Karl Lagerfeld
German Fashion Designer
Date of Birth | : | 10 Sep, 1933 |
Date of Death | : | 19 Feb, 2019 |
Place of Birth | : | Hamburg, Germany |
Profession | : | Actor, Film Director, Fashion Designer |
Nationality | : | German |
Social Profiles | : |
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Karl Otto Lagerfeld was a German fashion designer. Lagerfeld began his career in fashion in the 1950s, working for several top fashion houses including Balmain, Patou, and Chloé before joining Chanel in 1983.
Biography
Lagerfeld moved to Paris in 1952. In 1954 he won first prize for his coat design in the French International Wool Secretariat (now the International Woolmark Prize), and in 1955 he was hired by Pierre Balmain, who put his design into production. Three years later he became artistic director of Jean Patou’s fashion house. He left Paris in 1964 to study art history in Italy. But soon he was designing freelance for a range of companies that included Chloé (whose collections he designed from 1964 to 1983 and again from 1992 to 1997), Krizia, Valentino, and shoemaker Charles Jourdan. In 1967 he was hired as consultant director by upscale Italian design house Fendi to modernize the company’s fur line. His designs proved groundbreaking. Among other innovations, he introduced the use of skins such as mole, rabbit, and squirrel—pelts never before used in high-fashion designs. He stayed with Fendi throughout his career. In 1983 Lagerfeld produced his first couture collection for Chanel, and in 1984, after a year at Chanel, he launched his own eponymous label. But it was at Chanel that Lagerfeld became truly famous. He succeeded there by consistently managing to merge the spirit of the times with Chanel’s original sartorial strategy of a “total look”—a concept that Chanel herself created—wherein individual items of clothing are less important than what they are accessorized with and how they are worn. In the 1980s, when society was fixated with money and status, Chanel made great use of the Chanel signature, double C initials. Through the 1990s, as people became more mobile, the Chanel brand fused fashion with increasing functionality.
In addition to his work for a number of fashion and design houses, Lagerfeld had myriad professional interests. He was an avid photographer. From 1987 on, he photographed many of Chanel’s fashion advertisements, and his work was published in fashion magazines such as British Vogue and Interview. Additionally, he created illustrations for an edition of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Emperor’s New Clothes (1992) and created costumes for La Scala in Milan, the Florence opera house, and the Monte Carlo Ballet. His publications include The Karl Lagerfeld Diet (2004; cowritten with his physician, Jean-Claude Houdret), a manual telling of his struggle with weight loss. Also in 2004 he collaborated with the discount retailer H&M on a venture to produce limited-edition clothing lines by designers from the high-fashion world. In 2010 he collaborated with Steidl publishing house to launch the L.S.D. imprint (Lagerfeld. Steidl. Druckerei. Verlag), which published literature, biographies, and books on fashion, art, and music, most of which were translated from French and English into German. In 2015 Lagerfeld won the British Fashion Award for Outstanding Achievement, and he was the subject of a retrospective exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: Modemethode,” at the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, Germany.
Quotes
Total 45 Quotes
Life is not a beauty contest, some [ugly people] are great. What I hate is nasty, ugly people... the worst is ugly, short men. Women can be short, but for men it is impossible. It is something that they will not forgive in life... they are mean and they want to kill you.
Think pink, but don't wear it.
I like the idea of craziness with discipline.
I am a black diamond, unfaceted. Black diamonds are rare, hard to cut, and therefore uncommercial.
Sometimes it's easy to have ideas, but somebody has to find a way to do it. Often those responsible for finding a way don't have the idea.
I hate the word 'cheap'. People are cheap. Clothing is either expensive or inexpensive.
I'm a working-class person, working with class.
Fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight.
When people want to be liked for what they did, they should stop.
Don’t sacrifice yourself too much, because if you sacrifice too much there’s nothing else you can give and nobody will care for you.