There are few things I love more than a new Karl Lagerfeld interview. This man is a joy. He’s not actually joyful or anything, he is just the bringer of joy in others. I love his deathly nuggets of bitchery, and I love his dry, nasty asides. But over the past few months, Karl’s heart facsimile has begun to grow. A little. Karl got himself a fancy little kitten. He named the kitten Choupette. Choupette is the love of Karl’s life, if the man was capable of love. He’s not capable of love, so he only spoils his little princess kitty and hires her THREE full-time staffers. And Karl also taught Choupette to use an iPad, so there’s that too. Anyway, Karl has a new interview in The Independent (UK) and he’s talking more about Choupette! MORE CHOUPETTE!

Karl Lagerfeld on fame: “You know, personally, I don’t even think that I’m famous… I wouldn’t say I was a beginner but you’re only as good, not as your last show, but your next show. I can’t go into a shop without people in front of the door taking my picture on their iPhones. That’s very strange to me.”

On his image and famous silhouette being used for T-shirts and banners and such: “Yes,” he says. “Sometimes even I’m surprised at what can be done with my head.” Surely, though, he must realise that his self-styled, always black-and-white image – from the clothes, to the hair to the dark glasses – has as much in common with a lithograph as a living, breathing, human being. “But I didn’t do that on purpose. I see myself more like a cartoon. I wanted to become a cartoon artist when I was a child. I’m pretty good at it.” His skills as an illustrator are unrivalled as anyone even remotely interested in fashion will know. “But I never proposed my face [as part of the branding]. The company asked me if they could use it. I personally am too modest, if I can say that, to make such a proposition.”

Being in London: “I got here two hours ago,” he says, “It’s fun. It’s nice. One shouldn’t be too difficult, no? It’s the first time I see London with so much sun. It’s beautiful. All those Regency buildings in the sunlight. The standard is really quite impeccable.”

Working for Chanel, Fendi and doing his own eponymous line: The Karl and Karl Lagerfeld collections are “a reflection of me as a person and the others are more like an interpretation of a style. It’s never mixed. Fendi never looks like Chanel, Chanel never looks like Karl Lagerfeld. I don’t know how I’ve managed it. I think I have no personality but in fact I have three.” Lagerfeld’s public persona has effectively blocked any real attempts at probing over the years and the personality he speaks of is therefore communicated on a surface level. “You see a silhouette. There’s nothing else to see. I remember a photographer saying to me, ‘I have to spend three days with you to know what’s behind the image’. I said, ‘You’re wasting your time; there’s nothing there’.”

He is pro-commercialism: “I’m very much against the idea that ‘commercial’ is a boring word because you cannot make a collection that nobody wears. Fashion is what people wear and what they buy. I know exactly what can be done and for what price. I know what costs what and why something is expensive or affordable. That is part of my job. I think it’s very pretentious to think that you are only catering to a limited group. I am lucky, though, as I have the total range.”

Choupette!!! “Now, Choupette really is famous,” he says. “She has become the most famous cat in the world. I even get propositioned by pet food companies and things like that but it’s out of the question. I’m commercial. She’s not. She’s spoiled to death. Obviously. ”

How Choupette rolls: She travels with Lagerfeld to St Tropez on his private jet “in the cockpit, with the pilot, she loves looking at the sky”. She has three maids whose duties include keeping a diary of all activities and taking her to the vet for a check-up every 10 days. “I don’t take her,” Lagerfeld says. “I don’t want her to be furious with me.”

Choupette waits for him: “Choupette waits for me at the front door,” he says. “She doesn’t like being alone. She gets moody.”

[From The Independent]

I don’t understand when Choupette is EVER “alone”. She has a staff of THREE PEOPLE. Choupette might be the most well-staffed cat ever. And she goes to the vet every 10 days?! For what? I don’t get it. But still, she waits for Karl at the front door. Which is an adorable image. I wonder if Karl ever thought of putting a bell on Choupette’s collar? Totally gauche, of course. Choupette doesn’t even wear a collar! Maybe Karl should design one for her. GAH. I can’t believe how much I want to know about Choupette’s exciting life. I want to know if she sleeps in his bed with him. I want to know if she has regular, peasanty cat toys. I want to know if Choupette realizes she’s the light of her daddy’s life.

Oh, and Karl has more quotes in The Sun (I wonder if he really spoke to them?). Karl on the Middleton sisters: “Kate Middleton has a nice silhouette and she is the right girl for that boy. I like that kind of woman, I like romantic beauties. On the other hand, her sister struggles. I don’t like the sister’s face. She should only show her back.” Damn.

Photos courtesy of Karl’s Twitter, WENN.