Famed fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld passed away this month at the reputed age of 83, although his actual date of birth, like many things about Lagerfeld, were up for debate. Here are some things you may have known, or not, about the man, the myth, the fashion legend.
Born September, 1935, Karl Lagerfeld passed away on February 19 this year. The son of a wealthy Hamburg businessman, Lagerfeld was born in Germany. Initially educated at St Anne’s school, following his family’s emigration to France, Lagerfeld completed his education at Lycée Montaigne, where he focused on drawing and history.
As many know, Lagerfeld was one of the fashion industry’s most decorated designers, having helmed Chanel since 1983. He started as Pierre Balmain’s assistant after winning the coats category at a competition in 1955. After Balmain, he designed for Jean Patou, Tiziano, and then freelanced for French fashion house Chloé in 1964, soon designing the entire collection. And in 1965 he began collaborating with Fendi, continuing for the rest of his career for all their ready-to-wear collections.
In 1982, the chairman of Chanel, Alain Wertheimer, asked Lagerfeld to design for the house. Lagerfeld told The New York Times, “Everybody said, ‘Don’t touch it, it’s dead, it will never come back.’ But by then I thought it was a challenge.” The designer would go on to redefine the house’s codes while paying homage to the Chanel herself, subverting her ideals with his own modern take on her most renowned designs. Lagerfeld has made cult items of the house’s bouclé tweed, pearls, dual-toned footwear and interlocking C’s for new generations around the globe.
The designer founded his own line, Karl Lagerfeld, in 1984, telling Vogue, “I’ve not been dreaming all my life to have my name over a shop. Now, we’ll put it there because it’s the right moment to do it; and I made this name, why not use it?” Lagerfeld sold the brand to the Tommy Hilfiger group in 2005. He remained its chief creative and was directly involved in the design process.
In addition to his design talents, Lagerfeld was also a photographer and filmmaker, and regularly brought Chanel’s heritage to life through film and imagery; he also shot and creatively directed all of Chanel’s advertising. Celebrated for his renaissance-like intelligence, Lagerfeld’s aesthetic was imbued with cultural and historical reference points. The designer was also an impressive linguist, versed in German, English, French and Spanish.
The Lagerfeld quotes are an endlessly rich mine. However, the ugliest of his sharp words inevitably caused controversy. Over the years Lagerfeld was also reviled by many as a misogynist, a “fat phobe,” who once called Adele “too fat” and claimed that “fat mummies” were jealous of thin models. “No one wants to see curvy women on the runway,” he opined of the demand for a variety of body shapes to be shown in fashion. “The hole in social security, it’s also [because of] all the diseases caught by people who are too fat,” he opined.
He reportedly also dismissed the #MeToo movement. He told Numéro that models complaining about being groped should “join a nunnery,” and of actresses’ holding their alleged abusers to account, he said, “What shocks me most in all of this are the starlets who have taken 20 years to remember what happened. Not to mention the fact there are no prosecution witnesses. That said I cannot stand Mr (Harvey) Weinstein…”
Lagerfeld had a signature, if not odd look and air: the ponytail, fingerless gloves, diamante belt buckles, sort of a throwback to French court dandies, his tendency to adjust his biography and aptitude for dashing, if ultimately meaningless, pronouncements that bordered on vulgar. “I’m very much down to earth, just not this earth,” Karl Lagerfeld once said. He knew how he looked, how he sounded, and called himself a “cartoon.” That cartoon was both performance and shield. “I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like a mask. And for me, the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.”
Lagerfeld, a walking, talking pageant of high and low, liked to mix it up: an urge born of the confidence that comes with being cultured in a world (fashion) where culture is not always at a premium. Of fashion shows, Lagerfeld said, “I’m a kind of fashion nymphomaniac who never gets an orgasm.” “Sweatpants,” he said, “are a sign of defeat. “You lost control of your life you bought some sweatpants.” He knew all about opera, furniture and architecture. The owner of a vast library, he could read in several languages.
His muse and longtime companion, a white cat called Choupette, which exists largely on Twitter – was photographed in a mourning veil, thanking us for our words of condolence. The two were often pictured together like Bond villain and pet. Lagerfeld even wrote a book about her: Choupette: The Private Life of a High-Flying Fashion Cat. That his best beloved was literally inhuman, and very small, is no surprise. It is rumoured that, if she exists, she will inherit his vast fortune. Although it is illegal in France, something says Lagerfeld may have found a way around that “minor” hurdle.
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Photo Credit: Frederic Legrand – COMEO / Shutterstock.com