When people talk about luxury fashion and iconic fashion designers, Karl Lagerfeld, who helmed Chanel, Fendi and his own eponymous brand over a career spanning seven decades, was without doubt the undisputed King of the industry. In February, the fashion world was rocked by the news of his passing, and this issue we can’t help but look back at his life and the legacy he left behind.
“He represents the soul of fashion,” said Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, when she presented him with the Outstanding Achievement Award during the British Fashion Awards in 2015. “Restless, forward-looking and voraciously attentive to our changing culture,” she added.
“What Warhol was to art, he was to fashion. The only person who could make black and white colorful,” wrote German supermodel Claudia Schiffer in her emotional tribute to the designer in the days after his death.
Born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt in Hamburg, to a German mother and Swedish father, he later changed his name to Karl Lagerfeld for a more commercial appeal, according to Karl himself.
At a young age, he knew he was destined for greatness. After watching a Dior fashion show in 1952 in his native land, he decided to move to Paris to pursue his love for fashion.
Two years later, his biggest break came when he joined a fashion competition called the International Wool Secretariat, and won the coat category. Pierre Balmain, who made the coat that Karl designed, was so impressed, he offered him a job as his assistant. Three years after, he became Jean Patou’s art director and stayed there for five years before embarking on a freelance career, designing ready-to-wear pieces for brands such as Ballantyne, Charles Jourdan, Krizia and Chloe.
In 1965, he started working for Italian fashion house Fendi, but it wasn’t until 1983 when he was appointed artistic director of Chanel, that Lagerfeld’s influence in the fashion industry would make him one of the most celebrated designers in this lifetime. He transformed the fortunes of Chanel and redefined the house’s code in the same way he transformed the catwalk. Chanel’s métiers d’art runway shows designed to showcase Chanel’s specialized ateliers proved to be the ultimate definition of luxury. A year after he joined Chanel, he launched his namesake label, which he later sold to the Tommy Hilfiger group in 2005.
Celebrated for his renaissance-like intelligence and known for his extremely outspoken personality as well as his controversial opinions, no one better embodied the mood of the moment than Karl Lagerfeld. Easily recognizable with his black jeans, high-collared white shirts, dark glasses, powdered ponytail and fingerless leather gloves, he was once quoted as saying: “I’m a walking label, my name is Labelfeld not Lagerfeld.”
In a 2008 documentary Lagerfeld Confidential, he boldly stated: “I do not want to be real in other people’s lives. I want to be an apparition.”
The fashion icon was also an impressive linguist, fluent in German, French, English and Spanish.
In addition to his design mastery, Lagerfeld was also a photographer and filmmaker. In fact, he shot and directed all of Chanel’s advertising since 1987. Collaborating with celebrities, he understood that producing images in today’s world of digital marketing had the power to transform a career, a brand and a business. With his artistic flair and business acumen, the world watched him transform each and every show into a grand display of masterpieces.
His creative genius showed us what it’s like to be Karl Lagerfeld, as we witnessed Chanel stage a women’s rights protest, build an airplane hangar and a life-sized rocket, and even create a real-life beach, shipping in a 265-ton iceberg from Sweden. Indeed, Chanel was all anyone could talk about and remember come fashion month.
Despite his illustrious professional life, Lagerfeld’s personal life remained a mystery. In an apartment filled with books and clothes in Paris, he lived with his cat Choupette, who became as famous as her master. And while rumours of his retirement and sickness often circulated in recent years, he had a lifetime contract with Chanel and Fendi and continued to perform his duties. Being bored was his one great fear. When asked about retiring, he responded, “I might as well stop breathing.”
Perhaps, his one blind spot was his own mortality, which he declined to acknowledge.
Karl Otto Lagerfeld, the fashion phenomenon, died in Paris on February 19, 2019.
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Bella Lopez is a
Macau-based Fashion writer. Find her on Instagram
@bombshellinthisdress