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Karl Lagerfeld dead aged 85 - Chanel designer dies after weeks of ill health




Iconic Chanel fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died at the age of 85 after more than three decades as the face of the French design house


The German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died at the age of 85, sources close to Chanel have said.
Lagerfeld, the fashion house’s artistic director, missed its haute couture show in Paris in January, fuelling speculation about his health.
He began his career as an assistant to Pierre Balmain in 1955 and joined Chanel in 1983, spending a record-breaking 36 years at the house.
In his first season, he was reported to be “working 16 hours a day and delighted to do it”.
Lagerfeld, who simultaneously churned out collections for LVMH’s Fendi and his eponymous label – an unheard of feat in fashion – was almost a brand in his own right.
Sporting dark suits, white, pony-tailed hair and tinted sunglasses in his later years that made him instantly recognisable, an irreverent wit was also part of a carefully crafted persona.
His artistic instincts, business acumen and commensurate ego combined to commercially triumphant effect in the rarefied world of high fashion, where he was revered and feared in similar proportions by competitors and top-models.Iam like a caricature of myself, and I like that,” runs one legendary quote attributed to him, and often recycled to convey the person he liked to play. “It is like a mask. And for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.”
He spent early childhood tucked away from war in the 1,200-acre family estate in Bavaria and had a French tutor.
The big breakthrough came shortly after a move to Paris when, in 1954, he drew a wool coat that won a prize and landed him an apprenticeship with Balmain.
Yves Saint Laurent, who went on to found his namesake label, won the dress prize. The two became fierce competitors and even rivals in love at one point, chasing the affections of late Parisian society figure Jacques de Bascher.
Saint Laurent, who died in 2008, became the enfant cheri of high society and Lagerfeld leader of a wild-child younger group.
He first found real success in the mid-1960s with Chloe, the fashion label now owned by Switzerland’s Richemont and to which he was connected off and on until 1997.
But it was Chanel that propelled him to rock-star status, as he sexed up the brand and lifted its profile with grandiose runway shows. In the past year these have featured a full-scale beach and an enormous replica ship.
Reuters contributed to this report

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