To say goodbye to a legend is no easy job. Karl Lagerfeld is (because icons never die) one of the most brilliant minds of the 20th and 21st Century. Whether you’re into fashion or not, you have got to have heard of him, you must have read about him or at least seen him on TV or the internet. Be it as it may, Lagerfeld was an household name and an imposing figure in the fashion industry; a man who was never afraid to break out of the mold and an artist who made fashion come alive.
Karl-Otto Lagerfeldt was born in Hamburg, Germany, on September 10, 1933. As a teenager, he moved to Paris to pursue a career in design and changed his last name to Lagerfeld, as though he had known this would guarantee him commercial and artistic success. Lagerfeld had his big break when he began to work for Pierre Balmain as an assistant designer. Later on, in 1965, he joined Fendi and kept working for the fashion house until he passed. However, he’s been celebrated for creative leadership at Chanel, where he began working in 1983, twelve years after Coco Chanel’s death.
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Karl Lagerfeld embodied the spirit of Chanel: elegant, free, revolutionary, tirelessly pursuing the feminine eternal. He worked for 36 years at Chanel and, like Coco herself, never retired. He needed design as much as he needed to breathe, and so he worked until the last day of his life.
Virginie Viard, one of Lagerfeld’s collaborators and pupils will become the new Creative Director for Chanel. In the meantime, here’s a small recap of 5 times that Karl Lagerfeld broke the mold and redefined the way the industry works.
1 – The revival of the tweed jacket
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The classic tweed jacket had once been an icon of femininity, class, and female liberation. Then, after Coco Chanel died, the jacket transformed into a symbol of old-fashioned, antique, and even pretentious or bourgeois nature. Nevertheless, Lagerfeld brought it back to life. The tweed jacket was his favorite piece to revamp every single collection in a row. He re-did it to make it appealing for the new generations: he got rid of its square fit and turned into a more aesthetic and skinny silhouette. Also, he added color and new textures. The ultimate classic.
2 – He brought hip-hop to high fashion
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He kept those items that gave international stardom to the French fashion house in all of his collections: the tweed skirtsuits, the little black dresses, and the quilted handbags. Still, Lagerfeld wasn’t afraid to try new things. Always in need to learn more and to try new things, Lagerfeld came up with a daring, provocative, and astonishing collection back in 1991 by incorporating hip-hop imagery to Chanel staples.
3 – The Grand Palais becomes an institution
Fashion shows were a very niche event back in the second half of the twentieth century, but as the industry began to change, so did fashion shows. Lagerfeld enjoyed theatrical opulence, and so he established the Grand Palais des Beaux-Arts as the venue for Chanel shows starting in 2005. However, he wasn’t afraid to go the extra mile. Remember that time he brought a huge iceberg all the way from Scandinavia for the 2010 show? Or, what about that mechanical rocket in 2017? And the artificial beach for the spring collection in 2018? Groundbreaking.
4 – Brad Pitt, first male sponsor for Chanel No. 5
No other fragrance is as famous and legendary as Chanel No. 5. The perfume has a long and fascinating story, and lots and lots of firsts. Then, under Lagerfeld’s watch, the fragrance got the most beautiful ad campaigns. From Baz Luhrmann’s short film starring Nicole Kidman, to Brad Pitt being the first male to represent the most celebrated fragrance in the world, Lagerfeld always found ways to tell stories through Chanel’s essence.
5 – The Havana and Dubai fashion shows
He wanted Chanel’s logo, the front-facing double C, to be recognized worldwide. So, Lagerfeld took two of his cruise collections abroad to give the brand an even more global presence. One was in Dubai, back in 2015, and the other one, one of his most important and breathtaking shows ever, took place in Havana in 2016, right after Barack Obama became the first US president to visit Cuba in over a hundred years. The cruise collection was completely inspired by Cuban culture and fashion, and it marked an important moment in fashion history.
Lagerfeld was driven to make his designs better than last season’s. Every single time, he created new shapes, new textures, and new trends, always pushing himself to the limit. A real artist who found in drawing and sewing new and everlasting forms of storytelling.
Cover picture @lvmh
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