Karl Lagerfeld bought his own label back for one franc
When Karl Lagerfeld arrived at Chanel in 1983, insiders called it a near-dead brand. He revived it, ran Fendi at the same time, launched a namesake label, and in 1997 reacquired that label for a single symbolic franc after its owners, he said, hired the wrong managers.
Born in Hamburg on 10 September 1933, Lagerfeld grew up sketching constantly and claimed the Kunsthalle Hamburg taught him more than school did. His father ran an evaporated-milk import business, spoke nine languages and had once been jailed in Vladivostok on spying charges during the First World War. The family also preferred the spelling Lagerfeld to Lagerfeldt because it sounded more commercial.
His break came through the International Wool Secretariat contests. A 1954 dress entry anticipated the chemise styles Givenchy and Balenciaga would show three years later, and in 1955 he won the coat category, meeting fellow winner Yves Saint Laurent and landing a job with Pierre Balmain. By 1957 he was artistic director at Jean Patou, and in 1962 he went freelance, an unusual move then. Fendi hired him in 1965 to modernise its furs; he brought cheaper pelts such as rabbit and squirrel into high fashion, drew the double F logo and stayed there for life.
At Chloé, where he became sole designer in 1974, he stripped linings, padding and even hems out of billowing thin fabrics for the relaxed Soft Look, then reversed course in 1978 with rigid, broad-shouldered retro tailoring. He also coined the name bustier for foam-padded strapless bodices. At Chanel he turned the interlocking CC into a pattern and pushed skirts above the knee, which Coco Chanel herself had disliked.
Critics admired how his style shifted from house to house, a versatility Anna Sui and Clare Waight Keller called chameleon-like. Dunhill Holdings paid an estimated 30 million dollars for his own brand in 1992, before handing it back five years later. He photographed campaigns, published the 2012 book The Little Black Jacket, and was known on sight for white hair, dark glasses, fingerless gloves and starched collars. He died on 19 February 2019.
Source: Karl Lagerfeld
