Lagerfeld blasts Kardashian for flaunting wealth

Renowned German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld ticked off Kim Kardashian on Tuesday for flaunting her wealth. PHOTO: HERMES
Karl Lagerfeld turned Paris' vast Grand Palais into a computer data centre for Chanel's Spring/Summer 2016 Ready To Wear collection.
Karl Lagerfeld turned Paris' vast Grand Palais into a computer data centre for Chanel's Spring/Summer 2016 Ready To Wear collection. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

PARIS • Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld ticked off Kim Kardashian on Tuesday for flaunting her wealth, a day after the reality TV star was robbed at gunpoint in Paris of US$10 million (S$13.7 million) worth of jewellery.

"You cannot display your wealth and then be surprised that some people want to share it with you," the designer told reporters after his Chanel show.

Lagerfeld had written Kardashian a note on Monday saying: "Dearest Kim, we are all with you", after she was tied up and robbed at a luxury apartment in Paris. But he criticised the celebrity for showing off her jewellery to her more than 100 million social media followers.

"If you're that famous and you put all your jewellery on the Net, you go to hotels where nobody can come near to the room," he said.

Kardashian, 35, tweeted a picture last week of a diamond ring worth about €4 million (S$6.2 million), which police said had been stolen in the early morning raid along with €5 million worth of other jewellery.

"I think it's a very bad thing for Paris, but I don't understand why she was in a hotel with no security," Lagerfeld said of the robbery, which made headlines across the world.

Karl Lagerfeld turned Paris' vast Grand Palais into a computer data centre for Chanel's Spring/Summer 2016 Ready To Wear collection.
Karl Lagerfeld turned Paris' vast Grand Palais into a computer data centre for Chanel's Spring/Summer 2016 Ready To Wear collection. PHOTO: EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY

The multi-millionaire mother of two and wife of rapper Kanye West had been in Paris for fashion week, where she was a front-row guest at Balenciaga and Givenchy on Sunday.

Police sources said Kardashian freed herself and raised the alarm after she was robbed. When the danger had passed, she "untied her bonds and at 2.56am phoned her bodyguard who was not present at the time of the attack", the sources said. Investigators had initially thought a stylist had raised the alarm.

The outspoken 83-year-old German-born designer and photographer had been complimentary about Kardashian and her family.

He even did a photo shoot with her this year for the American magazine Harper's Bazaar in which he had West taking a picture with his mobile phone of Kardashian draped across a bed.

Lagerfeld has previously said that "Kim's contribution to beauty and fashion is the fact that you don't have to be super slim and very tall to be beautiful". "I like her mother a lot and I adore her little half-sister Kendall," he told the celebrity news site Page Six.

Lagerfeld, known for his spectacular Chanel shows, on Tuesday turned Paris' vast Grand Palais into a computer data centre for a show that was as retro as it was futurist.

Two models wearing white robot helmets reminiscent of Star Wars warriors led out a collection which mixed Chanel's classic Jackie Kennedy-style suits in computer wire colours with slinky lace-edged lingerie dresses in pinkish pearl and ivory.

"We all depend on it," Lagerfeld told Reuters TV after the show, referring to technology. "Imagine your life without the telephone and the next step will be artificial intelligence."

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS, WASHINGTON POST

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 06, 2016, with the headline Lagerfeld blasts Kardashian for flaunting wealth. Subscribe