Karl Lagerfeld

For more information on Karl Lagerfeld, visit Britannica.com.

German-French designer of high fashion Karl Lagerfeld (born 1938) won international fame for his work with several Parisian style houses.

Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld was born on September 10, 1938, in Hamburg, Germany. His father was Swedish, from a merchant banker's family, and made the family fortune by introducing powdered milk to Europe. His elegant and fashionable mother was younger than his father, and she adored fragrances; all qualities that would strongly influence Lagerfeld's life and career.

Lagerfeld led a sheltered childhood, learning early to speak fluent French, English, and Italian as well as his native German. As a child he was always interested in fashion and pored over history books more for the costume etchings and descriptions than for the battlefield tales. Designing and sketching dresses, he reported, was his favorite childhood pastime.

When he was just 14, Lagerfeld was sent to Paris to study, but with the underlying intention of getting involved in the world of French haute couture. This world was then quite sumptuous, as postwar parties were an excuse for women to dress up in the most fanciful finery. Parties, balls, nightclubs, and the like were packed with women wearing the latest fashions. Wealthy women from many countries filled the couture salons, all vying for the reputation of best-dressed.

In 1954 Lagerfeld sent one of his sketches to the International Wool Secretariat Competition, open to any young nonprofessional designer. That year there were thousands of entrants. Designers Pierre Balmain, Jacques Fath, and Hubert Givenchy were among the judges. Lagerfeld, just 16, received the award for best coat sketch.

Pierre Balmain then offered the young Lagerfeld a job working in his couture house. He took the coveted position, staying there three years, secretly learning all the tricks of the "rag" trade. In 1958, at 20 years old, he became chief designer for the house of Jean Patou, where he worked until 1963, designing two collections each year. But he grew bored and needed more challenges for his frenzied fashion creativity.

The idea of working for several houses appealed to him. So in 1963, as a freelancer, he began working for French and Italian design houses, designing fur collections and ready-to-wear for the Fendi sisters. In 1970 he also began designing for the French House of Chloe and in 1975 created their first fragrance, "Chloe." In this time he also launched his own fragrance, "Lagerfeld for Men," followed by "KL" and "KL Homme."

In 1983 Lagerfeld, his reputation firmly established as a fashion force, became the creative director and head designer for Chanel, where it was hoped he would breathe new life into the once important but now staid and stagnant house. Coco Chanel had died in 1971, and the name had fallen from fashion favor in the following years. Only a year after joining Chanel, Lagerfeld startled the fashion world by again branching out and creating his own ready-to-wear line called "Karl Lagerfeld" and a lower-priced sporty line, "KL." That year he shocked the world with his press release for his spring Fendi collection, self-described as "shaped to be raped." In USA Today he countered the resultant criticism, saying he was misquoted and misunderstood: "Rape is an abstract word to me. In the kind of atmosphere I live in, nobody rapes anybody." Overcoming the criticism, in 1987 he received France's Golden Thimble award for his Chanel haute couture collection. In 1992 Lagerfeld was drawn back to the House of Chloe, and his first collection was a huge critical success. The self-described "fashion chameleon" said: "When I do Fendi, I am another person from when I do Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld, or KL. It's like being four people in one. Perhaps I have no personality at all, or perhaps I have more than one."

However, after the initial spark created in 1992, Chloe struggled to regain its position among fashion houses since Lagerfeld's original reign. In 1997 Lagerfeld stepped down from his position as chief designer at Chloe in order to concentrate more on his own signature line.

Like a style shark, Lagerfeld, it seems, never rests. As well as overseeing all of his houses and creating collections for each several times a year, he found time for creative hobbies. A lover of opera, theater, and films, he created costumes for La Scala in Milan, for the Schnitzler plays, and for many films, including The Sun Also Rises, Babette's Feast, Viva le Vie, and Le General de L'Armee Morte. His other hobbies included decorating and restoring old mansions. He was a bachelor and traversed Europe collecting antique furniture and acquiring paintings from the 18th century as well as many forms of modern art. For 12 years he worked on restoring an historic 18th-century French castle in Brittany, right down to the doorknobs. He owned an 18th-century townhouse in Paris, a 200-year-old workshop in Rome, and a summer villa in Monte Carlo that he redid in Louis XVI style. He was renowned for his vast library of fashion and costume history books. Yet the man was nothing if not keenly attuned to modern times; he decorated another Monte Carlo home with furniture and art by the colorfully avant-garde modernistic Memphis design group.

He is also an accomplished photographer, shooting all the fashion advertisements for both Chanel and for his House of Lagerfeld. He held gallery photo shows in Paris for his hordes of admirers and fans. His personal style statement is a long ponytail. He maintained: "My father died reading the newspaper when he was over 90. His parents lived to be 98. I'm looking forward to growing old. Ponytails look good with white hair."

Further Reading

For additional information on Karl Lagerfeld and the world of fashion see Couture: The Great Designers by Caroline Rennolds Milbank (1985), Fairchild Dictionary of Fashion (1988), McDowell's Directory of 20th Century Fashion (1987), and Contemporary Designers, edited by Ann Lee Morgan (2nd ed. 1990).

• Born: Hamburg, 10 September 1938; immigrated to Paris in 1952.
• Career: Design assistant at Balmain, 1955-58; art director, Patou, 1958-63; freelance designer for Chloé, Krizia, Ballantyne, Timwear, Charles Jourdan, Valentino, Fendi, Cadette, Max Mara and others, from 1964; launched Parfums Lagerfeld, 1975; director of collections and ready-to-wear, Chanel, from 1983; Karl Lagerfeld and KL ready-to-wear firms established in Paris and Germany, 1984; Karl Lagerfeld, S.A., acquired by Chloé parent company, Dunhill Plc., 1992; broke ties with Chloé and Dunhill (part of the Vendome Group), 1997; bought back Karl Lagerfeld S.A., 1997; created fragrances Lagerfeld, for Elizabeth Arden, 1975, Chloé-Lagerfeld, 1978, KL for women, 1983, KL for men, 1984; Lagerfeld Photo, 1990; Sun Moon Stars, 1994; Jako, 1997; Lagerfeld Femme, 2001.
• Exhibitions:Karl Lagerfeld: Fotografien, Galerie Hans Mayer, Dusseldorf, 1989.
• Awards: Second prize, International Wool Secretariat design contest, 1954; Neiman Marcus award, 1980; Bath Museum of Costume Dress of the Year award, 1981; 20th Dé d'or, 1986; Council of Fashion Designers of America award, 1991; Fashion Footwear Association of New York award, 1991.
• Address: 14 Boulevard de la Madeleine, 75008 Paris, France.

Universally recognized as one of the most prolific and high-profile designers of the last 20 years, Karl Lagerfeld has maintained his reputation through consistently strong work for the numerous lines he produces every year. Each label has its own distinct look, while clearly bearing the bold, uncompromising Lagerfeld signature that guarantees the success of everything he produces.

Moving between several main collections, Lagerfeld designs with consummate ease, displaying the skills he learned from his couture background in fine tailoring and flashes of surreal detailing. He has functioned best as a catalyst, reinvigorating labels and broadening their customer base. Since 1983 he most spectacularly demonstrated this capability at Chanel, where, despite some criticism, Lagerfeld brought the label back to the pinnacle of high fashion. He produced endless innovative variations on the signature tweed suits that often mix street style references, such as teaming the traditional Chanel jacket with denim miniskirts and the signature gilt buttons and chains.

Lagerfeld also stretched the Chanel look to embrace younger customers, with club-influenced black fishnet bodystockings, the traditional Chanel camellia placed cheekily over the breasts, and hefty lace-up boots set against flowing georgette skirts and leather jackets. This combination of wit with recognizable Chanel symbols rejuvenated the house, making Lagerfeld's fashion word an inspirational message to a new generation. His experiments have been at their most fantastic in the vibrant lines of the couture show, made more accessible in the ready-to-wear range. Only Lagerfeld could put the Chanel label on panties (1993) and camellia-trimmed cotton vests (1992) to make them the most talked-about elements of the Paris collections. Yet this quirkiness was underpinned by the quality of Lagerfeld's designs and the mix of classic separates that have always been an undercurrent in his work.

His own name label, KL, highlights these skills. Bold tailoring, easy-to-wear cardigan jackets in his favorite bright colors, combined with softly shaped knitwear, showed the breadth of his talents and ensured the longevity of his appeal. If his more outrageous combinations at Chanel have enabled him to outlive the excesses of the 1970s that trapped some of his contemporaries, then his clever manipulation of fabric and color has prolonged the life of his clothes still further.

During the 1970s Lagerfeld's work for Chloë was equally influential, his love of eveningwear coming to the fore, albeit in a more restrained form than at Chanel. The main look of this period was flowing pastel chiffon draped onto the body to give a highly feminine feel and trimmed with silk flowers. He recreated this style for his return to the label in spring-summer 1993, complete with models wearing Afro wigs. At first coolly received by the fashion press, it went on to inspire many with its floaty silhouette and flower-child air, reviving ethereal dresses with no linings, unnecessary seams, or extraneous detail.

While he continued to move from label to label, never quite losing the freelance mentality of his early days, it is only the occasional lack of editing in his collections betraying how widely his talents are spread. Idea follows idea, frequently inspired by his current model muse as he reinterprets garments to create very modern styles. At Fendi this desire to continually push forward to greater modernity, absorbing the influences around him and seeking greater perfection in his work, led to his taking the furriers' trade a step further. The lightness of touch that had established his name as early as 1970 led him to strip the Fendi sisters' signature fur coats to the thinnest possible layer. He removed the need for heavy linings by treating the pelts to produce supple lightweight coats shown in 1973 with raglan sleeves and tie belts, which complemented the sporty feel of the knitwear he also produces for the company.

Lagerfeld has proven he is equally adept in his bold strokes at Chanel as in his delicate shaping at Fendi, or in the vibrant classics of his own lines. Though he severed his ties with Chloé and the Vendome Group in 1997 (and regained ownership of the company bearing his name), Lagerfeld had more than enough designing to keep him busy. He also continued to indulge in another passion, photography, producing a pictorial of nude celebrities for Visionaire magazine in 1998. He has published a growing collection of books on art, architecture, and photography, and collaborated with authors the likes of Helmut Lang, Peter Lindbergh, and Madonna.

Lagerfeld's consummate skills as a designer have enabled him to push the fashion beyond its constraints by combining the immediacy of ready-to-wear with the splendor and elegance of couture. Nearly two decades ago, in June 1984, Lagerfeld told People magazine's Harriet Shapiro, "I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon." In both the 20th and 21st centuries, Karl Lagerfeld has more than achieved his goal.

Publications

By Lagerfeld:

Selected Books
• Karl Lagerfeld: A Fashion Journal—A Visual Record of Anna Piaggi's Creative Dressing and Self-Editing, with Anna Piaggi, New York, London & Stuttgart, 1986.
• Gilbert Poillerat, Maître Ferronnier, with François Baudot, Paris,1992.
• Karl Lagerfeld: Off the Record, Göttingen, Germany, 1994, 1995. Chanel, Paris, 1995.
• Karl Lagerfeld: Grunewald, Göttingen, 1995.
• Claudia Schiffer, London, 1995.
• Visionen, Göttingen, 1996.
• Body Parts, Cologne, 1997.
• Karl Lagerfeld: Parti Pris, Bonn, 1998.
• The House in the Trees and Casa Malaparte, both with Eric Pfrunder and Gerhard Steidl, both Göttingen, 1998.
• Aktstrakt, Göttingen, 2000.
• Escape From Circumstances, Göttingen & London, 2000.
• editor, Iwao Yamawaki, Göttingen & London, 2001.
• Modern Italian Architecture, Göttingen & London, 2001.

On Lagerfeld:

Books
• Milbank, Caroline Rennolds, Couture: The Great Designers, New York, 1985.
• Piaggi, Anna, Karl Lagerfeld: A Fashion Journal, London, 1986.
• Perschetz, Lois, ed., W, The Designing Life, New York, 1987.
• Howell, Georgina, Sultans of Style: Thirty Years of Fashion and Passion 1960-1990, London, 1990.
• Stegemeyer, Anne, Who's Who in Fashion, Third Edition, New York, 1996.

Articles
• Buck, J., "How Karl Lagerfeld Changed Some Lives," in Interview (New York), March 1973.
• "Great Designers of the World: Karl Lagerfeld," in Vogue (London), 1 March 1975.
• Menkes, Suzy, "The Man Who Takes Over at Chanel," in the Times (London), 31 January 1983.
• Shapiro, Harriet, "Tout Paris Applauds the Fashionable Vision of Karl Lagerfeld," in People, 11 June 1984.
• "Karl Lagerfeld: The Many Faceted Man," in Vogue (Paris), October 1985.
• Dryansky, G.Y. "Baroque to His Bones," in Connoisseur, December 1985.
• Barron, Pattie, "Playing Court to Kaiser Karl," in Cosmopolitan (London), October 1986.
• "A Life in the Day of Karl Lagerfeld," in the Sunday Times Magazine (London), 8 November 1987.
• Barker, Rafaella, "Karlsberg," in House & Garden, December 1987.
• Lobrany, Alexander, "Lagerfeld Logs On: At 50, King Karl Makes a Foray into Men's Wear," in DNR, 6 April 1988.
• Brook, Danae, "King Karl," in the Sunday Express Magazine (London), 15 May 1988.
• Talley, André Leon, "Petit Palais," in Vogue, April 1989.
• Ciavarella, Michele, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Burst of Genius," in Maglieria Italiana (Modena), April/June 1989.
• Bowles, Hamish, "Reviving the Past," in Harpers & Queen (London), September 1989.
• "A Lagerfeld Extravagance," in the Independent (London), 28 September 1989.
• Mynott, Lawrence, "Kaiser Karl: The Darling Dictator," in the Independent, 24 May 1990.
• Etherington-Smith, Meredith, "He Came, He Drew, He Conquered," in Harpers & Queen, September 1990.
• Mower, Sarah, "Karl Lagerfeld," in Vogue (London), April 1991.
• Mayer, Margit, "King Karl," in WWD, 20 November 1991.
• Orth, Maureen, "Kaiser Karl: Behind the Mask," in Vanity Fair, February 1992.
• "The Kaiser's Empire," in WWD, 2 June 1992.
• Lane, Anthony, "The Last Emperor," in the New Yorker, 7 November 1994.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Chanel: Beauty Without Gimmicks," in the International Herald Tribune, 25 January 1995.
• Spindler, Amy M., "Four Who Have No Use for Trends," in the New York Times, 20 March 1995.
• White, Constance C.R., "Lagerfeld's Poetic License," in the New York Times, 24 June 1997.
• Gabor, Lisa, "No Clothing, No Kidding," in In Style, March 1998.
• White, Constance C.R., "Lagerfeld's Lesson for Younger Designers: Stay Relevant," in the New York Times, 16 March 1999.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Magnificent Chanel Defines the Season," in the International Herald Tribune, 4 March 2000.
• ——, "Class and Classics at Chanel," in the International Herald Tribune, 24 January 2001.
• Horyn, Cathy, "A Slimmer Karl Lagerfeld Makes his Concession to Fashion," in the New York Times, 19 June 2001.
• Menkes, Suzy, "Chanel Goes to the Head of the Class," in the International Herald Tribune, 11 July 2001.

— Rebecca Arnold; updated by Sydonie Bénet

Quotes:

"Only the minute and the future are interesting in fashion -- it exists to be destroyed. If everybody did everything with respect, you'd go nowhere."

"The reason American cars don't sell anymore is that they have forgotten how to design the American Dream. What does it matter if you buy a car today or six months from now, because cars are not beautiful. That's why the American auto industry is in trouble: no design, no desire."

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Karl Lagerfeld
Karl Lagerfeld at the Red Cross Ball in Monaco, August 2005
Born	September 10, 1933 (1933-09-10) (age 76) Hamburg, Germany
Nationality	German
Labels	Karl Lagerfeld Chanel Fendi

Karl Lagerfeld (born Karl Otto Lagerfeld; September 10, 1933^[1]) is a German-born fashion designer and artist based in Paris, France. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld helms his own label fashion house, as well as the Italian house Fendi.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Early career (Balmain and Patou) 1.3 Freelance career (1962–1982) 1.4 International fame (1982–present) 1.5 Controversies 2 Weight loss 3 References 4 External links

Biography

Early life

Karl Otto Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg, Germany. He has claimed he was born in 1938; however it has been reported that he was actually born in 1933 (according to the local christening register); indeed the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has quoted his former teacher and classmates as confirming the earlier date,^[2]. He is known to insist that no-one knows his real birth date: Interviewed on French television in February 2009, Lagerfeld said that he was "born neither in 1933 nor 1938."^[3] His older sister, Martha Christiane (a.k.a. Christel), was born in 1931. Lagerfeld also has an older half-sister, Thea, from his father's first marriage. His original name was Lagerfeldt (with a "t"), but he later changed it to Lagerfeld as "it sounds more commercial."^[4]

Karl's father is from Vladivostok, Russia; his mother is from Berlin, Germany (according to "Lagerfeld Confidential", Marconi Rodolphe, 2006). Though Lagerfeld has stated that his father was Swedish, journalist Alicia Drake in The Beautiful Fall (Little, Brown, 2006) established that Karl's father, Otto Lagerfeldt, who worked as a distributor at a company introducing condensed milk to Germany, was indeed German. According to Drake, Lagerfeld's mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, was a lingerie saleswoman in Berlin when she met her husband and married him in 1930.

Early career (Balmain and Patou)

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Karl Lagerfeld emigrated to Paris in 1953. Initially he worked as a draftsman for fashion houses. At the time, in fashion, drawings were preferred over photographs. Lagerfeld is able to recap any costume style in European history at the drop of a hat, e.g., explaining collar styles used in 1710 Germany, as he has demonstrated in a German television series in the 1980s.

In 1955, at the age of 22, Lagerfeld was awarded a position as an apprentice at Pierre Balmain, after winning second place, behind Yves Saint-Laurent who came first, in a competition for a coat sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat. He told a reporter a few years later, "I won on coats, but actually I like designing coats least of all. What I really love are little black dresses." Yves Saint Laurent also won the contest for a dress award. "Yves was working for Dior. Other young people I knew were working for Balenciaga, whom they thought was God, but I wasn't so impressed," he recalled in 1976.

In 1958, after three years at Balmain, he moved to Jean Patou, where he designed two haute couture collections a year for five years. His first collection was shown in a two-hour presentation in July 1958, but he used the name Roland Karl, rather than Karl Lagerfeld (although in 1962, reporters began referring to him as Karl Lagerfelt, and Karl Logerfeld.) That first collection was poorly received. Carrie Donovan wrote that "the press booed the collection." The UPI noted: "The firm's brand new designer, 25-year old Roland Karl, showed a collection which stressed shape and had no trace of last year's sack." The reporter went on to say that "A couple of short black cocktail dresses were cut so wide open at the front that even some of the women reporters gasped. Other cocktail and evening dresses feature low, low-cut backs." Most interestingly, Karl said that his design silhouette for the season was called by the letter "K" (for Karl), which was translated into a straight line in front, curved in at the waist in the back, with a low fullness to the skirt.

His next collection, for spring 1959, was a vast improvement according to Carrie Donovan, who noted that the press "applauded widely and even shouted several bravos." She wrote that "His clothes... have a kind of understated chic, elegance, and just plain 'class' that has not been seen on this side of the Atlantic since Molyneux and Mainbocher closed up shop."

His skirts for the spring 1960 season were the shortest in Paris, and the collection was not well received. Carrie Donovan said it "looked like clever and immensely salable ready-to-wear, not couture." And in his fall 1960 collection he designed special little hats, pancake shaped circles of satin, which hung on the cheek. He called them "slaps in the face." Karl's collection were said to be well received, but were not groundbreaking. "I became bored there, too, and I quit and tried to go back to school, but that didn't work, so I spent two years mostly on beaches – I guess I studied life."

Freelance career (1962–1982)

After leaving Patou in 1962, after launching himself as a freelance designer, working with brands such as Mario Valentino, Repetto, and the supermarket chain Monoprix and with financial backing from his family, he set up a small shop in Paris. At this time, he would often consult with Madame Zereakian, Christian Dior's Armenian fortune teller. Lagerfeld later said, "She told me I'd succeed in fashion and perfume."

In 1963, he began designing for Tiziani, a Roman couture house founded that year by a man named Evan Richards (b. 1924) of Jacksboro, Texas. It began as couture and then branched out into ready-to-wear, bearing the label "Tiziani-Roma -- Made in England." Lagerfeld and Richards sketched the first collection in 1963 together. "When they wound up with 90 outfits, Tiziani threw caution and invitations to the winds, borrowed Catherine the Great's jewels from Harry Winston, and opened his salon with a three-night wingding," according to one report in 1969. Lagerfeld designed for the company until 1969. Elizabeth Taylor was a fan of the label (she referred to Evan as "Evan Tiziani") and began wearing it in August 1966. Gina Lollobrigida, Doris Duke and Principessa Borghese were also customers while Lagerfeld was designing the line. He was replaced in 1969 with Guy Douvier.

Lagerfeld had begun to freelance for French fashion house Chloe in 1964, at first designing a few pieces a season. As more and more pieces were incorporated, he would soon design the entire collection. In 1970, he also began a brief design collaboration with Roman Haute Couture house Curiel (the designer, a woman named Gigliola Curiel, died in November 1969.) His first collection was described as having a "drippy drapey elegance" designed for a "1930s cinema queen." The Curiel mannequins all wore identical, short-cropped blonde wigs. He also showed black velvet shorts, to be worn under a black velvet ankle-length cape.

His Chloe collection for Spring 1973 (shown in October 1972) garnered headlines for offering something both "high fashion and high camp." He showed loose Spencer jackets and printed silk shirt jackets. He designed something he called a "surprise" skirt, which was ankle-length, pleated silk, so loose that it hid the fact it was actually pants. "It seems that wearing these skirts is an extraordinary sensation," he told a reporter at the time. He also designed a look inspired by Carmen Miranda, which consisted of mini bra dresses with very short skirts, and long dresses with bra tops and scarf shawls.

In 1972, he began to collaborate with Italian fashion house Fendi, designing furs, clothing and accessories.

Through the 1970s, Lagerfeld worked as a costume designer for theatrical productions. He collaborated with Italian director Luca Ronconi, and designed for theatres like La Scala in Milan (Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, 1980), the Burgtheater in Vienna (Komödie der Verführung by Arthur Schnitzler 1980), and the Salzburg Festival (Der Schwierige by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1990).

International fame (1982–present)

At the time, he had also been maintaining a design contract with the Japanese firm Isetan, to create collections for both men and women through 30 licenses; had a lingerie line in the US, produced by Eve Stillmann; was designing shoes for Charles Jourdan, sweaters for Ballantyne, and worked with Trevira as a fashion adviser.

Lagerfeld designed the costumes for the Carmen sequences in the 2002 film Callas Forever. In 2004 he designed some outfits for the international music artist Madonna, for her Re-Invention tour, and recently designed outfits for Kylie Minogue's Showgirl tour.

Lagerfeld collaborated with the international Swedish fashion brand H&M. On November 12, 2004, H&M offered a limited range of different Lagerfeld clothes in chosen outlets for both women and men. Only two days after having supplied its outlets, H&M announced that almost all the clothes were sold out. Lagerfeld has expressed some fear that working with lower-end brands will taint his image, although in the past he has worked closely with the exclusive hosiery designer Wolford.

Lagerfeld is also a photographer. He produced Visionaire 23: The Emperor's New Clothes, a series of nude pictures of South African model David Miller. He also personally photographed Mariah Carey for the cover of V magazine in, 2005. In addition to his editorial work for Harper's Bazaar, Numéro and the Russian and German editions of Vogue, Lagerfeld photographs advertising campaigns for the houses under his direction (Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous line) every season.

In the 1980s, the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" was published with drawings by Lagerfeld.

The designer was also the subject of a French reality series called Signé Chanel in 2005. The show covered the creation of his Fall/Winter 2004–2005 Chanel couture collection. It aired on Sundance Channel in the United States during the fall of 2006.

He has also supported and encouraged the work of up and coming designers including Philip Colbert of Rodnik.

On December 18, 2006, Lagerfeld announced the launch of a new collection for men and women dubbed K Karl Lagerfeld. The collection will include fitted T-shirts and a wide range of jeans.^[5]

Fashion icon, Karl Lagerfeld has signed an exclusive deal with Dubai Infinity Holdings (DIH); an investments enterprise that will focus on first of its kind projects in non conventional growth sectors, in line with their mandate to fulfil unmet market needs. Karl Lagerfeld is to design limited edition homes on Isla Moda, the world’s first dedicated fashion island, set in the iconic development, The World. This will be an exclusive collaboration between Dubai Infinity Holdings and Karl Lagerfeld across the GCC and India.

Lagerfeld is the host of fictional radio station "K109 - The Studio" in the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV.^[6]

Controversies

In the early 1990s, he caused US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to walk out of his runway show when he employed strippers and Italian adult film star Moana Pozzi to model his black-and-white collection for Fendi.

Lagerfeld was the target of a pieing by PETA in 2001 at a fashion premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City. This was in protest at his use of fur and leather within his collections. The tofu pies hurled by the protestors went astray, however, and hit Calvin Klein (described by PETA as 'friendly fire').^[7]

Lagerfeld has launched into a bitter battle with animal rights activists after defending the use of fur in fashion. The 70-year-old German boss of fashion house Chanel claims anti-fur protesters are "childish" and argues hunted animals would kill their human predators if they could. Lagerfeld says, "In a meat eating world, wearing leather for shoes and even clothes, the discussion of fur is childish. "(In the north, hunters) make a living having learned nothing else than hunting, killing those beasts who would kill us if they could kill us." Michael McGraw, spokesperson for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), replied, telling the New York Post, "Lagerfeld seems particularly delusional with his kill-or-be-killed mentality. When was the last time a person's life was threatened by a mink or rabbit?" [1]

Recently, Lagerfeld was incorrectly identified as being engaged in a bitter feud with supermodel Heidi Klum. In 2009, the quote, “Heidi Klum is no runway model. She is simply too heavy and has too big a bust. And she always grins so stupidly. That is not avant-garde - that is commercial!” is mistakenly attributed to Lagerfeld when it was, in fact, spoken by Wolfgang Joop. Lagerfeld remarked that neither he nor Claudia Schiffer knew Klum as she has never worked in Paris.^{[citation needed]}

Weight loss

When Lagerfeld lost 42 kg (roughly 92.6 pounds) in 13 months, his explanation was “...I suddenly wanted to dress differently, to wear clothes designed by Hedi Slimane,” he said. “But these fashions, modeled by very, very slim boys—and not men my age—required me to lose at least 40 kg. It took me exactly thirteen months.” The diet was created specially for Lagerfeld by Dr. Jean-Claude Houdret, which led to a book called The Karl Lagerfeld Diet.^[4]

References

1. ^ Karl Lagerfeld - Biography on fashion-forum.org
2. ^ The New Yorker – Profiles
3. ^ Interview on On n'est pas couché, France2, 21 Feb 2009
4. ^ ^{a b} Lagerfeld, Karl; Houdret, Jean-Claude (May 2005). The Karl Lagerfeld Diet. PowerHouse Books. ISBN 1576872513. 
5. ^ Designer Denim News - Karl Lagerfeld
6. ^ Karl Lagerfeld and Roberto Cavalli | Fendi - HandBags - Shoes, Fendi Casa, Fashion Week
7. ^ CBS News – Calvin Klein Pie-Faced

External links

• Karl Lagerfeld Official Website
• Karl Lagerfeld - Biography
• Miami Beach USA Article with photos on Karl Lagerfeld and his designs.
• Sundance Channel's Signé Chanel site
• New Yorker: John Colapinto: In The Now. Where Karl Lagerfeld Lives Extensive profile (ca. 10 000 words)
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php. 
• Karl Lagerfeld in the Fashion Model Directory

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