This Europe: Lagerfeld sheds his prêt-à-portly image

Appearance is everything, the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld says in a book published this week. He is not talking about the women's clothes he designs for Chanel but the spiritual benefits of dieting for men.

The 64-year-old couturier has written a book with a dietician telling how he reduced his weight by almost half – from 16 stone (101kg) to nine and a half – in 13 months. "To suggest appearances do not count today is a lie," says Lagerfeld, who is 5ft 11in (1m 80cm). "The way you look allows you to live in harmony with yourself. You need an acceptable appearance before people start to show an interest in your soul."

Le Meilleur des Régimes by Karl Lagerfeld and Dr Jean-Claude Houdret (Robert Laffont €20), claims that weight loss is a question of determination and sensible eating, rather than gimmickry. It contains 120 recipes for everything from breakfast to desserts and includes tips on male beauty and clean living.

Lagerfeld decided to slim two years ago after falling in love with a fashion collection created by Hedi Slimane for Christian Dior. When he realised the outfits would not suit his portly frame he went on a crash diet and shed his all-black uniform.

"I had let myself go. I had other priorities (such as my work). I was no longer my own centre of interest. My self-regard had disappeared, or been placed on pause. The boots, the black shirts, the black trousers were a kind of camouflage ... a wall between the world and myself," he writes.