Suzy Menkes

>> The International Herald Tribune is hosting its 10th annual luxury conference in London, where Suzy Menkes grilled Karl Lagerfeld earlier today on his thoughts of himself, his fellow designers, and his legacy. A few highlights, below.

On who the real Karl Lagerfeld is: "I am a cocktail."

On the current Hermes situation: "If you don't want to be taken over, don't put your business in the public market. Stay private like Chanel."

On designing: "I love my job. I have no idea of what it means to take yourself seriously. You have to be detached."

On the pecking order at Chanel: "Nobody tells me what to do at Chanel . . . I am there to be used. I like to be used, but only in the way I think I should be used."

On his legacy: "I was the blueprint for Tom Ford at Gucci, Alber Elbaz at Lanvin . . ."

On ego: "People think I'm on an ego trip, but I'm not. I can get out of people what they want to express but can't."

On how he embraces the digital world: "If you are against 'digital' in the world of today, you are lost . . . I don't use computers so much — they do what your brain is meant to do. But they are beautiful."

On taking from the past to translate for the future: "if you want to revive something you can't do it with respect. That's the kiss of death . . . you can only build if you destroy . . . I have no archives, I keep nothing. Other people can do that for me. I like now."

On his longevity: "I never think of what's going on after me. I never think of what's next. I only think of the moment."

On the recent onslaught of Chanel films: "I don't like the movies about Coco Chanel."

>> Raf Simons seems to hold the honor of electrifying the fashion audience the most thus far this Spring 2011 season. Suzy Menkes wrote of his Jil Sander collection: "This was a show that projected fashion into this new decade." Vogue UK lauded: "And in the space of 15 minutes, Raf Simons stole the show. The Jil Sander collection this afternoon did just what he does so well: make everybody forget everything they’ve seen before by giving them brilliantly conceived, complete distraction."

Joe Zee Tweeted: "I think Raf Simons has officially made me a color convert with his Jil Sander collection. So incredibly major! With a capital M," later replying "COSIGN" to Kelly Cutrone's Tweet: "Fashion Prediction: Raf for Jill Sander - show stopper - Takes the season." The Los Angeles Times's Booth Moore agreed: "At Jil Sander, designer Raf Simons' extreme color story packed more of a punch than almost anything else we'd seen so far this season."

WWD called the collection "extraordinary" and "fantastic," and Cathy Horyn wrote: "Mr. Simons has shown some exceptional collections at Jil in the past five years, but in this one he dealt more assuredly with the fundamentals of fashion — shape, volume, proportion, new materials — and pushed past the old frontiers to create a new example of minimalist dressing . . . Reaction to the show seemed very enthusiastic, with an immediate burst of applause at the end."

>> Suzy Menkes Highlights Why Fashion Brands Are Afraid of the Internet —Suzy Menkes spoke in a video presented yesterday along with the PREMIUM Exhibitions fashion blogger panel in Berlin, providing some insight into why the Internet is so "terrifying" for brands: "I think with big fashion brands it's all about control. They have done so much over the years and sometimes it's a hundred years to build up this whole image of themselves and being in control of everything — chosing the pages in the magazine where they're going to go, what they're going to be adjacent to, where they're going to put up their ads in a city, you know, micromanaging this. And then, along comes Twitter, and all of a sudden someone walks out of a . . . what shall we say . . . Louis Vuitton show and says, 'That show sucked. I hated it, and I've always hated Louis Vuitton.' You know, just a completely banal, stupid comment. But that can go viral and other people can answer this . . . suddenly you're faced with 3 million people saying negative things. It's really terrifying for these brand managers." [@naominevitt]

>> For the better part of a year, rumors of Martin Margiela's withdrawal from his label have plagued the industry. In October, majority owner Renzo Rosso finally confirmed that Margiela was no longer involved in design and later said he was about to name a replacement.

It seems Rosso has changed his mind: Giovanni Pungetti, chief executive of Maison Martin Margiela, said today that the designer has quietly left the comapny and will not be replaced. The fashion house, which had in the past offered his job to Haider Ackermann and Raf Simons, will continue to operate with the creative staff, 28-strong, that Margiela developed over his 20-year stint. According to Pungetti: “It would have been very simple to hire someone else, and we evaluated that option, but in the end, what is important is the taste of designer."

What spurred the departure? »

>> Finally Confirmed: Martin Margiela Not Involved in Designing Maison —Just a year ago for the Spring 2009 season, Maison Martin Margiela celebrated its twentieth anniversary with a retrospective show — around that time, rumors began to circulate that the designer left the brand, since bolstered by tepid reviews for the house's Fall 2009 ready-to-wear and couture collections, and most recently, Spring 2010, which Suzy Menkes called "tragic."  Over the weekend, Margiela majority stakeholder Renzo Rosso finally confirmed: "Martin has not been there for a long time. He is here but not here. We have a new fresh design team on board. We are focusing on young, realistic energy for the future; this is really Margiela for the year 2015." Also confirmed: the fact that Haider Ackermann was offered creative directorship, but turned it down — likely because the brand refuses to publicize the head designer; it's said that the house is contractually obligated to permanently list Margiela as creative director. [Vogue UK, FWD]