People@Karl Lagerfeld and Zaha Hadid

Karl Lagerfeld and Zaha Hadid

Wallpaper*: How do you value the relationship between fashion and architecture and do you think architecture can reflect or inspire fashion?
Karl Lagerfeld: We need houses as we need clothes, but even more so and they have to last longer. That is why the cycles of architecture’s evolutions are so much longer. In the 18th century, fashion and architecture went hand in hand. This perfect marriage will never be repeated. We live in another world now where people are into ‘preserving’ houses and other older buildings. Nobody wanted a medieval house in the 18th century. The 17th and the 18th century were the best periods ever in the history of French architecture.

Wallpaper*: How can architecture help sell fashion?
KL: Architecture stimulates fashion. The systematic relations of both can last in time and space for quite a long period.

W*: What were your reasons for selecting Zaha Hadid?
KL: She is the first architect to find a way to part with the all-dominating post-Bauhaus aesthetic. The value of her designs is similar to that of great poetry. The potential of her imagination is enormous and people are only just beginning to realise how important her designs are.

W*: Are you working on a project together for the future?
KL: Yes, for Chanel, but it’s too early to talk about it. It is an idea she’d had when she was a student but nobody had approached her with a need for it. I would love her to build a house or a library for me, but where?

W*: Do you have a favorite building, any building and why? The Villa Malaparte is one of my favourite houses in the world as are the Palais Wittgenstein in Vienna and the Villa Savoy near Paris.

W*: What is your favorite city and why?
KL: New York for the moment, because the mix of people and architecture.

W*: How difficult is it to combine your vision with that of someone whose vision may be equally strong?
Zaha Hadid: Of course it can be difficult, but also very exciting. It's important to remain true to your own vision, but also open and receptive to new ideas. I think when you have two people with strong ideas collaborating on a project, amazing things can come out of that relationship.

W*: Are you surprised Karl Lagerfeld selected you as his architect of choice?
ZH: Karl and I have a long-standing respect for each other’s work, so no, I am not entirely surprised.

W*: How do you begin to help turn the display of fashion into a memorable event?
ZH: As in fashion, architects are now able to use the very latest 3D digital design and enhanced manufacturing processes to realize extremely complex geometries and merge unrelated forms and textures. This architecture translates the intellectual into the sensual by experimenting with completely unexpected immersive environments.

W*: Have many fashion ‘innovators’ helped advance public perception of architecture?
ZH: There is a long tradition of fashion's innovators commissioning architecture that is a revolutionary experimentation of what is possible.

@http://www.wallpaper.com/fashion/power-couples-day-10/1092