There is perhaps no other person who has held so much sway over how we dress in the past half a century than the late designer Karl Lagerfeld. He is best remembered today as the creative director who steered Chanel to become a fashion juggernaut, during 36 years at the house, from 1983 until his death in 2019. He was notoriously prolific, simultaneously holding positions at the top of Fendi also, and his own eponymous label.
“Anything in your wardrobe from a house that has been resurrected is down to him,” says William Middleton, author of last year’s biography, Paradise Now: The Extraordinary Life of Karl Lagerfeld. Before Chanel came Chloé, where Lagerfeld overhauled the design foundations set by founder Gaby Aghion and gave them new life – a period of his life which is explored in a new mini-series starring Daniel Brühl, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, which is on Disney+ now.
“No one had ever done that before he did it at Chanel,” adds Middleton. “Other people had taken over a house after a designer had died, such as Yves Saint Laurent at Christian Dior, when a house was still going, but in the case of Chanel in 1983, the house was nowhere and was practically bankrupt. It was only hanging on because of Chanel No5.” Indeed Lagerfeld’s era-defining Chanel tenure has been back in the news again this week following the departure of his successor, Virginie Viard, who was always seen as an interim caretaker after his death.
Lagerfeld’s major talent – and one that Chanel’s next creative director will have to possess, too – was perhaps that despite having an encyclopaedic knowledge of fashion history, he was obsessed with newness. “He was completely focused on today,” says Middleton. “It’s why he hated retrospectives of his own work. He thought there was something funereal about that. He was always aware of what was going on in the world and wanted to make something unique and modern.”
One of the most famous examples of this modernity is, of course, his championing of the high-low designer-high-street collaboration, of which he was a pioneer with H&M in 2004. Despite working for the most famous – and expensive – fashion houses in the world, he wanted to democratise fashion and make it for everyone.
This extended to his interest in sales, always keen to know how his work was being received, rather than sitting in an ivory tower. “It was important for him to know that his collections were reaching people. He really had respect for the customer,” continues Middleton. “He was very clear that fashion was applied art, it was something that was made to be sold. He was really pragmatic.”
His longevity, too, is of course important when considering how influential he has been, but he wasn’t a one-trick pony by any means. “He worked for so long, for 65 years and for so many different houses, but there’s no singular Karl Lagerfeld style,” concludes Middleton. “There are some designers that have one design or one contribution, but that wasn’t Lagerfeld’s thing.”
This is how Lagerfeld’s legacy still influences our wardrobes today:
The two-tone ballet flat
Coco Chanel invented the two-tone slingback in 1957 (reportedly to help create the illusion of smaller feet), but it was Lagerfeld who was to reimagine one of the fashion house’s signature designs as a ballet flat. Launched as part of the spring/summer 1984 collection, it was his way of paying homage to one of Chanel’s passions – the Ballets Russes. Since then, it’s a style that’s been adopted by the high street, with dupes at Marks & Spencer, New Look and Next, to name but a few.
The miniskirt suit
While the bouclé wool jacket is synonymous with Coco Chanel, it was Lagerfeld who reinterpreted it as part of a skirt suit, specifically with a miniskirt and in bubblegum pastel hues, rather than the calf-grazing length and monochrome favoured by his predecessor. It’s hardly a surprise that he went for an abbreviated hemline: while the designer at Jean Patou in 1960, he was heavily critiqued by the press for showing the shortest skirts of the season.
The boho dress
It’s easy to forget now, but Lagerfeld held the position of creative director at Chloé not once but twice, between 1963-1983 and 1992-1997. During his tenure, he popularised floaty, boho dresses, with long batwing sleeves and high necklines, often with surprising graphic prints inspired by art, rather than traditional florals. One of the most famous – the violin dress – was part of a 2013 limited edition collection, modelled by Chloё Sevigny.
The multi-layered necklace
A style signature he took from his own wardrobe, the multi-strand necklace was one of Lagerfeld’s most famous inventions. Comprising a combination of different length pearls, its place in the fashion history hall of fame was cemented by an appearance in The Devil Wears Prada, when Anne Hathaway’s character Andrea Sachs wears it as part of her sartorial glow-up.
The romantic blouse
Lagerfeld had a penchant for romantic blouses – diaphanous, floaty and ruffled – which he showcased season after season at Chanel. Frequently sheer, these pretty tops added a soupçon of girlishness to his collections, and were often juxtaposed with trousers or jackets for a tougher, more modern look. Bibbed shirts also formed the backbone of his own wardrobe, paired with skinny black trousers, his signature fingerless gloves, chains and oversized sunglasses.
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