The last Parisian fashion czar, style icon and dazzling dandy: The designer Karl Lagerfeld was already a legend during his lifetime.
Now the international fashion world has to get along without the „Kaiser“, as the native of Hamburg was sometimes called in fashion capital Paris. His death is expected to cast a shadow on this Wednesday’s women’s fashion shows at Milan Fashion Week.
Lagerfeld dominated fashion with iron discipline for more than half a century, standing for Parisian chic and elegance. He joined Chanel in 1983 as creative director – and remained loyal to the traditional French fashion house until the end. He also designed clothes for the Italian fashion house Fendi.
During his long career, Lagerfeld Models gained international fame, among them Claudia Schiffer from Germany or the Frenchwoman Inès de la Fressange.
Lagerfeld’s age had been puzzled again and again. He was the son of a canned milk manufacturer in Hamburg to the world – according to his own account in September 1935, which he would have 83 years old. However, the birth years are 1933 and 1938.
Virginie Viard, previously the „right-hand man“ of Lagerfeld at Chanel, will succeed the fashion designer at the Paris fashion house. Where the according to the French media on Tuesday died Lagerfeld should be buried, remained initially open.
Lagerfeld transformed over time his own person to a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk. He was recognizable everywhere with sunglasses, white-plaited braid, a dark tie, and a tall „father’s collar.“ Which person hid behind this cleverly staged façade occasionally remained unclear.
Lagerfeld was an artist, but he did not mince words in political debates. Thus, his criticism of the refugee policy of Chancellor Angela Merkel 2017 caused a great stir.
The French presidential office praised Lagerfeld late on Tuesday evening as „aesthetes“ and great ambassador of fashion. „Haute couture, fashion, French and European style will lose one of their greatest talents and their most famous ambassador on this day,“ said the Élysée Palace. France owes a lot to Lagerfeld.
Former „Bunte“ editor-in-chief Patricia Riekel told the German press agency: „I would say that he was self-sufficient and not obligated to anything. He knew what he could do, which gave him an inner, enviable independence. He always said exactly what he thought – you could say: regardless of losses. (…) He was the last „White Elephant“ in the fashion business. »
The Director of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence said that he would like to dedicate an exhibition to Lagerfeld in the Gemäldegalerie. Lagerfeld had been a „true gentleman“, said the German director Eike Schmidt, according to news agency Ansa. „He never allowed people, friends or colleagues to talk about death, not even about illness.“
