Fashion’s Warhol
Designer both iconic and iconoclastic had lasting impact
PARIS — Karl Lagerfeld, Chanel’s iconic couturier whose designs had an unprecedented impact on the entire fashion industry, died Tuesday in Paris, prompting an outpouring of admiration for the man in the trademark white ponytail, high starched collar and dark enigmatic glasses who has dominated high fashion for the past 50 years.
Although he spent nearly his entire career at luxury labels, Lagerfeld’s designs quickly trickled down to lower-end retailers, giving him global influence.
Such was the enigma surrounding the German-born designer that even his age was a point of mystery for decades, with reports that he had two birth certificates, one dated 1933 and the other 1938.
Last month, he did not come out to take a bow at Chanel’s couture show in Paris, a rare absence the company attributed to him being “tired.”
“An extraordinary creative individual, Lagerfeld reinvented 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 jewelry,” Chanel said.
Tributes from fellow designers, Hollywood celebrities, models and politicians quickly poured in. Donatella Versace thanked Lagerfeld for the way he inspired her and her late brother Gianni Versace. Former supermodel Claudia Schiffer, who credits Lagerfeld as her mentor, called him her “magic dust.”
“What (Andy) Warhol was to art, he was to fashion. He is irreplaceable,” she said.
Lagerfeld held top design jobs at luxury label Fendi from 1977 and Paris’ family-owned powerhouse Chanel in 1983.
At Chanel, he served up youthful designs that were always of the moment and sent out many variations on the house’s classic skirt suit, ratcheting up the hemlines or smothering it in golden chains, stings of pearls or pricey accessories.
His outspoken and often stinging remarks on topics as diverse as French politics and celebrity waistlines won him the nickname “Kaiser Karl” in the fashion media. Among the most acid comments were calling former French president Francois Hollande an “imbecile” and telling a British tabloid he didn’t like the face of Pippa Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge’s sister, saying, “She should only show her back.”
Lagerfeld was also heavily criticized for sending out a negative message to women when he told France’s Metro newspaper that British singer Adele was “a little too fat.”
But he did have an under reported soft side. He was known to be kind to his Chanel staff and famous for giving journalists long interviews after each fashion show.
Lagerfeld had little use for nostalgia and kept his gaze firmly on the future. Well into his 70s, he was quick to embrace new technology: He famously had a collection of hundreds of iPods.
Although he spent much of his life in the public eye, he remained a largely elusive figure. Even as he courted the spotlight, he made an apparently deliberate effort to hide what was going on behind his trademark dark shades.
After cutting his teeth at Paris-based label Chloe, Lagerfeld consolidated his reputation in the 1980s when he revived the flagging fortunes of the storied Paris haute couture label Chanel, where he helped launch the careers of Schiffer and other supermodels.
The son of an industrialist and his violinist wife, Lagerfeld was born Sept. 10, 1935, into an affluent family in Hamburg, Germany.
He had artistic ambitions early on, saying he variously had wanted to become a cartoonist, a portraitist, an illustrator or a musician.
At 14, he went to school in Paris. His fashion career got off to a precocious start when, in 1954, a coat he designed won a contest by the International Wool Secretariat. His rival, Yves Saint Laurent, won that year in the dress category.
Lagerfeld apprenticed at Balmain, and in 1959 was hired at another Paris-based house, Patou, where he spent four years as artistic director. After jobs with labels including Rome-based Fendi, Lagerfeld took over at Chloe, known for its romantic Parisian style.
In 1983, he revived Chanel, dormant since the death of its founder, Coco Chanel, more than a decade earlier.
“When I took on Chanel, it was a sleeping beauty, not even a beautiful one,” he said in the 2007 documentary Lagerfeld Confidential. “She snored.”
For his debut collection for the house, Lagerfeld injected a dose of raciness, sending out a translucent navy chiffon number that prompted scandalized headlines.
Lagerfeld kept his private life under wraps.
“I have to be alone to do what I do,” he said.
As much as he loved the spotlight, Lagerfeld was careful to obscure his real self.
“It’s not that I lie,” he told French Vogue. “It’s that I don’t owe the truth to anyone.”