Karl Lagerfeld

The Label

Karl Lagerfeld is best known for his work at Chanel, where he consistently melds the house’s iconic symbols and viewpoint with contemporary references to keep the designs more or less relevant to current trends. Lagerfeld’s own line tends to be edgier and more directly influenced by street trends than the collections he creates for his day job. He also designs Fendi’s fur and ready-to-wear line which is more streamlined and less fanciful than his Chanel work.

The Look

Lots of black and denim with street influences.

The Designer

Extraordinarily energetic, opinionated, and undeniably brilliant, Lagerfeld is the most famous designer in the world. At his personal appearances, his characteristic immaculate white-haired ponytail is routinely in the center of a sea of enthusiastic fans.

Lagerfeld was born to a wealthy family in Hamburg, Germany, in 1938 (so he claims; a German publication once found a baptismal record that said 1933, but official birth records in Germany are sealed). He moved to Paris in the fifties with the intention of studying fashion and worked for Pierre Balmain and Jean Patou. In 1983 he was named artistic director for Chanel, which had descended into dullness and was being kept afloat by its perfume sales after the death of its founder in 1971. He immediately brought new, iconoclastic energy to the house. In addition to turning out four collections a year for Chanel (two ready-to-wear and two couture) with astonishing consistency (they are always on trend and frequently brilliant), he designs for Fendi, as well as his own line, Lagerfeld Gallery. He also works as a photographer, collects art, buys and renovates houses, and voraciously consumes culture at all levels, from eighteenth-century art to music from tomorrow’s hot young pop groups. He also speaks four languages fluently (French, Italian, English, and German). In 2001, he lost nearly 90 pounds in less than a year following a stringent diet centered around steamed vegetables and Diet Coke in order to be able to wear Hedi Slimane’s skinny suits. He did a line for H&M in 2004 that sold out the day it hit the stores.