Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld was appointed creative director of Chanel in 1983, inheriting a house that had been in decline since Gabrielle Chanel's death in 1971. What he found, in his own words, was a sleeping beauty - a house with a clear heritage but no contemporary relevance. His response was not to replace what Gabrielle Chanel had built but to amplify it: the tweed suit was recut and recoloured season after season, the quilted handbag reissued with the interlocking CC clasp that made it one of the most recognisable accessories in the world, the little black dress reimagined across thirty-six years of collections. He also understood that Chanel's power lay as much in spectacle as in clothing - his runway shows, staged inside the Grand Palais with sets that included a rocket ship, a supermarket, a beach and a working carousel, became events in their own right. Lagerfeld produced eight collections a year for Chanel throughout his tenure, in addition to his simultaneous work at Fendi and under his own name, without ever repeating himself. He died in Paris in February 2019, having rebuilt Chanel into one of the most recognised luxury houses in the world. The exhibition Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2023, honoured sixty-five years of work across Balmain, Patou, Chanel, Fendi, Chloé and his own label.