Karl Lagerfeld, legendary fashion designer and creative director at Chanel and Fendi, has died in Paris at the age of 85.
The NYT reports: ‘In his 80s, when most of his peers were retiring to their yachts or country estates, he was designing an average of 14 new collections a year ranging from couture to the high street, and not counting collaborations and special projects. His signature combinations of “high fashion and high camp” attracted Rihanna; Princess Caroline of Monaco; Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund; and Julianne Moore.'
CNBC reports: ‘Lagerfeld was also a renowned illustrator, producing 60 illustrations for a 1992 edition of “The Emperor's New Clothes,” by Hans Christian Andersen. He was recognizable for his white pony tail and dark suits and glasses, and in 2000 he slimmed down his look, losing 93 pounds, and writing a best-selling book about his diet…In 2017, Lagerfeld was awarded Paris's highest honor, the La Médaille Grand Vermeil de la Ville de Paris. That year, he also designed two suites at the city's Hotel de Crillon, and in 2018, designed a “six-star” hotel in Macau in his name.'
Lagerfeld was well known for his sharp tongue and did not hold back with his opinion.
In 2010 he told the filmmaker Bruce LaBruce that he was “against” the idea of gay marriage.
Said Lagerfeld: “I'm against it for a very simple reason: In the 60s they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life.”
He also made some controversial remarks about gay parenting. Said Lagerfeld: “For me it's difficult to imagine—one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be for the baby? I don't know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child… If I were interested in children, I would be a godfather—or a godmother. I don't like the idea of taking people out of their lives and their contexts. If there were a child I wanted to adopt, I would try to find the family of the child and give them the money for an education in his life and his context.”
In 2013, however, he sent two brides down the runway during Paris Fashion Week as a show of support for France's same-sex marriage law.
He told The Guardian at the time: “I don't even understand the debate. Since 1904 the church and state have been separate.”
“To design is to breathe, so if I can't breathe I'm in trouble” RIP @KarlLagerfeld #karlargerfeld
— henry holland (@henryholland) February 19, 2019
