Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Otto Lagerfeld (Hamburg, September 10, 1933-Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, February 19, 2019) was a German fashion designer and European socialite, considered one of the most influential of the second half of the XX century. He owed much of his popularity to his work for the French brand Chanel and the Italian Fendi, to his activity as a photographer and also to his striking catwalks, parades and public appearances, in which he was generally surrounded by entertainment celebrities and supermodels.

Family

His father, Otto Lagerfeld (1881-1967), founded the company Lagerfeld & Co, which imported the Carnation brand of evaporated milk to Germany from the United States, and, in 1923, he was co-founder of the German factory of the same category Glücksklee-Milch. His mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann (1897-1978), was the daughter of local politician Karl Bahlmann, of the Catholic Center Party (Zentrum). They were married in 1930. Karl had a sister, born in 1931, Martha Christiane "Christel" that she lived in the United States since 1957 and died at the end of 2015. He also had an older half-sister, Thea, from her father's first marriage.

It was known that Lagerfeld claimed to be younger than his real age, taking a few years off his date of birth and misrepresenting his origins, as he claimed to have been born in 1938 to a Swedish father. In reality, Otto was German, born in Hamburg, and to a German mother. In April 2013, he finally claimed to have been born in 1935. However, his parents published a birth announcement in 1933 and the Hamburg baptismal register also records him as born on September 10, 1933, as published by the German newspaper Bild am Sonntagin 2008 along with an interview with his teacher and a classmate. Despite such revelations, Lagerfeld continued to celebrate his birthday five years late.

As a young man he already showed interest in the visual arts, and his classmates remembered him drawing sketches, no matter what they were doing in class. His greatest inspiration was French artists, and in an interview he stated that he only continued studying with a view to learning French and being able to move there. He finished high school at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris, where he specialized in history and drawing.

Fashion

Beginning of his career

Lagerfeld emigrated to Paris in 1953. In 1955, at the age of twenty-two, he was awarded a job at the fashion house Pierre Balmain, after having won a coat design competition sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat, where he also met Yves Saint Laurent.

In 1958, Lagerfeld became artistic director of Jean Patou. In 1964 he traveled to Rome to study art history and work for the Tiziano firm, but soon began as a freelancer for a multitude of brands such as Chlóe, Charles Jourdan, Krizia and Valentino.

In 1967, Fendi hired him to modernize its fur line. Lagerfeld's designs turned out to be innovative, as he introduced and made fashionable the use of furs such as rabbit and squirrel. She remained with Fendi until his death.

At the service of several firms

Lagerfeld definitely made an international name for himself with Chanel; And furthermore, in the 80s he founded his own brand, called Karl Lagerfeld, which launches perfumes and clothing lines.

When he joined Chanel in 1983, the brand was considered "almost dead" since the death a decade ago of its founder Coco Chanel. Lagerfeld revived the company and, maintaining the characteristic style, however, renewed it and made it definitively timeless, with the 50s Chanel jacket adaptable to all types of looks, and introducing the gold chains, the camellia and the double CC logo as unmistakable characteristics.

Lagerfeld was known for his elitist taste and customs, with a sometimes snobbish eccentricity, which he did not hesitate to mix with nods to consumer culture and popular stars. In the early 1990s he chose nudists and an Italian star of erotic films (Moana Pozzi) to parade with his Black and White collection for the Fendi brand; It is said that the fashion critic Anna Wintour left the room, disgusted. To criticism against Pozzi, Lagerfeld responded: "Ordinary women walk like Moana and like 50% models."

She designed legendary pieces such as the swimsuit with bubbling water gushing out of the front, a dress that imitated a car with a radiator grill and bumper, and countless eccentric hats.

Lagerfeld worked as a designer for the most important fashion houses:

• 1955-1958: Pierre Balmain
• 1958-1963: Jean Patou
• 1963-1978, 1992-1997: Chloé
• 1965-2019: Fendi
• 1974-2019: Karl Lagerfeld
• 1983-2019: Chanel
• 2004: Hennes & Mauritz

In the French edition of Architectural Digest magazine in May 2012, she showed off her Paris apartment. She also revealed her vast collection of Suzanne Belperron pins and brooches and revealed the color of one of her blue chalcedony rings as the starting point for the Chanel spring/summer 2012 collection.

Collaborations and projects

In 2004 he designed some outfits for Madonna's international Re-Invention Tour, he also designed some for the "Showgirl" by Kylie Minogue.

Lagerfeld collaborated with the Swedish fashion brand H&M, when on November 12, 2004, H&M offered a limited number of different clothing items in selected shopping centers, for women and men. Just two days after stocking the shopping centers, H&M had announced that all of her clothes were sold out. Lagerfeld commented that she was not afraid that working with more popular brands would tarnish her elitist image.

In 2017 he collaborated with the Falabella store offering different products such as polo shirts, blouses, pants, shoes, sneakers and bags, among others.

Work as a photographer

He produced Visionaire 23: The Emperor's New Clothes, a series of nude photographs of South African model David Miller. In 1996 she received the culture prize of the German Photography Association.

In addition, the fact that «the king of fashion» or the "Kaiser" (as Karl was called in Germany and in other various European countries) was personally interested in the musical group Tokio Hotel, it showed that the leader of said group, Bill Kaulitz, is very familiar with the world of fashion. In the fall of 2009, he photographed Kaulitz for German Vogue, which was a great honor for Bill:

"I started to be interested in this at a very young age; I also sewed and designed some things myself and of course it's a dream to do something for someone like Karl Lagerfeld, for me it was completely a great moment and of course I was happy that he noticed it, he looked at it and he liked it and that, I also think he's super. (Bill Kaulitz, singer of Tokio Hotel).

In 2010, he was the photographer chosen for the traditional Pirelli Calendar of the following year. He characterized the models (including actress Julianne Moore) as mythological characters and (for the first time in said calendar) included male nudes.

As creative director of Chanel, he personally carried out the house's advertising campaigns, with his own photographs.

Weight loss and new look

Lagerfeld was also famous for a drastic transformation of his body, when in 2002 he lost around 36 kilos in one year. "Suddenly I wanted to dress differently, wear clothes designed by Hedi Slimane" he stated. "But these clothes, worn by very, very skinny boys – and not by men my age – required me to lose at least 36 kilos. It took me exactly 13 months.' The diet created especially for Lagerfeld by Dr. Jean-Claude Houdret was transformed into a book called "Karl Lagerfeld's Diet" ("The Karl Lagerfeld Diet", 2004). His much slimmer silhouette was accompanied by a new characteristic look that he maintained for the last 15 years and became iconic: black suit jacket, with a white high-necked and starched shirt, white, undyed hair, gathered in a ponytail and mittens and black sunglasses too.

Clearly, weight was an issue for Lagerfeld and it is in that context that during 2012 he caused great controversy by saying that the singer Adele was 'too fat', a statement that was immediately responded to by the British, who He assured that he was satisfied with his physique.

His relationship with Lady Diana of Wales

Lagerfeld was an advisor to Diana of Wales on fashion issues, he stated that he felt frustrated with the princess because his suggestions were dismissed and declared to the media in 2006 that:

- "She was beautiful and very sweet, but stupid"-

Personal life

She had an 18-year relationship with the elegant French aristocrat, model and socialite Jacques de Bascher (1951-1989), although Lagerfeld assured that it was something platonic that never became sexual, nor did he share his excesses, which he tolerated. In the mid-1970s, de Bascher had an affair with Yves Saint Laurent; Subsequently, St. Laurent's partner and former lover, Pierre Berge, accused Lagerfeld of being behind the affair to destabilize the rival fashion house. When de Bascher died of AIDS in 1989, Lagerfeld remained at her bedside until her death, and celebrated a mass in her memory.

The model Baptista Giabiconi gave him his Burmese kitten named Choupette (in French, "honey"; August 15, 2011-), which he had left for Christmas 2011. in his care while he traveled abroad, noticing that he had grown fond of him. The cat became a glamorous media mascot, appearing in the designer's photo reports, having her own Twitter account since 2012 with thousands of followers, and releasing a makeup line inspired by her in 2016, after the success of a previous line in Japan. in 2014 for Shu Uemura.