Former Lagerfeld Assistant Tells All About Karl's "Narcissistic" Habits, Alleged Tax Debt

fashionologie — Wed, 20 May 2009 14:20:54 PDT

>> Merci Karl, a tell-all book by former Lagerfeld assistant Arnaud Maillard, made waves two years ago when it first came out in France. The book has just been released in German, and Maillard, who led the Lagerfeld Gallery Studio for five years, reiterates in a new interview with Speigel something we all knew: Karl is self-involved. "He's an unbelievable narcissist. He needs an eternity to get ready in the morning. He takes photos of himself at every photo shoot and puts them everywhere."

Just as described in The Beautiful Fall, the author of which Lagerfeld sued, Maillard says Karl "dumps people at the drop of a dime."

He surrounds himself with a kind of royal court, nobody disagrees with him . . . He can also be merciless. I've seen him simply stop talking to people, stop acknowledging their existence. In the fashion industry, nobody raises their voice; they say the worst things in a very polite tone.

The tradeoffs of working for Karl . . . »