thefashionspy.com

>> Karl Lagerfeld, in New York to launch his Macy's collection, talked with Style.com about fashion's notorious vices, but maintained: "I never smoke, I never take drugs, I’m never drunk, because I like only what I’m doing - work, reading, learning, sketching, taking photos. For the rest, my lack of passion or interest for this kind of thing makes it perhaps too easy for me to judge others. I’m surrounded by people who drink and take drugs. It doesn’t bother me at all, even when I know it’s bad for them. I’m not teaching them."

Alber Elbaz, too, over the weekend, broached the subject of drugs: "I don't understand this marathon of fashion. Today, designers are expected to produce work that is bigger, better, faster and - these days - cheaper. A singer can quit once he or she has made ten great songs, a director can finish once he or she has made five amazing films, a writer just needs to write three great books. Now let's look at designers - they produce six to eight shows a year, most designers have a 20-year-long career, so I need to create about 250 collections in that time. Not even Danielle Steel could write 250 books.

Elbaz continued: "You start to understand why some designers do strange things, why some designers talk to themselves, you have to find a way of dealing with it all. I don't take drugs because if I did I'd love them - I'd be a junkie. And because I'm Jewish, I'd probably be a dealer too," he joked. "I don't go out to parties because I'd look terrible in pictures. My escape is television - it's like meditation to me."