Pioneering fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld died on February 19 2019, at the age of 85
By EDWINA LIU
Images by CHANEL
When it comes to the biggest fashion icons of the century, Karl Lagerfeld must be the first name on the list. The artistic director for Chanel’s Haute Couture, ready to wear and accessories, and creative director of Fendi and his own brand, was renowned for his uniform of dark shades and a slick white ponytail. This legendary fashion designer worked with Fendi for 54 years and 36 years for Chanel. He created many timeless designs for the world, such as the Chanel Classic Flap Bag, Chanel Le Boy, Chanel Gabrielle, Fendi Peekaboo and more. This extraordinary creative individual passed away in Paris, in February at 85 years old. The whole fashion industry is in grief.
Early life
Karl Otto Lagerfeldt was born in Hamburg, Germany, in a wealthy family. He removed the “t” at the end of his last name early in his career in order to make it sound “more commercial”.
During his childhood, he would often cut out pictures from fashion magazines, and was also known to be critical of what others wore to school. When Lagerfeld was 14 years old, he decided to move to Paris and start his career in Fashion industry. In 1954, he won first place in the International Wool Secretariat’s International Woolmark Prize. Another legendary designer, Yves Saint Laurent, was another winner in this competition, and they became close friend afterwards.
French designer Pierre Balmain executed Lagerfeld’s design and invited the young designer to become his assistant.
Career journey
After three years working with the top designer of that time, Lagerfeld got his first artistic director title at Jean Patou. Good work soon followed, between 1963-1983, he designed ready-to-wear and accessories for Chloé, and he started his story with Fendi in 1965.
In 1982, the chairman of Chanel, Alain Wertheimer, asked Lagerfeld to design for the house. At that time, founder Coco Chanel had died 12 years prior, and in the interim the company had muddled through, propped up by apparel licenses and sales of its No. 5 perfume. 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.”
At Chanel, Lagerfeld quickly sexed up the brand’s codes created by Gabrielle Chanel: the Chanel jacket and suit, the little black dress, the precious tweeds, the two-tone shoes, the quilted handbags, the pearls and costume jewellery. In the early ‘80s, Lagerfeld interlocked “CC” (a monograph for Coco Chanel) and introduced it as a style pattern for the House of Chanel.
In 984, the designer founded his own line, Karl Lagerfeld, and sold it to the Tommy Hilfiger group in 2005. He remained its chief creative and was directly involved in the design process.
An energetic workaholic
Lagerfeld was every inch a workaholic. He oversaw as many as eight Chanel collections a year: spring, fall, skiwear, haute couture, and more. One of fashion’s most prolific couturiers, he also produced outfits for Italy’s Fendi and his own label.
He was also famously sharp-tongued, having once said, “My thing is to work more than the others to show them how useless they are.”
In addition to fashion design, Karl Lagerfeld was also passionate about drawing, illustration and photography. He shot and creatively directed all of Chanel’s advertising and many fashion shooting for the industry. In 2012, he launched a photography project entitle La Petite Veste Noire, Un Classique de Chanel revisité (The Little Black Jacket: Chanel’s Classic Revisited).
He also illustrated several books, including The Emperor’s New Clothes by H.C Anderson, and an edition of Paul Morand’s book devoted to Gabrielle Chanel.
Death
Karl Lagerfeld sparked concerns when he didn’t appear at the end of his Chanel shows in Paris in early 2019, a development the house attributed to his being “tired.” It was the firs time in recent years he had not come out to receive applause at the end of one of his shows.
Days later, on February 19, it was announced that the legendary designer had passed away.
The industry has since honoured this beloved designer. Many in the trade, including some of Lagerfeld’s closest friends and collaborators, shared their thoughts and feelings in an outpouring of sentiment on an emotional day for fashion.
Alain Wertheimer, CEO of Chanel said: “Thanks to his creative genius, generosity and exceptional intuition, Karl Lagerfeld was ahead of his time, which widely contributed to the House of Chanel’s success throughout the world. Today, not only have I lost a friend, but we have all lost an extraordinary creative mind to whom I gave carte blanche in the early 1980s to reinvent the brand.”
Serge Brunschwig, chairman and CEO of Fendi, echoed his sentiments: “He leaves us an enormous heritage, an inexhaustible source of inspiration to continue. Karl will be immensely missed by myself and all the Fendi people,” he said.
“Karl was so much more than our greatest and most prolific designer — his creative genius was breathtaking and to be his friend was an exceptional gift,” said Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief at Vogue America. “Karl was brilliant, he was wicked, he was funny, he was generous beyond measure, and he was deeply kind. I will miss him so very much.”
We hope this genius can rest in peace in another planet. After all, just like he said: “I’m very much down to Earth, just not this Earth.”
