Karl Lagerfeld, arguably the most recognizable fashion designer in the world, is in a back office at Fendi’s headquarters on the Via Solari, receiving from an assistant a gift someone has sent for his Birman, Choupette.
卡尔·拉格菲尔德(Karl Lagerfeld)可以说是世界上辨识度最高的时装设计师。在索拉里街芬迪(Fendi)总部后面一个办公室里，助手把别人送给他的伯曼猫舒佩特(Choupette)的礼物交给他。
“I have a famous cat,” said Mr. Lagerfeld, glancing over the cat-printed notepads offered to him and Choupette. (She has more than 46,000 fans on the Twitter account invented in her honor, turns up frequently in the pages of fashion magazines and has inspired a line of makeup by Shu Uemura.) Mr. Lagerfeld said he hoped the cat would become more famous than him. “Then I can disappear behind Choupette,” he said.
“我有一只著名的猫，”拉格菲尔德说。他瞟了一眼送给他和舒佩特的猫咪印花平板电脑（以舒佩特的名义开设的Twitter账户有46000多名粉丝；它经常出现在时尚杂志上；植村秀以它为灵感设计了一套彩妆）。拉格菲尔德说，他希望这只猫能变得比自己更出名。“那样，我就能消失在舒佩特背后了，”他说。

Few things could be less likely. Mr. Lagerfeld is an object of public fascination in the Selfie Age, too recognizable to walk the streets or attend a party without incident.
这几乎是不可能的。在自拍时代，拉格菲尔德是公众痴迷的对象，他太好认了，无论走在大街上还是参加派对，都会造成轰动。
Now in his 70s (or 80s, depending on the source) — and more éminence blanc, thanks to his powdered ponytail, than éminence grise — the German-born designer remains as prolific as he is tenacious, with a terse wit and a predilection for Delphic pronouncements.
拉格菲尔德出生于德国。花白的马尾让他看起来更像白衣主教，而非灰衣主教。如今他70多岁（也可能是80多岁，对此说法不一），却依然多产而坚韧，具有言简意赅的机智，偏爱神谕般的宣言。
“There are not too many people with an opinion I care for,” he said. His own he dispenses liberally, and from them, nothing is safe.
“现在，我只在乎少数几个人的观点，”他说。他自己倒是不吝于发表观点，什么都可能成为他的批评对象。
One assistant at Fendi years ago even found himself rechristened when Mr. Lagerfeld deemed his actual surname, Peugnet, cumbersome and provincial. “I said, ‘Hervé, this name is not possible, it’s too heavy,’ ” Mr. Lagerfeld said. The assistant eventually left to found his own line, and the world came to know him, as Mr. Lagerfeld did, as Hervé Léger, from the French word for “light.”
多年前，芬迪公司的一名助理甚至发现自己有了新名字，因为拉格菲尔德觉得他的本姓珀涅(Peugnet)又拗口又土气。“我对他说，‘埃尔韦，这个姓太难念了，太沉重了，’”拉格菲尔德说。这位助理最终离开，创立了自己的服装品牌，以埃尔韦·莱热(Hervé Léger)为世人所知 ，莱热这个姓是拉格菲尔德给他取的，在法语中的意思是“光”。
During an interview last week, Mr. Lagerfeld opined on a range of subjects, including his preference for working with women (“I’m not crazy to discuss fashion with men. I couldn’t care less about their opinion.”); his desire to die the way Coco Chanel did, while in the middle of creating a collection; and his aversion to stress. (“I don’t believe in it. It’s a job, one should not become hysterical.”)
在上周的采访中，拉格菲尔德对各种事情发表了意见，包括他更喜欢跟女人一起工作（“我不太喜欢跟男人讨论时装。我根本不在乎他们的看法”）；他渴望像可可·香奈儿(Coco Chanel)那样，在设计一个服装系列的过程中死去；他厌恶压力（“我不相信压力能带来益处。这只是工作，不应该把人变得歇斯底里”）。
It’s hard to envision Mr. Lagerfeld hysterical. He delivers even the most pointed of his gravelly barbs with a composure unlikely to ruffle his starched collar or muss his Dior Homme suit.
很难想像拉格菲尔德歇斯底里的样子。哪怕是声音沙哑地说出最尖刻的冷嘲热讽，他依然沉着镇定，绝不会弄皱上过浆的衣领或身上的迪奥桀傲(Dior Homme)西服。
But, in his case, a little stress may be understandable. In addition to designing several collections a year each for Fendi, Chanel and his own Karl Lagerfeld line, he announced last week that he would add a show of haute fourrure, or “couture fur,” for fur-centric Fendi during the Paris couture collections in July.
不过，就他的情况而言，有点压力也是可以理解的。除了每年要分别给芬迪、香奈儿和他自己的卡尔·拉格菲尔德品牌设计几个系列之外，上周他宣布将在7月份的巴黎高级定制时装周上为以皮草为重的芬迪增加一场高级皮草秀。
The occasion will signify his 50th anniversary as designer for the Roman label, the longest-ever partnership between a designer and a luxury maison, as well as the first time in the history of the Fédération Française de la Couture that a single designer has staged both an haute couture and an haute fourrure show in a single season. (This conversation was condensed and edited.)
这场时装秀将标志着他担任该罗马品牌设计师50周年，这是设计师与奢侈品公司之间为时最长的合作，也是法国时装协会(Fédération Française de la Couture)历史上首次出现单个设计师在一季同时举办高级定制时装秀和高级皮草秀（以下对话经过剪辑和浓缩）。
Q. The haute fourrure collection will mark your 50th year at Fendi, but I’m told you don’t like the word “anniversary” — you don’t like looking back.
问：高级皮草系列将标志着你在芬迪的50周年，但是我听说你不喜欢“周年”这个词，你不喜欢回顾过去。
A. No, no, no, no. This is one of the sicknesses of our period, to look back. No, forget about it. Fashion is now and tomorrow. Who cares about the past? But at Fendi, they like to tour the past.
答：是的，我很不喜欢。回顾过去是我们这个时代的弊病之一。忘了它吧。时装是关于现在和明天的。谁在乎过去？但是在芬迪，人们喜欢回顾过去。
So maybe call it a celebration, rather than an anniversary?
问：所以，也许我们不要称它为周年，而称为庆祝。
It’s not a celebration. It’s a new start. In the past, Fendi did only fur. Then they started to do ready-to-wear and funny fur [i.e., faux fur], but this was 40 years ago. Now, it’s time to do the highest level of couture fourrure. But better to do it during haute couture because it’s the right place to show it to the right people. That’s a very simple idea. It’s nothing going back to any roots. It’s planting new trees.
答：它不是庆祝，而是一个新的开始。过去，芬迪只做皮草。然后，他们开始做成衣和人造皮草，但那是40年前。现在，该做最高水平的高级皮草了。不过最好是在高级定制时装周举办，因为那里有你的目标客户。这很好理解。它绝不是追溯起源。它是培植新树。
Fifty years is a very long time to be with a company. Do you ever reflect over the long term of your career at Fendi?
问：在一个公司工作50年真的很长。你有没有反思过在芬迪的长期事业？
No. Never.
答：没有，从来没有。
Is that the secret to longevity?
问：那是永葆青春的秘密吗？
I don’t take ideas from my own past. Sometimes I see things [and say], “Oh, it’s not that bad.” And people tell me, “You did that 20 or 30 years ago.” Maybe — I forgot. As long as you’re in the business, you must not think about your own work. In Germany, they made a huge exhibition of everything I did, Fendi, Chanel, Lagerfeld, Chloé and all that. I’m not even going to the show. I don’t care.
答：我从不借鉴自己过去的作品。有时我看到某些东西，会说：“哦，这个还不错。”人们对我说，“那是你二三十年前的作品。”也许是吧，我忘了。只要你还在时尚界工作，你就不该去想自己的作品。他们在德国举办了一个大型展览，展示我为芬迪、香奈儿、拉格菲尔德和寇依(Chloé)等品牌设计的所有作品。我甚至不会去看那场展览。我不在乎。
You don’t feel the weight of all that history behind you?
问：你没有感到自己身后所有这些历史的份量吗？
There’s no history. I don’t even have archives, myself. I keep nothing. What I like is to do — not the fact that I did. It doesn’t excite me at all. When people start to think that what they did in the past is perhaps even better than what they do now, they should stop. Lots of my colleagues, they have archives, they look at their dresses like they were Rembrandts! Please, forget about it.
答：没什么历史。我自己甚至没有档案。我什么都不保存。我喜欢的是“去做”，而不是“我做过”。后者一点也不让我感到兴奋。如果人们开始觉得自己过去做的也许比现在做得还好，那么他们应该停止。我的很多同行保存档案，他们看着自己设计的衣服，感觉自己像伦勃朗！请忘了它吧。
How did the idea come about to do haute fourrure?
问：做高级皮草的想法是如何产生的？
I don’t remember where the idea comes from. Maybe it’s me. I think the idea is right. The problem with fur. … For me, as long as people eat meat and wear leather, I don’t get the message. It’s very easy to say no fur, no fur, no fur, but it’s an industry. Who will pay for all the unemployment of the people if you suppress the industry of the fur? The hunters in the north for the sable, they have no other job, there is nothing else to do. Those organizations who are much against it, they are not Bill Gates.
答：我不记得这个想法是从哪儿来的。也许是我想出来的。我觉得这是个好主意。皮草的问题……在我看来，只要人们吃肉、穿皮革，我就不能理解为什么要反对皮草。声称反对皮草太容易了，但它是一个产业。如果你压制皮草业，那么谁来赔偿因此失业的人呢？北方狩猎黑貂的猎人没别的工作，没别的事可做。那些强烈反对皮草的组织，他们不是比尔·盖茨(Bill Gates)。
So you’re not very sympathetic to the anti-fur cause?
问：所以，你不是太同情反皮草事业？
I’m very sympathetic. I hate the idea of killing animals in a horrible way, but I think all that improved a lot. I think a butcher shop is even worse. It’s like visiting a murder. It’s horrible, no? So I prefer not to know it.
答：我很同情。我憎恶用凶残的方式屠杀动物，但我觉得情况普遍改善了很多。我觉得肉店更糟糕。去肉店就像去见凶手。很可怕，不是吗？所以，我宁愿不去了解它。
Does fur ever feel like a limitation?
问：你是否曾经觉得皮草有局限性？
No. You have to find new ways to use something that could be considered limited in the way you could use it. That’s part of the job. I know the technique, I know the materials. I haven’t used some of them for quite a long time. So it’s fun to use it again to do something I haven’t done with them before. I hope I have enough ideas that I can make something new out of that.
答：没有。你必须找到新的方法来使用某种可能被认为有局限性的东西。这是设计师工作的一部分。我懂技术，了解各种材料。有些材料我很久没用过了。所以，再次用它做一些之前没做过的东西很有意思。我希望自己能想出足够多的办法，做点新东西出来。
Do you worry about not having enough ideas? I wouldn’t expect so.
问：你担心自己的想法不够多吗？我没想到你会有这种担心。
No, no, no. I don’t believe in waiting for inspiration. The French say, l’appétit vient en mangeant, the ideas come when you work. I work a lot for the garbage can. I have huge bins next [to me], for whatever I do, 95 percent goes to the bin.
答：不是，不是，不是。我不相信灵感能等来。法国人常说，灵感是在工作中产生的。我做的很多东西都丢到了垃圾桶里。我身边有好几个大垃圾桶，不管我做什么，95%的东西都到了垃圾桶里。
It’s like Einstein apparently said: 99 percent perspiration, 1 percent inspiration.
问：就像爱因斯坦说的：99%的汗水，1%的灵感。
He was very funny and very clever, even if my brain is not exactly his. He was pretty right. You know, Einstein had a huge sense of humor.
答：他非常风趣，非常聪明，尽管我的大脑跟他的不太一样。他说得很对。你知道，爱因斯坦很有幽默感。
Do you have a good sense of humor?
问：你很有幽默感吗？
I hope so.
答：我希望如此。
Is there a place for humor in fashion?
问：幽默在时尚界重要吗？
I don’t think that most of the designers have a very quick sense of humor. They take themselves very seriously because they want to be taken as artists. I think we are artisans. It’s an applied art. There’s nothing bad about that. If you want to do art, then show it in a gallery.
答：我觉得大部分设计师不是太有幽默感。他们把自己看得非常重要，因为他们想让别人把自己看做艺术家。我觉得我们是手工艺人。服装是应用艺术。这没什么不好。如果你想搞艺术，那么你去画廊展示它。
So you don’t consider yourself an artist?
问：所以你不认为自己是艺术家？
No, no, no, no. I’m a designer, I do photos, I do books, I’m a publisher, but I don’t have the self-proclaimed label “artist.” I hate that. Very pretentious. If other people say it, it’s very flattering, but if you start to say it yourself, you better forget about it.
答：不，不，不，不。我是设计师，我也摄影，写书，搞出版，但我不自称“艺术家”。我很不喜欢那个称呼。非常自命不凡。如果别人这么说，那是在恭维，但如果你开始这样自称，那么你最好还是忘了它吧。
Speaking of photography: You shoot the Fendi campaigns, the Chanel campaigns, even some Dior Homme campaigns, and for magazines. Why? Is it a pleasure, or just a different type of work?
问：说起摄影，你给芬迪、香奈儿，甚至迪奥桀傲拍过广告，还给杂志拍过照片。为什么呢？是因为喜欢，还是说它只是另一种工作？
If it was not a pleasure, I wouldn’t do it. Second, it’s quite important. If you do only collections, you end up in an ivory tower. You finish the collection and you are isolated until the time to get to the next one. That would be very boring. It’s very bad and unhealthy to get isolated. Already I don’t walk in the street, so I have to do something, somewhere.
答：如果不是因为喜欢，我就不会做了。另外，它也很重要。如果只设计服装，你会只停留在象牙塔内。你完成一个系列，就与世隔绝，直到开始下一个系列。那会非常枯燥。与世隔绝很糟糕，不健康。我已经不在大街上行走了，所以我必须在其他地方做点什么。
You don’t walk in the street because you’re too famous now? People stop you?
问：你不在大街上行走是因为你现在太出名了吗？人们会拦住你？
Exactly, all over the world. We live in the world of selfies.
答：正是如此，在世界各地都是这样。我们生活在一个自拍的世界里。
Do you like selfies?
问：你喜欢自拍吗？
I don’t do selfies. But other people do, and they all want to do selfies with me. No, no, no. Thank God, Sébastien, my assistant, he’s mean to the people in the street, mean and rude. I’m a nice person.
答：我不自拍。但是其他人自拍，他们都想和我自拍。不，不，不。多亏了我的助理塞巴斯蒂安(Sébastien)，他对街上的人很刻薄，刻薄而粗鲁。这样我就可以和和气气的。
Do you keep an eye on the work of other designers, your competitors?
问：你留意其他设计师、你的竞争对手的作品吗？
Yes, I look at many things. I don’t see it like competition. I like when there are many people who do good things, because you work better if there is competition than if there are only third-rate people. Paris cannot be Paris only with one. But from me to you, there are very few who have, in terms of craftsmanship, the craftsmanship of high-quality couture. For me, the best — I won’t talk about Chanel, because they have the biggest operation, with 250 workers for the whole couture — is Dior and Givenchy. The others, I prefer not to comment. I am not a fashion journalist.
答：是的，我看很多东西。我不把它视为竞争。我喜欢很多人设计出很好的作品，因为你在有竞争的情况下做得更好，好过在其他设计师都是三流水平的情况下。如果只有一位优秀设计师，那巴黎就称不上巴黎了。但是，坦白跟你说，从工艺水平角度讲，没几个人能做出高质量的定制服装。在我看来，最好的是迪奥和纪梵希(Givenchy)。香奈儿我就不说了，因为它的运作团队最大，有250人为整个高级定制服装工作。其他品牌我不想评论。我不是时装记者。
Have you begun to work on the haute fourrure?
问：你开始设计高级皮草系列了吗？
It’s working in my mind, but now I have to get rid of the season of the ready-to-wear, so I have to do Fendi, then Chanel, then we have to do the cruise, then we have to do this. ...
答：我头脑中有了些构思，但现在我得先解决成衣季，所以我得先完成芬迪和香奈儿的成衣系列，然后我们得设计度假系列，然后才能做这个……
Is it difficult to design for so many labels?
问：给这么多品牌做设计有困难吗？
When I’m at Fendi, I don’t even remember what I am doing somewhere else, and if I am somewhere else, I forgot what I did here. What I do for Chanel never looks like Fendi. I have no personality. Perhaps I have three.
答：在芬迪时，我甚至不记得我在其他地方在做什么。如果在其他地方，我会忘记在芬迪做的东西。我给香奈儿设计的东西看起来永远不像芬迪。我没有个性。或者说，我有三重个性。
Do you foresee a time when you might stop?
问：你想过将来有一天会停止设计吗？
No. I would die on the spot. Chanel died in the middle of a collection when she was in her nearly 90s. I have time! In fashion, you think about six months, six months, six months. Now it’s even three months, three months, three months. The world is different. There’s no faraway future, it’s no futuristic thing. Fashion is something people are supposed to consume immediately, not in 10 years.
答：没有。我会在工作岗位上死去。香奈儿90多岁时在设计某个系列时去世。我还有时间！时装界想问题都是以半年为界。现在甚至是以三个月为界。这世界变了。没有遥远的未来，也没有未来主义这回事。时装是希望人们马上消费的东西，而不是十年以后。