Early career, Chloé, and Fendi (1954–1982) In 1954, Lagerfeld submitted a dress design to the
International Wool Secretariat's design competition. His submitted entry presaged the chemise dresses which would be introduced by
Givenchy and
Balenciaga three years later. He also befriended another winner,
Yves Saint Laurent, and was soon after hired by
Pierre Balmain who was a judge for the competition. He worked as Balmain's assistant, and later apprentice, for three years. He left Jean Patou in 1962, to become a freelance designer, one of the first designers to do so. In the 1960s, he freelanced for brands including
Charles Jourdan,
Chloé,
Krizia,
Valentino, In 1965, he was hired by
Fendi to modernize their fur line. The fashion editor of
The Independent, Alexander Fury, wrote in 2015 that Lagerfeld's designs for Fendi were innovative and proved groundbreaking within the industry. These included the introduction of less expensive furs such as rabbit and squirrel pelts into high fashion, and launching a ready-to-wear line. He also designed the brand's double F logo. Lagerfeld remained with Fendi Rome until his death. He was known in part during this period for expanding the use of crêpe de chine, a focus other designers would adopt in the 1970s, a decade when Lagerfeld's work for
Chloé would make him one of the most prominent designers in the world, often vying with
Yves Saint Laurent for most influential. After a period in the early seventies when he toyed with styles from the 1920s, '30s, '40s, and '50s, in 1974 he contributed to the burgeoning
Big Look or Soft Look by eliminating linings, padding, and even hemming from voluminous, thin-fabric garments, even from fur in his work for Fendi at the time, to enable an unencumbered, comfortable, layered style which would dominate the high fashion of the middle of the decade. After refining this style and saying that to go back to linings and stiff structure would be regressive, he did a complete about-face in 1978 and joined other designers in showing the heavily constructed,
huge-shouldered, more restrictive looks that would dominate the 1980s. He presented such an exaggerated retro 1940s–50s silhouette – immense shoulder pads; severe, stiffly constructed suits with padded lampshade peplums; padded busts and hips; impractically tight skirts; awkwardly high spike heels; hats; gloves; even boned corsets – that his work did not look out of place alongside similar retro fare from
Thierry Mugler of the period. His 50s-revival strapless, boned bodices were made more comfortable with foam padding and given the name bustier by the designer, a contribution that would become very popular during the following decade. During both these phases, his mid-seventies Soft Look phase and his late seventies-eighties big-shoulders phase, his love of the eighteenth century was frequently on display. For instance, his Fall 1977 collection, one of the most celebrated of the seventies Soft Look era, included lace trim, headwear, and thigh-high boots in styles from the 1700s, while his Fall 1979 collection, one of the most influential of the early years of the big-shoulder era, contained millinery that recalled Napoleonic
bicornes, along with button-sided spats/leggings that looked somewhat like military accoutrements from the same period. Lagerfeld continued producing outfits in the shoulder pads-tight skirts-stiletto heels direction into the eighties, joining other similar designers in shortening the skirts of the look even as high as
mini length, though his hemlines could also range as low as the ankle. Alongside these styles, he also showed softer, more comfortable clothing, particularly in 1981–'82, when a brief revival of somewhat mid-seventies-looking long dirndl skirts and shawls appeared on runways and Lagerfeld touted the gossamer weightlessness he had perfected in the seventies, although he did like to place corsets and girdles over it by that time. The variety of lengths and trouser shapes he presented during this period kept him in line with modern women's needs.
International fame with Chanel (1982–2000) In the 1980s, Lagerfeld was hired by Chanel, which was considered a "near-dead brand" at the time since the death of designer
Coco Chanel a decade prior. Taking over the couture there in 1983, Lagerfeld brought life back into the company, making it a huge success by revamping its
ready-to-wear fashion line. Lagerfeld also changed the Chanel silhouette that had prevailed since the early 1960s, making it more eighties by padding the shoulder, shortening and tightening the skirt, raising the heel, and enlarging or miniaturizing the jewelry and purses, all controversial moves, especially the short skirts, as Mlle. Chanel had always disapproved of above-the-knee skirts. This new direction was actually initiated the year before Lagerfeld took the helm, 1982, when a design team led by
Hervé Léger, a Lagerfeld protegé, operated at the house. Lagerfeld is suspected of having influenced Léger's changes. In 1984, a year after his start at Chanel, Lagerfeld began his own eponymous "Karl Lagerfeld" brand with a focus on ready-to-wear clothing. The brand was established to channel "intellectual sexiness". Lagerfeld ended the agreement with Bidermann in 1989. That same year, Lagerfeld launched two Karl Lagerfeld brand menswear lines. The Lagerfeld label was then purchased by the
Cora Revillon Group, which had previously reached an agreement to manufacture and market Karl Lagerfeld-branded products. In 1992, Dunhill Holdings—part of the
Vendôme Luxury Group—acquired the Karl Lagerfeld brand from Cora-Revillon for an estimated $30 million. Lagerfeld stated that Vendôme "had not hired the right people to manage it." Lagerfeld participated in it all, for both his namesake line and Chanel. In 1986, he marked the move away from broad shoulders by removing pads from the shoulders and placing them visibly on the outside of the hips.
Later career (2001–2019) Fashion In December 2006, Lagerfeld announced the launch of a new collection for men and women dubbed K Karl Lagerfeld, which included fitted T-shirts and a wide range of jeans. In September 2010, the Couture Council of The Museum at the
Fashion Institute of Technology presented Lagerfeld with an award created for him, The Couture Council Fashion Visionary Award, at a benefit luncheon at
Avery Fisher Hall, in New York City. In November 2010, Lagerfeld and Swedish crystal manufacturer
Orrefors announced a collaboration to design a crystal art collection. The first collection was launched in spring 2011, called Orrefors by Karl Lagerfeld. In 2012 Lagerfeld released his
photo-book The Little Black Jacket which featured entertainers, models, and friends of his. In 2014, Palm Beach Modern Auctions announced that many of Lagerfeld's early sketches for the House of Tiziani in Rome would be sold. Because his designs changed depending on which fashion house he was working for, designers such as
Anna Sui and
Clare Waight Keller praised his "chameleon-like versatility". In November 2015, Karl Lagerfeld was presented with the Outstanding Achievement Award at the
British Fashion Awards.
Anna Wintour, Editor in Chief of American
Vogue, presented the award.
Collaborations Karl Lagerfeld was well known for his collaborations with brands and individuals. Some of his notable collaborations during the 2000s and 2010s include the following: • In 2002, Lagerfeld asked
Renzo Rosso, the founder of
Diesel, to collaborate with him on a special denim collection for the Lagerfeld Gallery brand. The collection, Lagerfeld Gallery by Diesel, was designed by Lagerfeld and produced by Diesel and then sold in highly limited editions at the Lagerfeld Galleries in Paris and Monaco and at the Diesel Denim Galleries in New York and Tokyo. • In 2004, Lagerfeld designed a capsule collection for Swedish fashion chain H&M, marking the first time a designer had collaborated with the brand. ''Women's Wear Daily'' wrote that the collaboration "had a seismic effect on the entire fashion system: breaking down barriers between luxury and mass; democratizing design in a new way, and foreshadowing an era of rampant collaborations, drops and pop-up concepts." • In 2010, Lagerfeld collaborated with
Coca-Cola on a limited-edition collection of Coca-Cola Light bottles in France. Lagerfeld also shot an ad campaign for the company featuring
Coco Rocha and
Baptiste Giabiconi. The redesigned bottles featured a vivid pink cap and a black graphic of Lagerfeld's silhouette. Coca-Cola released another set of Lagerfeld-designed bottles in 2011. • In 2012, Lagerfeld collaborated with Japanese cosmetics brand
Shu Uemura on a holiday makeup collection. Lagerfeld worked closely with the brand's shu artistic director, Kakuyasu Uchiide, to develop the line. • In 2014, Lagerfeld collaborated with
Mattel on a "Barbie Lagerfeld" doll that included fingerless gloves and a tailored black jacket. • In 2017, Lagerfeld collaborated with the shoe brand
Vans on a collection that included sneakers, jackets, hats, and backpacks. and in 2018 he collaborated with the brand on a limited-edition cutlery set. In 2017 he received the John B. Fairchild Award from
WWD.
Final collection The final Chanel collection completed before his death had an
Alpine theme of après-ski clothing. As Lagerfeld requested not to have any type of funeral, the show only included a moment of silence in his honor and chairs emblazoned with his image next to Coco Chanel with the saying "the beat goes on". Although Lagerfeld shunned any emotional reactions around the idea of his death, some models could be seen crying on the runway, as well as audience members.
Other media Lagerfeld took up photography in 1987 after being frustrated with images done for Chanel press kits. Chanel's then-image director,
Éric Pfrunder, encouraged Lagerfeld to redo them himself, and photography became one of the passions of Lagerfeld's life outside of design. He went on to shoot commercial fashion campaigns, as well as architectural and landscape work. "I'm an illustrator with a camera", Lagerfeld told ''
Women's Wear Daily'' at a 2010 exhibition of his work at the
Maison européenne de la photographie. In 1994, German publishing house
Steidl published
Off the Record, a collection of Lagerfeld's photography. The publishing house went on to release dozens of collections of his work, and
Karl Lagerfeld: Casa Malaparte in 2015, which documented the
Italian Modernist architectural monument. Lagerfeld and investments enterprise Dubai Infinity Holdings (DIH) signed a deal to design limited edition homes on the island of
Isla Moda. A feature-length documentary film on the designer,
Lagerfeld Confidential, was made by Rodolphe Marconi in 2007. Later that year, Lagerfeld assumed the role of the host of the fictional radio station K109 in the video game
Grand Theft Auto IV and its DLCs
The Lost & Damned and
The Ballad of Gay Tony. In 2008, he created a
teddy bear in his likeness that was produced by
Steiff in an edition of 2,500 that sold for $1,500. and has been immortalized in many forms, which include pins, shirts, dolls, and more. In 2009, Tra Tutti began selling Karl Lagermouse and Karl Lagerfelt, which are mini-Lagerfelds in the forms of mice and
finger puppets, respectively. That same year, he had a guest voice role in the French animated film
Totally Spies! The Movie. In 1996, the Zürich-based
Galerie Gmurzynska began exhibiting Lagerfeld's photography. In 1999, Lagerfeld opened 7L, a bookshop in Paris that specializes in photography collections and visual arts books. In 2000, he launched a publishing imprint, Editions 7L, in collaboration with
Steidl. The imprint released books on fashion and photography and also republished rare and out-of-print books. Later in life, Lagerfeld realized one of his boyhood ambitions by becoming a professional caricaturist; from 2013, his political cartoons were regularly published in the German newspaper
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. and
Charlene, Princess of Monaco (2011) In 2013, he directed
Once Upon a Time..., a short film starring
Keira Knightley as
Coco Chanel and
Clotilde Hesme as her aunt, Adrienne. In June 2016, it was announced that Lagerfeld would design the two residential lobbies of the Estates at Acqualina, a residential development in Miami's
Sunny Isles Beach. In 2016,
Palazzo Pitti hosted another exhibition of Karl Lagerfeld's photography that included portraits and photos from fashion shoots, all inspired by classical mythology. In October 2018, Lagerfeld in collaboration with Carpenters Workshop Gallery launched an art collection of functional sculptures titled Architectures. Sculptures were made of Arabescato Fantastico, a rare vibrant white marble with dark gray veins and black
Nero Marquina marble with milky veins. Inspired by antiquity and referred to as modern mythology the ensemble consists of gueridons, tables, lamps, consoles, fountains and mirrors. In 2019, following the news of Lagerfeld's death,
Galerie Gmurzynska mounted a retrospective exhibition highlighting the past three decades of his work. == Death ==