German designer Karl Lagerfeld dead at 85

Karl Lagerfeld, the world’s most famous and prolific fashion designer, has died in Paris.

Designer Karl Lagerfeld, who has died aged 85. Picture: Getty

Karl Lagerfeld, the world’s most famous and prolific fashion designer, has died in Paris.

Sources close to the house of Chanel, where he has been creative director since 1983, confirmed his death last night, Australian time.

Lagerfeld’s failure to appear to take his bow at the end of Chanel’s January haute couture show in Paris suggested to many that he was unwell.

In recent seasons he had appeared increasingly frail.

Despite his 85 years (although his birth year is still the subject of speculation) Lagerfeld had seemed unstoppable, and was creative director for three houses simultaneously — Chanel, Fendi, for whom he had worked since 1965, and his namesake label.

A renowned polymath, the German-born designer also excelled in photography, film and design projects and collaborations, and the booklover even owned a bookshop in Paris.

His shows for Chanel, in particular, were the stuff of legend, often taking over Paris’s Grand Palais and transforming the space entirely, whether into a space station with rocket that appeared to blast into space, a Chanel-branded supermarket, and even shipping in an iceberg from Sweden to create an icy wasteland.

Designer Karl Lagerfeld walks the runway during the Chanel show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2017. Picture: Getty

While other luxury houses chop and change designers with alarming regularity, Lagerfeld was a steady hand that continued to bring exceptional results to the house.

The privately owned Chanel released its financial results for the first time last year — a staggering US$9.6 billion in sales, putting it among the pinnacle of global luxury brands.

It was Lagerfeld who pushed the company to acquire struggling specialist ateliers, including embroiderers, beaders and hat makers, to continue their crafts which may otherwise have been lost.

Karl Lagerfeld, left, poses with a model in Hamburg in 1977. Picture: AP

He had previously designed for brands including Chloe, Patou, and Charles Jourdan.

Lagerfeld’s first success came from the Australia’s then International Wool Secretariat, for whom he won the coat category in the second Woolmark Prize competition in 1954. Yves Saint Laurent won a category in the same year, sparking first a friendship between the two couturiers, which would later become a bitter rivalry.

Lagerfeld is himself a figure of great mystique. Affectionately referred to as King Karl, or the Kaiser, he understood the power of a signature appearance, which included his pompadour white ponytail, dark glasses and starched collars.

He had a quick wit and a sharp sense of humour — his cosseted cat Choupette became a media star herself, with her own social media account and she inspired a range of make-up created by the designer.

To journalists astounded by his output, Lagerfeld would say that to design was to breathe, “so if I can’t breathe, I’m in trouble”.

He has said of his own style: “I am like a caricature of myself, and I like that. It is like a mask. And for me the Carnival of Venice lasts all year long.”

The king is dead. Long live the king.

Lagerfeld’s replacement named

Speculation has been rife for years as to who could take over the creative direction of Chanel in the event of Lagerfeld’s death.

The company looked close to home for the answer.

Via its social media account, the house said that Chanel chief executive Alain Wertheimer had entrusted the creative reins to Virginie Viard, Lagerfeld’s collaborator of more than 30 years and director of its fashion creation studio, “so that the legacy of Gabrielle Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld can live on”.

‘The world has lost one of history’s greatest designers’

Former top model Carla Bruni has thanked Lagerfeld for the “sparkles,” “beauty and lightness” he brought into “such a heavy world.”

In a message posted on her Instagram account accompanied by a picture of her and Lagerfeld, Bruni said “the whole world and I will miss you.” Bruni had kept ties with Lagerfeld after she retired from modelling to embrace a successful singing career. She is now married to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Designer and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham said she is “so incredibly sad” about Lagerfeld’s death.

She tweeted the symbol for a broken heart and said, “Karl was a genius and always so kind and generous to me both personally and professionally. RIP.” Beckham showed her new collection at London Fashion Week Sunday.

Germany’s economy minister is lamenting the passing of Lagerfeld.

Speaking on Tuesday after meeting with his French counterpart in Berlin, Peter Altmaier said they had learned “the sad news that Karl Lagerfeld has died,” noting his celebrity status in Germany and France.

The editor-in-chief of British Vogue has hailed Lagerfeld’s strong influence on other designers during his many years as a fashion leader. “I am deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Karl Lagerfeld,” Edward Enninful said on Tuesday, on the final day of London Fashion Week.

“He has exerted an incredible influence over the fashion industry over the past six decades, and it goes without saying that the world has lost one of the greatest designers in the history of fashion. But it has also lost one of its greatest teachers.”

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has expressed her sadness at the death of Lagerfeld, calling him a genius whose art gave colour and shape to love. Hidalgo said on Twitter Lagerfeld was a “great artist and a friend with a rare sensibility who his whole life accompanied women in their freedom and empowerment.” “He was Paris,” she wrote. She recalled his kindness and generosity and expressed her friendship to the employees of the Chanel house.

Bernard Arnault, the chairman and CEO of luxury house LVMH, said the world has lost “a creative genius” with the death of Lagerfeld.

In a statement released by LVMH, Arnault said “we owe him a great deal: his taste and talent were the most exceptional I have ever known.”

“I will always remember his immense imagination, his ability to conceive new trends for every season, his inexhaustible energy, the virtuosity of his drawings, his carefully guarded independence, his encyclopaedic culture, and his unique wit and eloquence,” Arnault said.

With AP