Karl Lagerfeld - The Original Prompt Designer?

In 2008, long before generative AI began reshaping creative work, Karl Lagerfeld described an approach to design that now sounds strangely familiar.

During a conversation with Amir Kassaei at the ADC Gipfel der Kreativität in Berlin, Lagerfeld was asked whether traditional craft was losing ground to conceptual thinking, speed and commercial impact. Kassaei wondered whether the knowledge accumulated through centuries of tailoring still mattered when designers were becoming increasingly removed from the physical production of their work.

Lagerfeld’s answer could almost have been given at an AI conference today.

Amir Kassaei: You mentioned that times are changing. In our industry, we feel that the craft of being a copywriter or an art director is becoming less important. Other areas such as quick market success, immediate impact or conceptual thinking are taking precedence. Is this the case in your industry as well? Is the craft of tailoring, or the knowledge built up over hundreds of years, becoming less important?

Karl Lagerfeld: You know, tailoring isn’t done like it was in the 18th century. The techniques have changed. It’s good to know about it, but I myself don’t cut clothes, I don’t sew clothes or anything like that. I have a concept, an idea, and I can answer all the technical questions in 30 seconds. But I don’t do it myself. I try things on, but I don’t touch the stuff; that’s not my job.

Amir Kassaei: But am I still a good designer if I don’t master the craft?

Karl Lagerfeld: You have to master the craft in the sense that you can answer any technical question. You don’t have to sit there and do it yourself, but you have to have the knowledge, in any profession, to be able to answer any question.

Still from Interview Karl Lagerfeld: Das menschgewordene Marketing, YouTube. Amir Kassaei in conversation with Karl Lagerfeld at the ADC Gipfel der Kreativität, Berlin, 2008. Relevant passage begins at 23:39.

At the time, Lagerfeld was describing the division of labour inside a fashion house. He conceived the collection, produced the sketches and guided a team capable of translating his ideas into physical garments. He did not need to sit at the sewing machine himself. His job was to know what he wanted and to understand the craft well enough to recognise whether it had been achieved.

Fourteen years before generative AI entered the mainstream, Lagerfeld had already articulated something close to the role of today’s prompt designer.

A designer working with AI also begins with an idea and hands the execution elsewhere. The instruction may take the form of a written prompt rather than a sketch, but the challenge is similar: communicating a vision clearly enough that another intelligence can interpret it. The work continues through selection, correction and refinement. Knowing what to ask for is only the beginning. You also need to recognise what the system has misunderstood.

Lagerfeld’s definition of mastery feels particularly relevant here. He did not measure craft by the number of manual steps a designer completed personally. He measured it by the depth of their command over the process. Could they answer technical questions? Could they identify errors? Could they guide the people executing the work?

Generative AI has made that distinction newly visible. It can produce an image within seconds, but speed does little for someone without an idea, a visual vocabulary or the judgement to separate a convincing result from a generic one. Delegating the labour does not remove the need for knowledge. It makes the quality of the direction easier to see.

There is something almost prophetic about Lagerfeld’s answer now. He was speaking about couture workshops, yet the model he described has spread far beyond fashion: the creative as originator, editor and director, surrounded by tools that carry out increasing amounts of the production.

The term “prompt designer” would probably have amused him, but the job itself would have been all too familiar.