30 fashion designers you should know... #14

KARL (the Great) LAGERFELD

According to his own account, Lagerfeld was born in 1938 (other sources say 1933) in Hamburg. As a teenager he moved to Paris, where in 1954 he received the first prize of the International Wool Secretariat for a coat design. What followed was a three-year aprenticeship in couture with Pierre Balmain and later the position as artistic director at Jean Patou. Lagerfeld became extremely interested in prêt-à-porter, which he found more appropriate to the times. In 1963 he became a freelance designer and at the same time signed up with the fashion house Chloé. There he worked as the chief designer twice, in 1963-1983 and 1993-1997. Since 1965 he also designed fur collections for the Italian fashion house Fendi. In 1983 he received an offer to take over the artistic direction at Chanel. The industry doubted whether Karl Lagerfeld could bring new life to the aging Chanel style. But in spite of his myriad interests, at Chanel Lagerfeld exhibits enormous staying power. He reinterpreted with irony, using all elements of the Chanel style at once, Lagerfeld deploys elements of pearls, diamond patterns, gold chains, tweed, camelias and of course the famous "double C", which he uses in almost provocative exaggeration in his collections. In order to achieve that perfect Chanel image, Lagerfeld not only personally conceives and takes photographs for his ad campaigns, he also turns to the charms of one of his many muses (Claudia Schiffer, Stella Tennant, Nicole Kidman...), which he alternates according to the sense of time. This couturier is a master of skillful self-presentation and has transformed himself into his own trademark, with a powder-white ponytail and his ever-present sunglasses. Within only a year Lagerfeld shed more than ninety pounds as a publicity stunt to fit into the slim-cut Dior suits of his young designer colleague Hedi Slimane. In order to describe the entire range of his achievements, one would need to use as many words in each line as the master himself utters per minute when speaking.

Karl Lagerfeld for Chanel