Karl Lagerfeld to launch ‘haute’ newspaper

Karl Lagerfeld to launch ‘haute’ newspaper
Karl Lagerfeld to launch ‘haute’ newspaper
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By Aekta KapoorFollow on Twitter Follow @AektaKapoor Follow @thenewsminute“Change is the healthiest way to survive.” So says the man who at 81 continues to change, provoke and inspire legions of fans, mimics and critics. Karl Lagerfeld, creative director of not one but three iconic fashion houses (Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld), who has set trends in everything from couture to accessories to even glassware, is now stepping into new territory – he’s launching an ‘haute’ newspaper. According to WWD, 150,000 copies of The Karl Daily will hit European and Chinese stands on September 20, 2014, the debut headline being ‘Haute off the Press’. Its content is largely satirical, and will showcase Lagerfeld’s various talents – from photography, to sketching and wordplay. It will also advertise his brands and goods, from watches and fragrances to leather goods.Much will obviously be made of his gloriously pampered pet cat Choupette, who has inspired her own line of luxury cosmetics. ‘Shupette’ by Shu Uemura is out on beauty shelves starting this month, featuring four ‘cat-eye’ makeup looks. She will play ‘guest editor’ in the newspaper.The Karl Daily will be marketed aggressively with window displays, along with contests across social media and Karl Lagerfeld’s website, Karl.com.Though he has made his lust for gadgets such as the iPhone6 very public, Lagerfeld has always been a great supporter of the print medium and is a book publisher in one of his many avatars. His futuristic black-and-white Paris home has a colossal two-storey library; he keeps a sketchbook by his bedside since he says his best designs come to him in his dreams; and he communicates over fax . And designing, of course, has been his forte for the past six decades. “I design like I breathe. You don’t ask to breathe. It just happens,” he says.A large sketch of Karl Lagerfeld reading his own newspaper on display at Galeries Lafayette, Paris.Publishing a newspaper, then, brings together both his loves, and is perhaps just the logical next step – now that he has already tried his hand at creating three different couture sensibilities, designing costumes for movies, and photographing some of the world’s most talked-about advertising campaigns and editorial shoots. The man’s a legend in some communities. He has inspired a teddy bear in his likeness, a reality TV show in France, and a character in the videogame Grand Theft Auto 4. He’s won numerous awards and directed films. He’s also gotten away with making outrageous comments, such as calling award-winning singer Adele ‘fat’, commenting that he didn’t like Princess Catherine’s sister Pippa’s face, and opining that social networks are ‘sad’. The gay designer has almost singlehandedly given Parisian fashion its uniquely spectacular, unattainable, fickle, exquisite face.There is no doubt that The Karl Daily will sell madly.Even so, one should be wary of trying to predict anything to do with Lagerfeld. “The last thing I’d do is define myself. Tomorrow, I could be the opposite of what I am today,” said the octogenarian, who is likely to continue keeping the world on its toes, guessing what on earth he’s going to do next.

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