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 Look at the
eccentric grey-headed gentleman in half-faced glasses and wearing elegant suit,
all the time in the circle of bodyguards, the halo of scandals and admirers.
The most mysterious, the most influential, the most talented. His name is always in the news journal, periodics and yellow pages, he is hunted by paparazzis and young designers (!) for
confidential and thus so much desired information and new ideas. Here he is - Fashion Guru, Karl Lagerfeld, always
shocking, looking stunning.
Karl
Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg, Germany, in September 10, 1938 to a wealthy, say
classical burgher family. His father's initiative, who once made a fortune
supplying condensed milk to Europe, guaranteed a considerable future for his
son. Karl received an excellent educational background; he perfectly mastered
three foreign languages, English, Italian and French. Then he showed a great interest to reading
that put the start of going in for books for the rest of his life. But his
classic education was not ended at this point. Karl's mother, full-blooded
aristocrat, cultivated good manners and taste to her son from early childhood.
And Frau Lagerfeld was a perfect expert in fashion and perfumery. The designer
likes telling a story that happened to him in his childhood: little Karl showed
poor results in music. And eventually his mother quitted and advised that her
son start drawing instead, since «drawing is not that noisy, at least».
When he was
fourteen, Karl leaves his parental house to learn designing. He is accepted as a student to the school at
the Haute Couture Secretariat where he successfully grasps the beauty science.
Once the
new whiz kid decides to exhibit his talent to open public and participates in
the Contest of Fashion Drawings arranged by the International Wool Secretariat.
Being confident in his work but still trembling Karl presented the draft of a
coat to the contest jury. And this was a very important moment in his life!
Since jury was presented by Hubert de Givenchy, Pierre Balmain and Christian
Dior.
And the
life of the 16-year-old German teenager endures sea changes. Now he is an
adult, he is one of lads in the fashion world. Bohemia swallows him up and into
the so sweet whirl of events. And no ways his life will be like a life of
ordinary Deutsch burgher.
Just after
his successful debut at the prestigious Contest of Drafts Karl is invited to
work with the Pierre Balmain himself. Tediously he works in his studio for
three years making drafts and learning craftwork and fine nuances of fashion
industry.
In 1959 Karl
Lagerfeld becomes a creative manager for the Jean Patou House and designs two haute
couture collections a year for five years. Such a speed brings to depression
and Lagerfeld thinks of quitting the fashion industry. He leaves for Italy and
all his leisure time he spends reading and learning the history of art. And
starting from 1964 he tries himself in freelance-design for Krizia, Fendi,
Charles Laurdan and Chloe. And the collections for such different pillars of
fashion have never conflicted. Such a «versatile creation» can be easily explained
since the master is very responsive to the individual styles, he perceives the
pulse intuitively and is capable to create a thing that is close to traditions
and customs of every Fashion House.
And this
exact feature helped Karl Lagerfeld to work with Chanel House. The admirers had
a feeling that a Great Mademoiselle returned to life, to the great extent
Lagerfeld grasped the atmosphere and ideas of one of the famous Fashion Houses
in the world. Yet, he never repeated in his ideas and he never recreated Coco's
style. Lagerfeld introduced new feeling of liberty and modernity, sensitiveness
and steadfastness to Chanel House. In 1983 Lagerfeld is assigned Haute Couture
lines and in 1984 - all trends of ready-made clothes. He continued designing
for Chanel, he established his own design business lines named KL by Karl
Lagerfeld.
And, of
course, Karl Lagerfeld is not only brand name for clothes. It is splendid
perfume as well (fragrance for Chloe named Perfumes Lagerfeld, Photo perfume, perfume
for men JAKO & KL), expressive and stunning photos he shot himself. In 1993
he is awarded a Lucky Strike Designer Award, and in 1996 - the Prize of Deutsch
Society of Photographers.
The books
from private collection of this master deserve to be specially mentioned. There
are not plenty of them; there are a huge number of them collected with manic
love and purposefulness. Lagerfeld will
never agree to lose them. Apart from selling at the auction Christei's for a
profit, may be.
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