Obituary: Karl Lagerfeld, fashion designer who transformed Chanel

Died: February 19, 2019

KARL Lagerfeld, who has died aged 85, was the eccentric and sometimes controversial designer who blended fashion and art and was known for his distinctive look: sunglasses, black suit, white shirt with big 19th century collars, and grey hair pulled back into a ponytail. He was simultaneously creative director of Chanel, Fendi as well as eponymous international fashion labels.

Never shy about his own genius, Lagerfeld considered himself world renowned, according to his website, for his "cutting-edge, aspirational and relevant approach to style," with a fashion sensibility "rooted in a DNA that’s accessible-luxe and cool," and a "signature aesthetic combining timeless classics with a modern, rock-chic edge".

He was also known for his eccentricity. At one point in 2013, he said he wanted to marry his closest companion – his cat, a white Siamese named Choupette, who has nearly 50,000 Twitter followers and an Instagram account.

But that was only one of the headlines chronicling his outre conduct over the years: he once used strippers and a porn star as models, thus annoying Anna Wintour who walked out of one of his shows in 1993.

He as also an unapologetic supporter of fur in fashion (even though he did not wear it himself) and invited the wrath of People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, which tried to throw a pie at him at a New York event in 2001. They missed and hit Calvin Klein.

Then there were the uproars after he called supermodel Heidi Klum "insignificant" in the fashion world because she was "too glamorous" in 2009; he also criticised singer Adele as "a little too fat" in 2012; and later that year dissed Pippa Middleton's face, suggesting she only show her backside.

From the 1950s, Lagerfeld exchanged frequent public barbs with rival French designer Yves Saint Laurent until the latter died in 2008. He even got into a fracas with Oscar queen Meryl Streep when he claimed in 2017 that she dropped out of wearing a Chanel dress to that year’s Oscars in favour of a brand that would pay her. "He lied," said Streep.

Such was the enigma surrounding the designer that even his age was a point of mystery for decades, with reports that he had two birth certificates, one dated 1933 and the other 1938. In 2013, Lagerfeld told French magazine Paris Match he was born in 1935.

Born in Hamburg to a father whose company made evaporated milk and the daughter of a local politician, Lagerfeld migrated to Paris, where he finished his education at Lycée Montaigne.

He started his career in 1954 when he won first prize in a contest to design a wool coat, a design subsequently produced by designer Pierre Balmain who offered Lagerfeld, then 17, a job as his assistant. By 1957, he was an art director for designer Jean Patou.

Lagerfeld also started his own label, Karl Lagerfeld, which though less commercially successful than his other ventures, was widely seen as a sort of a sketchpad where the designer worked through his audacious ideas.

In 1982, he took over at Chanel, which had been dormant since the death of its founder, Coco Chanel, more than a decade earlier. "When I took on Chanel, it was a sleeping beauty – not even a beautiful one," he said in the 2007 documentary Lagerfeld Confidential. ''She snored."

Lagerfeld went on to sex up the brand's iconic tweed skirts and made Chanel's instantly recognisable accessories into a prized item. Everyone from Kate Moss to Keira Knightley has fronted his campaigns and his keen eye for capturing what women want to wear has turned the brand into a global heavyweight. He also ways stayed true to many of Coco Chanel's original design details, though, such as pearls, braid-brimmed tweed suits and the iconic 'double C' logo.

Overseeing the company's growing fortunes - the house released financial figures for the first time in 2017 revealing it had made £1.35 billion the previous year - Lagerfeld also collaborated with H&M in 2014 for a collection that would turn out to be the original of many designer-high street collaborations to follow.

His shows were also known as some of the most spectacular in fashion history. From a 115ft tall rocket ship that blasted off in front of Anna Wintour and the rest of the front row, to a scale model of the Eiffel tower, the Chanel shows became the major talking point of the Paris Fashion Week - not just for the exquisite clothes, but for Lagerfeld's set designs.

Favourites include 2014's Chanel supermarket, complete with aisles, checkouts and over 500 different Chanel-branded food items and 2019's indoor beach, where models walked barefoot through lapping waves.

Lagerfeld was open about his homosexuality — he once said he announced it to his parents at age 13 – but kept his private life under wraps. Following his widely known relationship with a French aristocrat who died of AIDS in 1989, Lagerfeld insisted he prized his solitude above all.

"I hate when people say I'm 'solitaire' (or solitary.) Yes, I'm solitaire in the sense of a stone from Cartier, a big solitaire," Lagerfeld told The New York Times in an interview. "I have to be alone to do what I do. I like to be alone. I'm happy to be with people, but I'm sorry to say I like to be alone, because there's so much to do, to read, to think."

As much as he loved the spotlight, Lagerfeld was careful to obscure his real self. "It's not that I lie, it's that I don't owe the truth to anyone," he told French Vogue.

Despite designing an average of 14 collections per year, Lagerfeld still sketched all of his designs on paper by hand.

"I don't do a computer, I don't have a studio [with] 20 people sketching. I sketch myself and I'm pretty good at it because I wanted to become an illustrator at the beginning."

Lagerfeld won Outstanding Achievement Award at the British Fashion Awards in 2015, where US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour said he represented the soul of fashion - restless, forward-looking and voraciously attentive to our changing culture.