A designer lives for his label. He personifies the label and the label personifies him. The relationship between the two is marked by shared preferences and dislikes. Karl Lagerfeld and CHANEL are a fine example of such teamwork. Lagerfeld assumed the role of Chief Designer for CHANEL in 1983 and transformed the ladylike fashion label into a brand with creations also suitable for young women. The aim was to give CHANEL a contemporary face.
Mademoiselle Chanel © CHANELEmancipated women’s fashion
“I like Coco best at the outset of her career, the rebellious, obstinate Coco. It is of her in those days that I think when I am creating my collections,” says Lagerfeld of Coco Chanel. The French designer put her stamp on 20th century fashion inimitably. She took World War II uniforms as her inspiration for the characteristic Chanel style. Her objective was to produce an emancipated, fashionable form of expression for women. Apart from sporting garments and trousers for women, such details as the short haircut were also involved. In place of the “corset clothes” then the norm, Chanel designed simple and comfortable clothes allowing some bare skin to show – a minor revolution. Many of her creations – albeit taken further and copied by numerous other fashion brands – remain highly topical. Take the “little black dress”, for example, that she conceived in 1926 and remains a timeless classic.
As Chanel’s Chief Designer, Lagerfeld runs one of the few large Haute Couture houses in Paris and has thus taken over a tremendous legacy. There are many parallels between Lagerfeld and Coco Chanel. Both are people who live in the present. “I am neither of the past nor of the avant-garde,” explained Chanel, “my style follows life."
“Less is more”
With his work for CHANEL, Lagerfeld incorporates precisely what made Coco Chanel’s style so famous: lack of convention, perfectionism, uniqueness, passion and vision. By contrast with exaggerated, abundantly decorated and embossed fashion, Lagerfeld creates designer pieces obeying the maxim “Less is More”. He is powered by inexhaustible creativity and energy – for him routine, by contrast, is a horror. “One must keep moving” – on that he agrees with Coco Chanel, who felt that a woman should at all times be capable of catching a bus by running.
Impressions from the Karl Lagerfeld collection. © Karl Lagerfeld Objectivity, simplicity and elegance are Lagerfeld’s preferred modes of expression in his work. He has taken Chanel’s style further by taking further her tweed costumes, among others, with fleecy trousers and berets. Another classic is the repeatedly relaunched “2.55”, a quilted leather bag with a rectangular silver clasp and silver chains as shoulder straps. Designed in February 1955, this is meanwhile even available in laptop format.
Style is eternal
Coco Chanel once said:” Fashion is transitory. Style, never. Chanel is a style.” She has been proved right. Today many of her creations are just as much in line with trend as at the beginning of the last century. Like his predecessors, Karl Lagerfeld as Chief Designer personifies the fashion label and is always breathing fresh life into the original creations. In this way, what the grande Madamoiselle wished has become reality. The Coco Chanel style is imperishable.
Karl Lagerfeld: Career of a multi-talent
Lagerfeld’s roots lie in Hamburg, where he grew up as the son of Swiss entrepreneur Otto Lagerfeld, inventor of Glücksklee canned milk, and his wife Elisabeth. In 1953 he moved to Paris with his mother and in 1958 he started studying art. Today e still lives in the French capital.
Lagerfeld’s career as a designer started with a woollen overcoat that won him First Prize in a competition run by the International Wool Secretariat (IWS) in Paris and made him Pierre Balmain’s assistant. Three years later, Lagerfeld was already Artistic Director for Jean Patou. At the same time he has worked as a freelance designer for Valentino and Krizia, among others. In the 1960s he began designing fur coats for FENDI in Rome.
Apart from fashion, scent also plays an important part in Lagerfeld’s work. While he was winning worldwide recognition for his ready-to-wear collections as Chief Designer for CHLOÉ in 10970-1973, he started creating scents at the same time. In 1975 he launched the perfume CHLOÉ. That made him the first-ever fashion designer to create a perfume of his own without previously owning his own label. A milestone in the life of this fashion genius was his advancement to become Chief Designer for CHANEL in 1983. In 1984 Karl Lagerfeld founded his own ‘KARL LAGERFELD’ label. He still works for this as Chief Designer, and also for CHANEL and FENDI.
In addition, Lagerfeld designs costumes for productions at the Burgtheater in Vienna, among others, for the Monte Carlo ballet ensemble, and for La Scala, Milan. In the 1980s Lagerfeld was Visiting Professor for the fashion class at the University of the Applied Arts in Vienna. This multi-talent also has made a name for himself as a fashion photographer for major magazines, has published volumes of his own photographic art and has illustrated art books. Similarly, he founded the 7L bookshop and the publishers “EDITIONS /l2.