Karl Lagerfeld's mother mocked him wearing hats

Karl Lagerfeld's mother told him he looked like an "old dyke" in hats when he was just eight years old.

The 79-year-old designer admits he owes some of his fashion sense to the advice he received as a child.

He said: "I love hats, in a way, but when I was a child, I'd wear Tyrolean hats, and my mother said to me: 'You shouldn't wear hats. You look like an old dyke.' Do you say such things to children? She was quite funny, no?"

Karl also recalled that his father supported his fashion choices after Karl threatened to rather ‘die of pneumonia’ than not own a robe style in blue cashmere in a particular shop’s window.

He reminisced: "I went to see my father at the George V with only a suit on. He said to me, 'But you will die! You will get pneumonia!' And I said, 'I prefer to die than to wear another coat than the robe style in blue cashmere in the Dorian Gray window. If not that one, I prefer to freeze.' So he bought the coat."

The opinionated Chanel designer also mentioned his hatred for tattoos.

He told M magazine: "I think tattoos are horrible. It's like living in a Pucci dress full-time. If you're young and tight, maybe it's OK, but..."