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February 22, 2019
As many of you have heard Karl Lagerfeld died last Tuesday. Apparently he went home and died in his sleep, the same way Mme. Chanel died.
It's a huge loss as Lagerfeld was one in a million. He seemed to understand the creative nature of his business, but also understood the business aspect. Many artists can't or don't understand the two, and it's very rare when you find someone who can.
Lagerfeld started his career at Balmain when he was in his early 20s and about 3 years later went to work for Jean Patou.
At the time Patou was one of the major forces of fashion. This was in the late 50s during the heyday of Paris fashion.
In 1967, Fendi hired him to modernize their fur line which he did by introducing mole, rabbit and squirrel pelts into high fashion. Only Lagerfeld could have pulled this off, and it was because it had so much style.
But the world was about to get knocked on it's side when in 1982, Lagerfeld went to work for Chanel. At the time, Chanel was considered a goner brand and beyond rescue. The silhouette of the older suit was simply not attractive to the more modern styles of the time:
 
VS
It looks pretty dead even today. The YSL look on the right was taking over the world in the 80s and the old Chanel suit - well it looks dowdy and old-fashioned.
In 1985, Karl did his first Chanel show.
But that wasn't the best part. Although Chanel jackets were still consider the purview of the generationally wealthy, the truth is that Karl was about to make it much more approachable for a wider public.
You could even say that the latest trend of luxury brand selling to the masses (I know - sounds like contradictory, but it's fashion - and anything can happen), was started by M. Lagerfeld. So how was he going to make the Chanel brand and clothing more attractive to the woman-on-the-street?
This is where Karl's business genius really shows up. He understood that the way to making money was through the couture line, but the couture line, by itself, wasn't the money-maker. But the publicity and attention that the couture line got made the other aspects of the Maison much more profitable. The items like perfume, accessories, shoes, belts and most of all the logo, was where the money was. But it had to start with the couture shows.
Karl also understood the advantage of having celebrities in the audience during the runway shows. During a time that fashion bloggers were beginning to become the major influence of publicity for fashion, Karl seemed to know about it before. Having Beyonce, Jessica Alba, Paris Hilton and the like were as much scratching the back of the designer as was the designer scratching their back!
In 1992, when Grunge hit the runway, Karl began to define the new Grunge for his Chanel jackets in a way that was not only original, but so creatively refined, and that's saying a lot considering that Grunge was the essence of unrefined.
  
But the result was a return to a truly couture garment, and something that was not only hard for anyone to knock off (and make the price points work - IOW, they couldn't do something similar to the trim without having to spend a lot of time [and therefore $$$] to knock it off). This made the jacket that much more valuable and it would retain it's value because the hand work involved to make the jacket.
With the more modern silhouette, the jacket became a "hot" item - again! And the updating was masterfully handled by Lagerfeld.
In Lagerfeld's 36 years as head of Maison Chanel he not only transformed the jacket, but transformed the label and as its creative director made the label more valuable than almost any label in the fashion world. Today, everyone knows what a Chanel jacket it and what it looks like. Even amoung sewists, it's the penultimate task to make your own Chanel jacket.
Part of the genius and accomplishment of Lagerfeld can be seen simply by comparing other major Maisons in the world. With major houses hiring new creative directors every 2 or 3 years, to have 36 years in one house, is almost unheard of, and with the death of Lagerfeld, may never exist again.
Here's the life of the creative direction at a major house: there are 6 fashion shows a year with usually 30 or so designs (outfits) per show, making at least 180 to 200 original designs (outfits) per year. Not only that but the pressure from the financial heads of the company that own these houses, is always pressuring for better than last year, higher profits, more publicity, more, more, better and better. The true nature of the artist is that it's at best a
stair-step up, and more often a spikey mountain landscape up - where one year is good, another is simply okay, another is great, another is okay, another is good - at this is all "up", but not a continual move up. The pressure on the financial heads is to fire a creative director if he's/she's not performing and move on. Lagerfeld lasted almost 4 decades in this atmosphere with an understanding that some years were fabulous, others weren't but it would return,
and it always does.
Even some of his more recent shows have tons of inspiration in them.
The collar on this one is really interesting, and the placement of the pockets on this short jacket is highly noteworthy.
Love the neckline here, although I probably won't use it, but I still love it. For the right client this is a real possibility.
This is also an interesting take on the collar detail with half of the collar folding under the arm and slit pockets in the lower part of the jacket.
His creativity never stopped - only his body.
My most favorite homage to Lagerfeld was in the New Yorker Magazine Cover from April, 2012.
Brooke Aster vs Beyonce should tell the world that Lagerfeld was a phenomenal force.
As if the cartoon wasn't enough, the real photos tell the complete story - both in their glorious Chanel jackets!
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PS - I do a lot of posting on Facebook as both Claire Kennedy and SewingArtistry - if you want to friend me to check out the goodies over there for free!
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