The 84-year-old designer adds that he cannot stand Harvey Weinstein.
Karl Lagerfeld is "fed up" with the #MeToo movement.
The 84-year-old Chanel and Fendi designer got candid in an interview with Numéro Magazine, released earlier this week, where he expressed his thoughts on the organization that supports women against sexual harassment and assault.
"I’m fed up with it. I don’t even eat pig [in France the movement’s known as #BalanceTonPorc]," he explained. "What shocks me most in all of this are the starlets who have taken 20 years to remember what happened. Not to mention the fact there are no prosecution witnesses."
"That said, I cannot stand Mr. [Harvey] Weinstein. I had a problem with him at [the] amfAR [Gala]," he continued. "No, it wasn’t of a sexual nature, but a professional one. I’ll spare you the details, but he isn’t exactly what you might call a man of his word."
When asked whether movements like #MeToo and #Time’sUp affect the way he approaches his work, Lagerfeld clearly stated, "Absolutely not," but did affirm that "it's too much."
"I read somewhere that now you must ask a model if she is comfortable with posing. It's simply too much, from now on, as a designer, you can’t do anything," the German creative director explained, before bringing up the sexual misconduct accusations against Interview magazine creative director Karl Templar. "As for the accusations against the poor Karl Templar, I don’t believe a single word of it. A girl complained he tried to pull her pants down and he is instantly excommunicated from a profession that up until then had venerated him. It's unbelievable." Templar has "categorically" denied "ever acting with any wrongful intent," as well as expressed his support for the #MeToo movement.
"If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model!" Lagerfeld retorted. "Join a nunnery, there’ll always be a place for you in the convent. They’re recruiting even!"
Though, as Lagerfeld's "nunnery" comments made their way online, he began receiving backlash for his choice of words. Among them was Chrissy Teigen who retweeted one of his quotes, writing, "Surely there is an in-between here, Karl."
This isn't the first time that Lagerfeld has been at the center of controversial comments. In February of 2017, the designer claimed that Meryl Streep wanted to wear a gown from his recent Chanel couture collection on Oscars night, but in the middle of working to customize the dress for her, a member of her team told them, "Don't continue the dress. We found somebody who will pay us."
Streep denied the story and later slammed Lagerfeld's apology, claiming that he "defamed" her in his original statement that she turned down the dress. Hear more of how it went down in the video below.
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