Think he only dressed the stars? No, we ALL wear his clothes: Lagerfeld’s glamorous, feminine style was copied across the high street, says Diana’s favourite designer BRUCE OLDFIELD
The shoes of such a fashion icon, someone who has been as culturally and creatively significant as Karl Lagerfeld, will not be easy ones to fill.
He created a contemporary take on glamour: glamorous clothes to be worn by special people on special occasions.
And he quickly proved that he was very good at what he did.
Karl held the tenets of Coco Chanel’s original ideas for feminine, relaxed, simple, soft fashion, while at the same time going off-piste with his exciting, modern designs which were always new, always thought-provoking.
Karl Lagerfeld with U.S. Vogue editor Anna Wintour at the British Fashion Awards at the London Coliseum
Keira Knightly wore a Chanel couture dress at the Paris fashion show in March 2014. The look drew attention for accentuating her tiny waist
Actress Kristen Stewart dazzled on the red carpet in a metallic haute couture dress from Chanel’s 2013 collection at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival
Coco had so many emblems — like the interlocking Cs, the quilted bags, the perfumes No 5 and No 19 — which could all be used ad nauseam, and Karl did use them, with great skill.
He wasn’t afraid to experiment, or to be excessive, both in his presentations and the final cost of the garments. Celebrities couldn’t get enough of his look.
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The cost of putting on an haute couture fashion show for Chanel is likely to be between half a million and a million pounds, and Karl did it with such flair, confidence and sure-handedness, season after season. People in the business hugely admired him for still doing this well into his 80s.
You may not realise it but we all wear Lagerfeld’s designs. They may have been picked up on the High Street rather than in a Chanel boutique, but so many of the clothes we buy were inspired by him. He created the styles that we now see as wardrobe staples, such as the feminine tweed suit.
Nicole Kidman wore an Elizabethan inspired Chanel Couture outfit to a UK premiere in 2003. That same year she became the face of fragrance Chanel No. 5
Cara Delevingne walked at the 2016 Chanel catwalk at The Ritz in Paris wearing this tweed suit in a classic Chanel design, with pearl necklaces and gold Mary-Jane heels
He never lost touch with youth culture, either, managing to stay relevant in a notoriously fickle industry.
His ready-to-wear catwalk shows were often even more memorable than the designs themselves. Show after show, he never disappointed, transforming Paris’s Grand Palais into an ultra-glamorous airport hangar or a fully functioning grocery store with shopping trolleys and fresh food.
He could put on a spectacle like no one else ever has, or possibly will again.
I’m also supremely grateful to him for paving the way for other designers, like myself, to collaborate with High Street chains after becoming the first to do that, with his H&M collection, back in 2004. It was an incredibly brave first step.
Because of him, I have clients who were happy to buy both my couture collection and the range I had at John Lewis — something that would never have happened 20 years ago. One encounter that stands out in my memory was in the Eighties when we were both invited to a dinner at Langan’s Brasserie in Mayfair, hosted by a group of high-profile fashion journalists.
After just being labelled a ‘supermodel’ a young Naomi Campbell struts down the catwalk in a risqué blue string bikini at the Spring Summer 1993 show in Paris
German model Claudia Schiffer – a muse and long-time favourite of Lagerfeld’s – wowed the catwalk at Channel’s show in 1993
Prince William and Catherine Duchess of Cambridge arriving at an event at the Trocadero in Paris, France
By then, Karl had made his career-defining move to become creative director at Chanel, while I was no longer a designer looking for his big break but known as ‘the man who dressed Princess Diana’.We were seated beside one another, and we both agreed that we weren’t quite sure why we were there — something we felt was a bit of a hoot.
After asking my age — I was in my 30s at the time — Karl informed me that he was just 14 years my senior. In fact, as I discovered only while reading the coverage of his passing, he was born in 1933 — which makes him 17 years older than me.
Of course, he wasn’t the first person in the fashion industry to shave off a few years, but it did bring a smile to my face.
Interview by Helen Carroll
The wit and wisdom of Karl Lagerfeld
NEVER short of an acerbic remark, Lagerfeld’s wit was irreverent, frequently controversial and occasionally cruel. Here, Beth Hale shares some of the funniest — and most outrageous — of his one-liners.
On himself: ‘I am very much down to earth. Just not this earth.’
On Andy Warhol: ‘I shouldn’t say this, but physically he was quite repulsive.’
On PLASTIC Surgery: ‘Nothing makes you look older than attempting to look young. The worst are the lip operations. They look like they flew through the windscreen during a car accident and were patched up badly afterwards.’
On CHIlDREN: ‘I hate all children. For other people, it’s fine, but not for me.’
On the DUCHESS OF CAMBRIDGE: ‘Kate Middleton has a nice silhouette and she is the right girl for that boy. I like that kind of woman, I like romantic beauties.’
On his footwear: ‘I buy my shoes a size too small; I like the way it feels.’
On his glasses: ‘They’re my burka, a burka for the eyes. I’m a little shortsighted, and people, when they’re shortsighted, they remove their glasses and then they look like cute little dogs who want to be adopted.’
On his SUCCESSOR AT CHLOE (STELLA McCARTNEY): ‘They should have taken a big name. They did, but in music, not fashion. Let’s hope she is as gifted as her father.’
On tattoos: ‘I think tattoos are horrible. It’s like living in a Pucci dress full-time.’
On women who object to thin models: ‘They are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly.’
On KEEPING standards UP: ‘My mother always told me that you could wake up in the middle of the night and be deathly sick, so you always have to be impeccable. Everyone should go to bed dressed like they have a date at the door.’
On mobile phones: ‘I send notes. I’m not a chambermaid whom you can ring at every moment. Today, most people act like they work at a switchboard in a hotel.’
On the Greek financial crisis (and Italians): ‘Nobody wants Greece to disappear, but they have really disgusting habits. Italy as well.’
On himself: ‘I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like a mask, and for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.’
On beauty: ‘Life is not a beauty contest, some [ugly people] are great. What I hate is nasty, ugly people . . . the worst is ugly, short men.’
On Heidi Klum: ‘I don’t know Heidi Klum. She was never known in France. Claudia Schiffer also doesn’t know who she is.’
On his wedding curse: ‘Normally, I don’t recommend me for wedding dresses — they all get a divorce.’
On being a legend: ‘A sense of humour and a little lack of respect — that’s what you need to make a legend survive.’
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