It makes a difference in the ultimate image, according to Lagerfeld, if a dress is photographed against a white backdrop in Paris, or in New York.

"Here is my vision of what I think of New York. Paris is what I think of Chanel. And Fendi is my idea of what I think I would be if I was Italian. I like to play with personality. I take the spirit of the place, the spirit of the people, and use it," he says. "What I do in New York should be done in New York and couldn't be done in Paris."