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(Bloomberg) – Karl Lagerfeld, the German fashion designer who helped set the industry standard for five decades with dressed collections of celebrities such as Princess Diana and actress Keira Knightley , is dead. He was 85 years old.
Creative Director at Chanel for over 35 years, Lagerfeld was one of the most prolific couturiers of the fashion trade, producing apparel for the Paris-based luxury goods manufacturer, for the group Italian Fendi SpA and for his own label – all at the same time. Recognizable for his high-necked shirts, white ponytail, dark sunglbades, and fingerless black gloves, Lagerfeld had a list of celebrities and stage stars including Nicole actresses. Kidman and Cate Blanchett and singer Pharrell Williams.
Lagerfeld "was ahead of his time, which greatly contributed to Chanel's success in the world
," said Alain Wertheimer, CEO of Chanel, in a statement. "Not only did I lose a friend, but we all lost an extraordinary creative mind."
In announcing the death of Lagerfeld, Chanel declared that Virginie Viard, his second commissioner for three decades, will badume the creative work for the collections "so that the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live. "
The fashion guru, nicknamed" Kaiser Karl "for his uncompromising approach to his work, joined Chanel in 1983, more than ten years later. the death of the founder Gabrielle "Coco" Chanel. He undertook to revive the French manufacturer of perfumes and accessories with a modern look on his ready-to-wear lines, helping him to become one of the most successful companies in the sector. .
"What I do would have been hated by Coco," said Lagerfeld. in "The World According to Karl", a 2013 book of his quotes. "I do what she's never done. I had to find my mark. I had to go from what Chanel was to what it should be, could be, to what he had been to something else. "
An accomplished photographer who counts Helmut Newton and Andy Warhol as friends, Lagerfeld is Chanel's # 1 designer, based in two 18th-century buildings on Paris's rue Cambon. the most important fashion element .. defended the use of fur by Fendi against the protests of animal rights activists, and said that wearing jogging pants is a sign "you have lost control of your life. "Vogue crowned" unparalleled performer of the mood of the moment "in 1997.
" We owe him a lot: his taste and talent were the most outstanding that I know, "said Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, owner of Fendi, in a statement. "Fashion and culture have lost a great inspiration."
Along with personalities like Arnault and the Italian Giorgio Armani, he helped transform the luxury fashion of a niche proposition into a global commodity with mbad appeal. Her parades have pushed Chanel's extravagance to the extreme – buildings of forests, waterfalls and beaches of the Grand Palais in Paris – while the price tags on the handbags and tweed suits of Chanel pushed the sky. He managed to preserve Chanel's image as the ultimate luxury, while perfumes and nail polishes made the brand accessible to all.
Bold character with daring character, he once gave a complete interview to Harper's Bazaar about his cat, Choupette. , with whom he shared a special bond, and said he avoided having children because it "looks like he's 100" as an adult. His public comments also betrayed his desire to offend anyone, including the choice of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's pants, the hairstyle of former US First Lady Michelle Obama and the weight of English singer Adele. .
Born on September 10, 1933 to Karl Lagerfeldt. in Hamburg, he later abandoned the last letter of his family name to make his fashion brand more marketable. Lagerfeld's year of birth is sometimes given in 1938, a discrepancy that he refused to solve in an interview. His parents were Elisabeth Bahlmann, who was Swedish, and Otto Lagerfeldt, who made a fortune by producing condensed milk in France and selling it in Germany. Lagerfeld had an older sister, Martha, and a half-sister, Thea.
"My problem as a child was that I was bored to death because I wanted to be an adult person," he said in a 2011 interview with the independent newspaper of the United Kingdom. "My childhood was endless – from eight to eighteen, it was hundreds of years."
At the age of 14, Lagerfeld moved to Paris where he studied drawing and history and spent the most clear of his time while his parents travel. After developing an interest in cartoons, Lagerfeld designed a coat that won a competition organized by the International Wool Association.
He then worked for Pierre Balmain and Jean Patou, of which he was artistic director until 1963, when he went to Italy. for a job at Fendi. This relationship lasted more than 50 years. In the 1970s, he conceived for Chloe and pbaded for Chanel in 1983. He started his own brand the following year and described it as an "intellectual bad appeal".
Lagerfeld lives in Paris and has several residences over the years, including a castle. in Brittany, a palace in Monaco, a villa near Hamburg, apartments in Berlin and Rome, a villa in Biarritz (France) and a house in Vermont, according to the New York Times.
"I would like to be a phenomenon of multinational fashion", he said.
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