“I want things to change [...]
in fact I detest the past”
“I am never happy about myself.”
“I have survived so many [...]
and float in a dimension where no time exist”
“I rinse myself from everything so I can stay perfectly
clean, like a white sheet of paper”
“I am a person that loves shopping clothes.
And I am not happy in anything except Dior.”
(Lagerfeld 2004)The “pope” of fashion, Karl Lagerfeld, mas-
ter designer of Chanel, resembles his Catholic counter-
part in many ways. Lagerfeld’s authority is unquestioned
all through the fashion world and his work saturates
Chanel at all levels as he not only designs clothes and
accessories, but also shoots the advertising campaigns.
He is the icon painter of the brand. His divine touch
is what is offered through every product of Chanel and
the consumer knows that every artefact of the brand is
sanctified by his rigidly controlled system; blessed through
the social organisation of his transcendental symbolism.
These two popes, the catholic pope and the “brand pope”,
are both part of larger entities that will outlive them, as
we can also see manifested architecturally with their own
cathedrals carved in stone.