Heartless Doll - Karl Lagerfeld demands that you stop crying about the recession; Fashion Week gets a brand-new home

Karl Lagerfeld demands that you stop crying about the recession; Fashion Week gets a brand-new home

Posted at 4:28 PM Feb 03, 2009

By Sharon Steel

The Paris couture shows aren't the Paris couture shows without Karl Lagerfeld saying something flashy and subversive, just like his designs. This week, Lagerfeld "embraced the downturn" and chose to present his Chanel collection at Cambon-Capucines Pavilion instead of Paris's Grand Palais. Attendants sat at tables festooned with paper flowers as they watched clothing inspired by more paper parade down the runway in a nod to his "New Modesty" theme. He even eliminated the notorious VIP section -- one of the fashion world's most obvious caste systems -- in favor of creating "equality in an unfair world," reported the Wall Street Journal.

Could the Kaiser be turning over a new leaf?

Not if you count the fact that he asked everyone to "stop crying" about the recession after his show, and pointed out that his clothes are still "for the very rich."

The man is a brazen, leather-gloved, jewelery-wearing contradiction, and we absolutely love him for it. And his attitude, in spite of Recessionista woes, is catching. This morning, news broke that Mayor Bloomberg and the Council of Fashion Designers of America and IMG Fashion, which runs New York Fashion Week, have agreed to move the whole damned, fantastic spectacle from its Bryant Park location to the super-classy Lincoln Center next year. (Bloomberg has maintained that Fashion Week has outgrown the park.) So, we'll dry our tears, try to forget about the canceled Marc after-party (it's not like we would have had an invite, anyway), and hope that everyone will have spare cash to spend on paper-inspired Chanel goodies by 2010.

[Wall Street Journal, AP]