Karl Lagerfeld’s Career-Defining and Fashion-Defining Looks Remade

Through sheer flair, longevity and productivity, it is likely that Karl Lagerfeld did more than any other designer to shape the look of the last 20th and early 21st century. For more than six decades, five different brands (three at a time) and many collaborations, she flooded the zone from Paris to Dallas to Shanghai, dressing Hollywood, haute and high street.

But why tell when we can show? Here are some of the most notable performances from nearly every stage of an incredible career.

In 1954, Mr. Lagerfeld, a young German with no formal fashion training, won the jacket category at the prestigious Woolmark Prize, a serendipitous event that resulted in a job as assistant to couturier Pierre Balmain, who was one of the judges. After only three years at the atelier, while still in his 20s, Mr. Lagerfeld was appointed artistic director of Jean Patou, a brand founded in 1914, whose founder is known for liberating female forms and creating the perfume Joy.

There, Mr. Lagerfeld went on to create 10 couture collections over five years, laying the groundwork for his own facility for working with tiny electricity, and his ability to play happily within established aesthetic boundaries.

In 1966, Mr. Lagerfeld became the designer of Chlo, one of the earliest ready-to-wear brands in Paris, working first with its founder, Gaby Aghion (who originally brought him on as a freelancer in 1964), before becoming sole designer in 1974. He would remain in the brand until 1983, back again from 1992 to 1997.

Mr.’s early work Lagerfeld in Chlo, a name synonymous with a certain femininity, may surprise many, playing like print and Surrealism. But it also reflects his ability to balance luxury eccentricities and wearability, with an eye for trade (he never saw selling as a dirty word). In her second stint, she has fully embraced bohemianism, and set the tone for what was to come.

In 1965, the five Fendi sisters, who had inherited their family’s fur business from their parents, Adele and Edoardo, brought in Mr. Lagerfeld to design their fur and ready-to-wear collections.

They may think they’re getting a savvy designer, but what they’re really getting is a lifetime partnership. Silvia Venturini Fendi, daughter of Anna Fendi, who grew up designing Fendi menswear and bags with Mr Lagerfeld, recalls that even as a child, when Karl came around, it was clear something special was going on and I had to pay attention.

Mr. Lagerfeld created the FF logo, which represents the fun concept of fur (as well as Fendi), and then proceeded to shear, dye, sculpt, and transform the material, as well as introducing skins like mole, rabbit, and squirrel into high fashion.

Her work on the runway was equally experimental, with various references, including Roman Fendis roots and futurism. When LVMH purchased the brand in 1999, Mr. Lagerfeld followed suit, eventually pioneering the haute fourrure line (who heard of that before?) the mood changed and other brands bucked the idea of ​​wearing animal skins.

In 1982, Mr. Lagerfeld landed the job that would transport him into the fashion stratosphere: artistic director of Chanel, at the time a brand known primarily for perfumes and bourgeois handbags. By adopting an approach he summed up in highly questionable terms (Chanel is an institution, and you have to treat the institution like a whore and then you get something out of it), he revived a moribund brand, providing a template for that industry. still in place today.

Combining classic Chanel iconography with camellias, pearls, Maltese crosses, boucls mixed with heavy doses of irony and irreverence, she managed to make the brand a pop culture phenomenon, a symbol of classicism and a financial juggernaut. She helped create and popularize the traveling fashion show, taking her runways to Salzburg, Edinburgh, Shanghai and Havana; dreamed up viral runway sets like icebergs (sculpted from sections of Swedish glaciers), supermarkets, and rocket ships (which actually took off); make mini movies with Nicole Kidman And Kristen Stewart; and ultimately helped bring the brand’s annual sales to $11 billion.

Perhaps tired of working within the vernacular style established by others, in 1984, Mr. Lagerfeld founded his own namesake line. Though it would never reach the size or fame of Chanel or Fendi, and despite many changes in ownership, Lagerfeld’s brand reflected his personal style more closely than any other brand. Imagine stitching rock n roll with a Teutonic edge, filtered through a monochromatic lens, and you’ll get the idea.

In 2004, Mr. Lagerfeld became the first couture designer to collaborate with a mass-market brand when he signed on to create the H&M collection. First the fashion world shocked, then intrigued, and after a line of black Karl-like suits, portrait tees and LBDs sold out in seconds, a whole new genre and approach was born.

Anna Grace Lee And Callie Holtermann reporting contribution.