Karl Lagerfeld's name has been associated with the Chanel house for many years. He was invited there in 1983 as a designer of ready-to-wear, haute couture and accessories, 12 years after the death of the great Gabrielle, and a year later he became the creative director of Chanel, while also heading the Italian fashion house Fendi. At the same time, he launched a brand under his own name - Karl Lagerfeld - and the risk of lack of time, energy or inspiration did not scare him at all. Karl kept such a tense rhythm of life until the last day.
Lagerfeld's creative hypostasis was manifested literally in everything. For example, he has been passionate about photography for many years and has shot many advertising campaigns and many celebrities and models in outrageous series, including nude ones. His pictures were happily published by Harper's Bazaar, Numéro and, of course, Vogue. For example, one of his last photo shoots was with young Kaya Garber, daughter of Cindy Crawford, who became the face of the brand exactly one year ago.
In addition, it turned out that Karl is also a talented illustrator: in 1992, he drew 60 illustrations for the next edition of the fairy tale "The King's New Clothes", and in 2012 he became a permanent cartoonist for the supplement to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. In the 90s, he even opened the 7L bookstore in Paris, later turning it into his own publishing house.
"Kaiser", as he was called in the fashion world, had a reputation since the mid-70s as a great connoisseur of architecture, design and a desperate collector of art and furniture, for example, old French masters or art deco. Let's recall at least his Parisian "apartment of the future", furnished with silver furniture from Mark Newson and Amanda Leavitt or the legendary apartments in Monaco, where exclusively the objects of the "Memphis" group were collected. Karl especially loved Sottsass. From time to time he put things from his collections up for auction. By the way, he often shot his interiors himself, and his photo archive also has many shots of architectural and landscape views.
His passion for interior design and design is closely intertwined with his love for scenography. He never did small shows - it was always a large-scale spectacle. All Chanel shows are traditionally held in the Grand Palais in Paris, which Karl, a famous provocateur, transformed beyond recognition, every time surprising the audience with incredible scope and boldness of ideas. About the most incredible - below.