Karl Lagerfeld

Born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1933, Karl Lagerfeld established himself as a fashion designers in Paris during the 1950s, learning his trade in the workshops of Pierre Balmain and Jean Patou. During the following decade, he turned from the world of couture to the burgeoning prêt-à-porter sector, creating playful designs and accessible looks that revitalised the fortunes of the French fashion house Chloé and the Italian luxury leather and fur business Fendi.

But it was at Chanel, where he arrived in 1983, that Lagerfeld cemented his legendary status. Breathing life back into the house’s heritage of tweeds, pearls and fringing with his trademark irreverence, he successfully helmed the business as its chief designer until his death in 2019 at the age of 85 — his final, alpine-inspired catwalk collection debuting a fortnight after his passing.

Much more than a fashion designer, though, Lagerfeld was a complete aesthete. He adopted an iconic uniform of white ponytail, dark glasses, leather gloves and monochrome suits with high, starched collars, and won praise for his work as a film director and photographer.

Lagerfeld also had a passion for interior design and furniture; In Paris he owned an Art Deco apartment on Place Saint-Sulpice, a futuristic studio on Quai Voltaire and the eleven-thousand-square-foot Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo, built in 1707 on the Rue de l’Université, which he filled with a dazzling array of bronzes, tapestries and paintings. There was also his pied-à-terre in Rome that contained Viennese Secession decor, a Memphis deign-filled home in Monaco and a Basque villa near Biarritz — among others. A voracious collector of beautiful things, Lagerfeld’s collections often outgrew these homes — he consigned hundreds of artworks and objects to Christie’s for a series of landmark sales between 2000 and 2001.