 20 ODD QUESTIONS

Karl Lagerfeld’s Secrets to Creativity and Productivity

As the legendary German-born fashion designer touches down in New York
City to show Chanel’s Métiers d’Art collection, he offers up some
characteristically quotable wisdom

Mr. Lagerfeld photographed by his favorite photographer, Mr. Lagerfeld. PHOTO: KARL LAGERFELD

By Elisa Lipsky-Karasz
Updated Dec. 4, 2018 6:13 pm ET

DESPITE A REPUTATION to the contrary, Karl Lagerfeld is a man of simple needs:

Give him his sketching paper, his drawing materials and his cat and he is content. This is
all Mr. Lagerfeld requires to whip up 15 womenswear collections a year for Chanel and
Fendi, two houses where he has been an indomitable force for decades. Granted, the
paper is made just for him, the drawing materials are specially sourced and his cat,
Choupette, enjoys the ministrations of dedicated servants. At Chanel, Mr. Lagerfeld, 85,
says that he has a lifelong contract, and he is seemingly indefatigable: This week, he
presented the brand’s annual Métiers d’Art fashion show showcasing its craftsmanship at
New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art.

“I have a nonstop job, and I’m delighted that I can do it in the conditions that I do it,”
said Mr. Lagerfeld by phone from Paris. He works at home most of the day, arriving at
the Chanel offices in the evening. Mr. Lagerfeld also photographs ad campaigns for the
brands, puts out a self-named line, has a book imprint and a Parisian bookstore, 7L
Bookshop, designs hotels and condo buildings, creates theatrical costumes and recently
exhibited his first sculptures.
Though his voracious collecting appetite once extended to everything from 18th-century
French furniture to Memphis design, he is no longer as acquisition-focused. “I had great
collections, but I sold them, because it’s interesting to collect, it’s less interesting to
own.” Which doesn’t mean that he’s not open to surprise Christmas gifts, he said.
“Expect the unexpected.”

KAISER KARL Clockwise from top left: the interior of Matsuhisa restaurant; Mr. Lagerfeld’s sculptures
installed at the Carpenters Workshop Gallery in Paris; Belperron pin; a Hilditch & Key nightshirt similar to
Mr. Lagerfeld’s; a book of Emily Dickinson poems; personalized stationery from Armorial. PHOTO: F.
MARTIN RAMIN/ THE WALL STREET JOURNAL (STATIONERY, PIN, BOOK); ROMÉO
BALANCOURT (RESTAURANT); KARL LAGERFELD/COURTESY CARPENTERS WORKSHOP
GALLERY (SCULPTURE)

I take inspiration from: my brain. It’s a very strange thing: I can only sketch when I’m
alone. I can recreate something without having a direct reference. My best ideas come to
me when I sleep. I have a sketch pad next to my pillow.
I rarely make: mistakes. [But] if I make a mistake, the sketch goes to the garbage can and
I do another one. I work for the garbage can a lot, you know?
I spend half my day reading: American, German, and French newspapers: Le Figaro, Le
Monde, Libération, Les Echos, the New York Times, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
The different countries have different mentalities and different political attitudes. The
same event is different in one paper from another.
In Paris, aside from my own 7L Bookshop, I buy books from:Galignani because they do
all of the history of art. I’m a very good, if not the best client—they told me I’m 11% of
their business.
I enjoy reading: poetry. I love Emily Dickinson.
My biggest luxury is: my sheets and my nightshirts. I have the most beautiful collection
of antique sheets in the world, with lace and pleats. I’ve collected them for over 20 years
from Frip’ou Net boutique in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and they’re changed every day. I keep a
long white nightshirt from Hilditch & Key for sketching in the morning, because if I
dressed in a black shirt I would be dirty—sketching is a dirty job. Choupette is a luxury
too, because she has two personal maids.
Every day, I wear: Massaro boots, suede pants made for me by Stouls on rue Mont
Thabor, Belperron jewelry and a brooch [that depicts] Choupette. I wear very long
jackets made by Dior [by former creative director Hedi Slimane]. I’m waiting for the new
men’s clothes from Celine in two or three months. It’s always black and white because
pink is not the color for me.
I don’t like to take vacations because: I’m not a holiday person. Christmas, everyone is
away except me. I can have a big party with Choupette.
I spend summers working: at my house in the south of France or in Monte Carlo, where
I’ve been a resident for 37 years.
I don’t watch movies because: I don’t want any ready-made images to invade my
imagination. I tell my godchild [Hudson Kroenig] all the time, “Don’t look at videos too
much, your brain has to invent images.” You cannot only look at second-rate images
made by other people. You have to build up your imagination, because imagination is
like a muscle—you have to work on it.
This Christmas, I’m giving my godson: money.
My favorite hotel in New York is: the Mercer. I like the atmosphere, I like the owner, I
like the man who’s running it. I always have the same suite. It’s like being at home. I can
walk through the room without turning on the light because I know exactly where
everything is. I feel at home there. Choupette comes with me, with one of her maids, and
they have a suite next to mine.
My favorite restaurant in Paris is: the Matsuhisa at the Royal Monceau [but] I don’t go to
restaurants often because I have several cooks.
I’m lost without my: iPhone. Not that I’m looking at it all the time, but it’s a connection
to the outside world that never existed before. It’s genius. I always use the latest— there
are 25,000 photos and 1,000 videos [that I’ve taken on mine].
 I’m passionate about: paper. I’m a paper freak. I have a very special note pad made for
me, for my sketches, by an old paper supply shop in Paris called Sennelier. For my
stationery, it’s from Armorial.
My newest creations are: my first sculptures in marble. I must say they are beautifully
done. I did a great job. To make the sketches is one thing, but to realize the stuff in such a
beautiful way is another. It was inspired by ancient Greek columns.
The historical figure I most identify with is: myself, that’s enough. It took me time to get
used to me, now I’m used.
—Edited from an interview by Elisa Lipsky-Karasz
 20 ODD QUESTIONS

How Alec Baldwin Learned to Keep His Cool

Step one: Don’t go out in public as often. Step two: Channel the eerily calm
automobile exec John DeLorean in a new docudrama

MAN ABOUT TOWN Proud New Yorker Alec Baldwin is no longer eager to stray too far from
home. PHOTO: MILLER MOBLEY

By Chris Kornelis
June 26, 2019 12:55 pm ET

As the SATISFIED owner of a Cadillac Escalade, Alec Baldwin drives a huge car, but
he’s not exactly a huge “car guy.” He doesn’t have a preternaturally protruding chin. And
he’s also not known for keeping his cool. But to play the titular auto exec in “Framing
John DeLorean” (in select theaters now), a docudrama about the infamous man who
created the stainless-steel coupe that “Back to the Future” immortalized, Mr. Baldwin had
to devise ways to embody all three qualities.

Becoming a car guy? That’s acting. Looking like DeLorean wasn’t terribly difficult
either. For that, Mr. Baldwin, 61, called in longtime friend and “Saturday Night Live”
makeup artist Louie Zakarian to fabricate a version of the 1980s-era chin implant
DeLorean reportedly had inserted. But, Mr. Baldwin says, approximating DeLorean’s
calm was a challenge: How could a man stay so composed while being hunted by federal
agents for trafficking cocaine to keep his car business afloat?

“When the water is coming over the deck of the ship and all of them are really screwed
because of the scandals and criminal charges, John remains stoic throughout,” said Mr.
Baldwin. “I watched video of John for hours with the sound turned off. Watched the way
he moved. He had a level of self control that I probably have never seen.”

We caught up with Mr. Baldwin to talk about mammoth vehicles, killing time in the back
seat, managing his stress and what makes it all worth it.

My magic bus is a: 2019 Escalade. We are a big crowd—four kids and a couple of people
who work for us—and the next thing up from this was, like, a sprinter van. I had a lot of
nightmares about my wife parking a sprinter van, so we all pile in this massive thing that
we drive to and from our home in Long Island.
My dad drove a: Ford Country Squire. He had six kids and probably needed a sprinter
van, too. But this was back before all the vigilance there is now about car seats and belts
and all that, so he got all six of us in there.
Something I learned from my father was: you only live once, so do what you really feel
you want to do. He was very, very encouraging of my decision to study acting and go
into that profession. He often said: I wish I had done what I wanted to do.
Something I learned playing sports is: not to quit. Playing tennis, you can be down two
sets, five games, 40-love, and theoretically you can come back and win. It’s unlikely, but
to a degree, sports gave me some idea of “don’t quit.”
The secret to beating “Saturday Night Live” creator Lorne Michaels in tennis is: to make
him run. Just go from corner to corner. Lorne is my neighbor and in the summertime we
play some of the most epic trash-tennis games you’ve ever seen.

A FEW OF HIS FAVORITE THINGS From top left: Madrid, Spain’ John Travolta from “Saturday Night
Fever”; John Ford’s “The Grapes of Wrath”; a 1979 Ford Country Squire; the ever-addictive game of
Scrabble; John DeLorean PHOTO: ALAMY (TRAVOLTA, SCRABBLE, “GRAPES OF WRATH”, CAR);
GETTY IMAGES (MADRID, DELOREAN)

One of the movies that made me want to be an actor was: “Saturday Night Fever.”
Everywhere I went, every woman wanted to physically attack John Travolta. They were
obsessed with him. I thought: Well wouldn’t it be nice to have that kind of a career?
Movies I’m looking forward to watching with my kids include: “The Grapes of Wrath,”
any Tom Hanks movie, and old Disney animation, like “Bambi,” where I can point to a
film and say: “Some guy drew that. A computer didn’t make that. A man and a woman
made it.” I’m waiting for them to reach the age when they’re going to understand that
history and line of evolution in filmmaking.
I’m very proud of: the fact that my kids demand to be read to at the conclusion of every
single day.
If I’m in an Uber with time to kill: I play “Words With Friends” with my father-in-law,
who lives in Spain, and who is a super bright guy. Sometimes I hold my own against him,
but sometimes he just throttles me.
I used to be addicted to: Scrabble. We had a gang that worked together all through the
‘90s—my makeup guy, my hair guy, my wardrobe guy, my stunt double, my stand-in—
we would play Scrabble all day. They’d call us onto the set, we’d do the shot, and then
we went racing back to the trailer to drink coffee, smoke cigars outside and play obscene
amounts of Scrabble—like, 10 games a day. It was insane.
A smartphone game that I miss is: “VS Tennis.” It’s the stupidest game—the equivalent
of twirling a rubber band when I had minutes to spare. But I must say, I miss my luddite
“VS Tennis” terribly.
To manage stress I: go out in public as little as possible.
My friends used to call me: the whore of Mayfair, because I could just walk up and down
Mount Street in London all day and smoke cigars and shop and go to the Dorchester and
the Connaught and have lunch and then go to the theater at night. I did a lot of that back
when I was single.
One of my fondest Fourth of July memories as an adult: was when we used to tie boats
together in Three Mile Harbor at an old camp called Boys Harbor. Everybody would
bring food and booze. We’d get shitfaced and watch fireworks. George Plimpton himself
was our master of ceremonies.
My favorite place on earth is: the lobby of the Hotel Ritz in Madrid. When my wife,
Hilaria, first took me to Spain, I had a very unusual feeling. The Spanish are very, very
decent people. It wasn’t like other places I go where you might get a very overt reaction.
They might’ve recognized me, but there was a respect there.
I fell in love with Spain: the same way I fell in love with my wife. It was just instant.
The advantage of having a 
1-year-old in my 60s, versus when I was in my 30s is: I’m around more. I host a podcast
in New York and I tried to do a talk show for ABC here. I host “Match Game” at 30
Rock. When I film “Mission: Impossible,” I’m there for a week, I leave. I go back for a
couple weeks, I leave. Because the project is not about me.
Everything I do now is about: staying home with my kids. I’ve had a lot of opportunities
to make films again, but they want me to go to Barcelona or Prague or Rome. But if it’s
an extended trip and a lead role in a film, the answer is no.
—Edited from an interview 
by Chris Kornelis