For devoted Karl fans who’ve eagerly been drinking up each acerbic, ridiculous phrase spewed from that stern mouth, there’s good news: Come September 7, a fresh tidal wave of new quotes will land on television in the form of a four-hour-long documentary. Four hours long. The German fashion designer, who’s been juggling multiple projects of late — designing eyeglasses, dirndls, and candles — has also managed to find time to allow television journalist Martina Neuen to follow him around for sixteen months. The end project, titled Mode Als Religion (Fashion As a Religion), grapples with the idea that if fashion were a religion, Karl would be its pope, fashion magazines would be its Bible, models would be its angels, and consumers would be its fervent believers. While Lagerfeld refers to himself as a “fashion missionary” in the film, he doesn’t fail share his two cents on “chic popes.” The only one with enough style to make his list? Pope Pius XII.
