I don’t know how how men feel, but the vast majority of women will miss „King“ Karl, I suggest.
To me, he has influenced the fashion scene like no other and beyond the haute couture also reached the “woman on the street” and inspired us with his ideas; knew how to set trends, brandings etc. up to now.
He built the bridge between “High”-and-“Low”-Fashion
Now he – who had no pajamas, but spent his 7-hour sleep in white, long nightgowns – some have held for eccentric or a little biased, but everyone is as he is and should be judged by his work. Karl Lagerfeld was a he: Mozart’s braid, sunglasses, high collar, cropped leather gloves and a Diet Coke within easy reach. His performances were always perfect: from the white-powdered hairline to the shoe sole, nothing was left to chance. The man who wore Dior suits most of the time did not allow blemishes, at least in public. The demand for perfection and aesthetics also determined his professional work, which is in search of creativity, enthusiasm and versatility of its same. Fashion was surely his greatest passion besides photography, drawing, designing and reading. And what he did, he lived and loved with every pore – the results leave no doubt about that. Just think about his couture shows. It was artfully sensitive and provocative fashion stagings, where fashion and models were certainly a part of the overall spectacle but also the stage show and the backdrop with ever new topics for the audience and certainly also the designer colleagues in imposing were hard to beat. Karl Lagerfeld dared, brought his visions uncompromisingly as his language-on the catwalk. He has set standards with his genius and has always fascinated him again and again. I find people who are able to think in this way “big” should have our most respect – there are not many of them.
As if he was human behind the fictional character Karl Lagerfeld, I can not judge. But he is definitely one of the people that I like to meet once. Catch a look behind the sunglasses and hear his fast talking with a pointed tongue. This incredible spontaneity in the translation of thoughts into words. A special touch had his considerations, whereby he never took himself particularly too important, probably not too serious – most honest he was anyway. This attitude has always fascinated me and some of his sayings have impressed me.
Whenever someone hits me in sweatpants, his sentence immediately jumps into my mind: ‘Anyone who wears sweatpants has lost control of his life.’ That will stay.
And he will stay in his own way for many and it suits him that he’s meticulously prepared for his departure. One like him, planning how things are going to go: for everyone who stays to the best.
It will not be easy to follow his footsteps
Chanel will also be showing the last collection on 5 March 2019, which still comes from his pen and everything will run off as he wished.This is a heartfelt pleasure to a person who was chief designer of this glorious house for 36 years. And I do not know anybody except him who had a lifetime contract.
They are really big, the shoes, that Virginie Viard, has now to slip in. Let’s wish her, that she lets his mind live on in fashion and attracts women of all colors and nations in the future as much as he did. Last but not least, that’s almost a pleasure for all men.
Photos – with many thanks to: Beatrix von Winterfeldt-Heuser
