Karl Lagerfeld

Kaiser Alfons Kaiser

Description

The definitive biography of the last iconic fashion designer "It starts with me and it ends with me." Karl Lagerfeld stylized himself into a living logo and a myth of the fashion world. In Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Fashion, journalist Alfons Kaiser, who knew Lagerfeld personally for many years, introduces readers to the public and private life of the charismatic fashion designer. Kaiser explores the many eras of Lagerfeld's life: the youthful outsider in the north German flatlands; the urbane genius in Paris; the tireless draftsman; the enthusiastic photographer; the passionate book collector; and the disciplined Prussian workaholic. What is behind this larger-than-life figure who, despite a massively public persona, kept his own life story a secret? Drawing from many previously untapped sources, this biography investigates the man behind the persona: the precocious boy who preferred to draw in the attic than play with his peers; the son who quarreled with his parents but never got away from them; Yves Saint Laurent's competitor, whom he outshone in the end; the brother, uncle, friend-and finally the partner of Jacques de Bascher, the great love of his life.

Informations

• Publié par: ABRAMS BOOKS
• Date de parution: 08 février 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781647004309
• Langue: English

Extrait

Text: Alfons Kaiser
Cernunnos logo design: Mark Ryden
Book design: Shawn Dahl, dahlimama inc
Library of Congress Control Number: 2021933724
ISBN: 978-1-4197-5725-9
eISBN: 978-1-64700-430-9
Translated from the German by Isabel Adey
Text copyright 2022 Alfons Kaiser
Cover 2022 Abrams
Published in 2022 by Cernunnos, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved.
No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.
Cernunnos books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use.
Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.
Abrams is a registered trademark of Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
ABRAMS The Art of Books 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007 abramsbooks.com
CONTENTS
In Loving Memory
PROLOGUE
Father
Mother
1933 to 1951
Birth
Bissenmoor
Childhood
War
Nazi Party
School
Humiliation
Sisters
Prussia
Awakening
1952 to 1982
Paris
Beginnings
Friends
On the Rise
Baden-Baden
Chlo
Fendi
Labelfeld
Americans
Jacques
Germans
Ch teau
Interiors
1983 to 1999
Lagerfeld
Chanel
Photography
Models
Hamburg
Flowers
Journalists
Sketches
Books
2000 to 2019
Diet
Logo
H M
Advertising
Enemies
Baptiste
Hudson
Shows
Criticism
Choupette
The End
Legacy
Notes
Family Tree
Acknowledgments
Index of Searchable Terms
IN LOVING MEMORY
It was a familiar scene, as at any major Chanel show. Young men in black suits being briefed on their role as stewards on the stairs to the Grand Palais. Traffic jams on Avenue Winston Churchill caused by double-parked black limousines. Women in tweed suits hovering outside the immense Beaux-Arts building, waiting to be snapped one last time before making their way inside. The sun angling down on the glass palace, casting a melancholy light through the dome on this last evening of spring.
But nothing was the same in Paris on June 20, 2019. At the center of all the feverish preparations, the eager anticipation, and the displays of vanity was an empty space. Karl Lagerfeld, the guiding light of the strange parallel universe of fashion, had died four months earlier, and now everyone who once moved in his orbit had gathered again. Karl s family, as his most intimate colleagues were always known, and his extended family all came to bid him farewell. Guests came from all over the world, many of them dressed in black, others in pink or white because they knew he didn t like people to mourn.
The title of the official Parisian tribute was Karl For Ever. For a designer who preferred not to dwell on the past, and even refused to attend family funerals, this was never going to be a memorial in the traditional sense. Instead, it was a joyful evening of celebration that began with a parade of famous faces, video homages, musical performances, and dance interludes, and ended with a champagne reception. Two-and-a-half thousand people gathered in his honor: This was the perfect tribute to a man who excelled at bringing people together.
Le Tout-Paris pulled up outside the Grand Palais. Among them were France s First Lady Brigitte Macron-whom Lagerfeld had always liked because her husband, Emmanuel Macron, had taken over from Fran ois Hollande, not exactly his favorite French president-and former First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, whose long career in modeling had included a stint with Chanel. Princess Caroline of Monaco, one of the fashion designer s closest friends, donned a white shirt with a black silk bow. She was joined by her daughter, Charlotte, who wore a black ankle-length dress. Lagerfeld s former muses, In s de la Fressange, Claudia Schiffer, and Caroline de Maigret, made their way down the steps of the glass palace, taking their time to keep their composure so there would be no bad photographs. Model Gigi Hadid, clearly moved, told the cameras: When I come to the Grand Palais, I always feel like I m going to see Karl . . . I got ready today as if I was getting ready to see him.
The man who was closest to the fashion designer in his final years smiled enigmatically for the cameras. S bastien Jondeau, Lagerfeld s former bodyguard, driver, and confidant, stepped out in a three-piece suit, surrounded by an air of mystery that would linger long after the memorial was over. Lagerfeld wanted his ashes to be combined with the ashes of his mother and those of his life partner, Jacques de Bascher, who had died thirty years before him. The responsibility fell to Jondeau, who had taken Lagerfeld s ashes to an undisclosed location following the cremation at the Cr matorium du Mont-Val rien in Nanterre. The fashion designer disappeared exactly as he wanted-without leaving a trace.
Karl Lagerfeld showcased his world four times a year at the Grand Palais up until the couture show in January 2019, which he was unable to attend due to ill health. The palace, originally built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle, was the setting for his two annual ready-to-wear collections and his two haute couture collections for spring/summer and autumn/winter. But this time the show was not about the next season s fashions. These two hours were all about one man s life, about all the different roles he had played over eighty-five years, about how he thought, talked, behaved, and lived. As became clear by the end of the star-studded event, Karl Lagerfeld was more than just a fashion designer: He was an originator of ideas, books, sketches, maxims, logos, expressions, careers, and ideals.
Former clients, fans, managers, models, dressmakers, and actors were not the only people on the list on this evening of remembrance. Other faces appearing at the memorial included Lagerfeld s personal florist, Caroline Cnocquaert, who arrived on the avenue in one of her Lachaume delivery vans. Marina Krauth of the Felix Jud bookstore traveled in from Hamburg, while Herv Le Masson and Catherine Kujawski from Librairie 7L, Lagerfeld s own bookstore on the other side of the Seine, attached a handwritten note to the glass door to let customers know that the shop would be closed from 4:30 that afternoon. Jewelry designer Cyril Aaron Bismuth sported a necklace with large, colorful gemstones, the same as the one that Lagerfeld had kept for special occasions. Birte Carolin Sebastian talked about starting out as a model in the 1990s, when Lagerfeld gave her a wink and the encouragement she needed in a world that was still completely new to her.
The spotlight was not on fashion on this last evening of spring in the Grand Palais; it was on the man behind the designs. 1 Hanging from the steel framework of the vast hall were fifty-six gigantic photographs of Lagerfeld from different eras of his life, sometimes sporting a beard or a monocle, elsewhere holding his beloved cat. These images charted his extensive career in fashion, spanning six and a half decades, starting from his time as Pierre Balmain s assistant in 1954. They also documented his love of showmanship, remembering the romantic young man with a side parting and a white handkerchief in his breast pocket, the hyper-photoshopped global celebrity who fancied himself as a rock star, and the quirky-looking dandy with his Birman cat.
Those portraits watched over the Parisian high-society event hosted by Chanel, Fendi, and the designer s signature Karl Lagerfeld brand. The indefatigable creator had worked for all three companies to the last, and now his image was gazing out over the kind of elite spectacle he loved to witness when he was alive. Bernard Arnault, who had incorporated Fendi into his LVMH empire, the biggest luxury conglomerate in the world, might now have his sights on the other two brands as well. But, as if to put paid to any such rumors on an evening like this, France s richest man set business aside and engaged in polite conversation with Alain Wertheimer, who privately co-owns Chanel with his brother G rard. The insatiable brand collector is unlikely to have been content with mere pleasantries, however. With the Wertheimer brothers both in their seventies, and having spent decades in the luxury sector, their interest in the superlative brand could well be starting to wane. After all, Lagerfeld had orchestrated Chanel s revival for the last three and a half decades. What was going to happen now that he was gone?
There were enough renowned designers under one roof at Karl For Ever to stage an entire fashion week. Valentino Garavani, for one, spoke of his great admiration for the friend he had known since the 1950s, while Stella McCartney, Lagerfeld s successor at Chlo , paid her respects in a black lace veil. Tommy Hilfiger, a true champion of the Karl Lagerfeld name, traveled up from Nice, while Ralph Lauren joined from London, where he had just been awarded an honorary knighthood by Prince Charles. Gucci designer Alessandro Michele hugged Fendi chief Silvia Fendi. Two designers previously rumored to be possible successors to the Chanel throne, Alber Elbaz and Haider Ackermann, were also among the famous faces at the memorial event.
Karl Lagerfeld was not much of a family man. What mattered to him most was the family he made for himself. That was his strength: his ability to use the people around him and draw upon them for his creativity, for his own life and knowledge, to find out what was happening on the street, said S bastien Jondeau in one of the video homages that opera director Robert Carsen had compiled, along with live performances, for this evening-long tribute on the second-longest day of the year. He was the original multitasker, a man who did everything at once, said Vogue chief Anna Wintour. Karl loved parties, he loved people, but he was protectiv