Karl Lagerfeld - German fashion designer and icon | DW Documentary

[Music] an icon of the fashion world he's instantly recognizable thanks to his signature sunglasses and white ponytail based in Paris Karl Lagerfeld is one of the most famous Germans living today because a Renaissance man endlessly creative with clockwork precision it's easily it amazes me that I can't cross the street without drawing a crowd every day someone sends me a picture a caricature or a sketch or a dog it's phenomenal really and you know me not Karl Lagerfeld omnipresent yet somehow inaccessible it's very strange and it has its advantages and disadvantages you can't give out on the street without people following you everywhere but you can't pick and choose I suppose my name is no longer long effort its logo fetch if you hide behind your sunglasses because you don't want to be observed I don't want everyone to be able to see my facial expressions often bond didn'r sighted people often have somewhat sad looking eyes like a puppy and it's hoping to get adopted those are worth now you have to take your glasses off for two or three hours for that to fade pitiful look that's not the impression I want to give That's not me I know Jenny's Nikki Bella the intersperse name is Nisha they'll eat it Lagerfeld is known mainly as a man of fashion he continues to put out several new collections year after year but he dislikes the term fashion designer and indeed he's far more than that Karl doesn't create trends Karl is the trend when coal does something the entire world watches and all the images that we absorb those powerful images they stay with us only I believe you can tell when someone else has been influenced by what karl has done who cooked at Oscar agamotto he's one of the most influential players in the global fashion world but Lagerfeld isn't content to rest on his laurels when you work with another artist you have a painter who paints and who may put out a book or two a photographer takes pictures a writer writes but Lagerfeld mixes our together he does it all at the same time a model totally understated lack of Held's concept for his Chanel show transforming Paris's elegant decor Palais into a gigantic supermarket for just 20 minutes the duration of the show since consumerism rules the world why not celebrate it to the hilt with a large dollop of irony of course in this supermarket everything is by Chanel from eggs and bananas to chocolate and salt [Music] but the moment Lagerfeld arrives he's the star of the show consumerism for Karl Lagerfeld is the defining feature of our time it's a substitute for culture the culture of our age that's how it is we have to adapt because the times won't adapt to us if you don't like it you're de passe I need good day I slap my girl [Music] we created 500 products along with names and labels for them there more than 100,000 bottles and cans the anticipation is growing the show will begin in just a few minutes at last the audience finally gets to see the creations that were so many months in the making [Music] and for the crowning moment the host himself [Music] creating fashion is a bit like writing a musical scores just like music there are variety of elements and you combine them we wind up with chamber music or folk songs that's up to you and I do have some background in it my mother was an excellent violinist and I used to turn the pages of the score for and I used to turn over the vinyl records for her when she accompanied them on the violin back then the records weren't very long but it gave me a decent background in music oh did you take piano lessons yes for a year and then she said you have no talent whatsoever and she shot the piano lid on my fingers she said why don't you draw instead that's not as noisy as a boy Lagerfeld wanted to become a caricaturist that childhood dream has since become a reality the Frankfurter Allgemeine a newspaper regularly publishes Lagerfeld's political cartoons [Music] I want to know everything see everything but not necessarily participate in everything I'm at home everywhere and nowhere that is part of Lagerfeld's genius being open to influence from everywhere much like a child who is seeing it all for the first time but where does the inspiration for his many designs really come from [Music] I'm always looking for something I don't ask questions I try to find answers that sounds very pretentious so maybe I shouldn't put it that way I really only express myself in the form of collections pictures and drawings not in an abstract sentence but not like someone who's got away with words and can really say what it means or it comes to you in a dream usually it dawn right before I wake up but you can't just lie down and say something will come to me you have to make an effort sometimes that means working for your wastebasket about 90% of my work ends up in the bin I don't save it some people have archives but I don't only care about what's next whatever I did in the past is fine but I don't hang on to it but I think is neat on because I'm a nun leaving [Music] can tiny Buddha launched on stage brought us fight Tamia to end the game we thank line this is where Karl Lagerfeld was born the hamburg district of blanc insane it is a world of stately villas and meticulously tended parks in those days the district was home to many shipping magnates and businessmen his father was also a wealthy businessman who made his fortune by introducing condensed milk to germany it was a carefree childhood but was it a happy one it has to kill Suzanne I hated being a child it was so humiliating come to visit my parents and say so how is school and then they turned around and ignored me leading to a child and that's why I get along with children because I know what they dislike today are almost too much in the center of things but back then I had to make an effort most American my parents spoke English from French when they didn't want me to understand them so I learned English and French even before I went to school before shooting an English professors Cologne today many people speak three languages but not back then I speak a bit of Italian too but I didn't put much effort into that me nicosia game that's what games did you play by Drew and read I don't like games not even card names especially not gambling I'm playful but I don't play before my heart and I had those silly bangs before my hair got curly when I was a teenager he's got a little scarf northern Germany nobody wore clothes from Austria but I thought it was great before defining me I didn't want to look like other kids but I stopped wearing short pants pretty early on I found them childish gradient ever damaged from empathy even back then he was already a bit different from the other boys a few you noticed him but not in a bad way he was something special for special interest and he dressed differently from the others he had longer hair too he didn't wear his hair like the other boys he always had a long mane of hair about a white shirt and fancy and a black jacket my mother always used to say my nostrils were too big she used to say she'd call someone into so curtains for them AHA for my hair color which was mahogany she'd say you look like an old chest of drawers [Music] my lips were so read that once a teacher at school wiped them with a tissue because he was convinced that I was wearing lipsticks but I wasn't my mother was outraged and wrote a letter saying the teacher was completely out of line [Music] life the bowtie was striped a little odd about like this that's for not long hair for that damaged [Music] on tinder surely there was another foolish teacher who needs to tell me to cut my hair I said absolutely not my mother wouldn't talk to them if I got held back for a year so be it I said wouldn't you say but one day we went to the dentist out there in the village that would have been in late 1940s maybe the early 1950s and he said how lack of heard nice to see you but can't you tell your son to cut his hair I'll never forget it even if I live to be a hundred my mother grabbed his tie flipped it in his face and said why are you still in Nazi that was wonderful thunderstorm in 1943 Carl who was still called Carl Otto at the time was ten years old the country was in the throes of World War two that July hundreds of bombs rain down on Hamburg half the city was in flames but the Lagerfeld family was not directly affected they had moved to safety outside Hamburg in the 1930s Karl Lagerfeld's father bought an estate in a small village north of Hamburg Karl lived there for much of his childhood I spent much of my childhood in bud punch Dante lays before Stein which left a lot to be desired a village school children of alcoholic farmers some were kicked out in the first grade two or three were fine but the rest I died even okie abideth but young Kyle wasn't an outsider he lent his car my books to his classmates who regarded him as a generous spirit they quickly got used to his unusual style of dress and the green tie he wore when the class went on excursions fantasporto this that's austerity he set behind me in school sometimes I turn around and say well call Auto what are you up to back there and of course he was drawing no matter what we were doing in class karl otto was always busy sketching that's what my childhood was like a fence here over toward the gardener some big trees pave driveway trim huge pots of flowers a flower bed over here and here was a hedge I think I'm not quite sure this is about what it was like do you buzzin after there was a bay window where I said it's a child that's what I wrote was called the lady's room my room was up here after him abhi the balcony my sister's my mother's room my father's room was in the back the dining room and a desk I remember telling myself one day I'll be famous I guess I must have been five or six funny here Karl Lagerfeld is opening an exhibition in Hamburg the city of his birth it features works by leading 19th century painter Ansem feuerbach and photographs taken by Lagerfeld the shared thread is the search for classical beauty the d4 necklace isn't the idea of classical beauty isn't as subject to changing fashions at least not as much as the concept of beauty and fashion itself it's the foundation of everything the point of departure the thing people always return to [Music] that's what's wonderful about classical beauty and youth is that it's so short-lived it's ephemeral it's not a permanent status Condors in recent years batiste giacconi was Lagerfeld's favorite muse he even commissioned a sculpture of him the models in Eze della facade Claudia Schiffer and Linda Evangelista also inspired many of his creations but Lagerfeld seemed to be especially attached to batiste my muses inspire my work but they're not my life partners and when he was 18 or 19 years old he embodied an ideal a modern version of a classical beauty he's an adult now so it's not the same anymore back then he was the world's top model but he quit to become a singer it's still too early to say how that will turn out [Music] here at hamburg kunst Halle Museum Lagerfeld is listening to the opinions of the director but his thoughts are elsewhere in the past Lagerfeld used to visit the kunst Hana as a young man it's where he trained his eye instead of going to school this is where I want the best paintings were Nana by money a portrait of Marcel and by Toulouse Lautrec earlier Anwar a woman on a horse riding in the border balloon I liked everything French that's what I wanted where I wanted to go and that's also why I learned French as a child otherwise I wouldn't have managed to go to school I always said I want out of here Hamburg was fine but it wasn't what I was looking for in 1950 he attended this fashion show at a Hamburg hotel which presented a collection by christian dior of paris the style was called the new look and Lagerfeld was mesmerised by it that's when he made the decision to go to Paris and become a fashion designer he was just 17 at the time he cut his teeth as an assistant to establish designers Pierre Balmain Jean Patou [Music] although he hadn't even finished high school Lagerfeld moved to Paris and began perfecting his French Paris in the 1950s was a new world that offered a host of new experiences when you walk by the rubbish bins it smelled of rot walking by the Porte cochere there was an odour you don't get today it was horrible but that too was Paris said to my mother you know your son will lose himself but my mother said there are people who lose themselves and others who don't my son alone he knows exactly what he wants my father had an office in Paris Paris to Hamburg isn't really all that far so it wasn't all that bad even as a child I had a survival instinct it wasn't dangerous in Paris you could go out onto the street at night as a 17 or 18 year old walk around the shores real easy today that's impossible Terrace was just a friendly village just like before the war it changed later that's a hit again I wasn't a mama's boy I thought my mother was wonderful but it's horrible when parents are constantly hovering over their children Poland Italy not my father daily plane are not better but my father lived in a different world he only cared about condensed milk and having 57 percent of the market done lately finished this keep your Floyd people asked if I talked to my father or the gave me advice okay mate Claude apart from asking for a car or new clothes no not really charming but not witty like my mother well honest if it's if you money motor but is there perfect and share an absolutely perfect nose - mystical fairly thick eyebrows lucila white wavy hair and always earring us with a pearl three diamonds in a Perl a photo in photos there's almost something arrogant about her you see pictures you might think she had no sense of humor at all but that wasn't the case wonderful white hair not like mine which I have to powder to make it look white my mother used to call it a cow's tail because even if you like cows who wants to look like one often like we're ganna must mr. Minnick unwitting fiend coupons all soon no this is my mother when I was a boy [Music] Carlson went on to celebrate his first successes in Paris which made his mother proud at a competition in 1953 a cocktail dress by eve-san AHA won third place a coach designed took first place created by Karl Lagerfeld who was just 20 he and Isan l'homme became good friends and competitors tada he was a wonderful wonderful until 78 or so after that he would just talk about the past and truths and all that but you know we're in fashion here [Music] larga felts career began to take off even back then he had a way with words and he became increasingly French in 1967 he became a devotee of what was called total Duke his style that United the clothing and the accessories he spent his evenings in saj amount to play in cafes record shops and bookstores that was also when he began collecting books himself today his collection encompasses about three hundred thousand volumes he was friends with milena DTH and advised her on her stage wardrobe and he was named chief designer at Chloe his collections at Chloe helped shape the trends of the 1970s extravagant colors and patterns were in [Music] but even then Lagerfeld's horizons extended beyond the world of fashion he knew all there was to know about art and design his staff reported on all the new trends from around the world he also developed a keen interest in the materials he used in his fashions they work items aren't made out of paper you need fabric so I started designing material and whether you're using a stiff material or a soft one that makes a huge difference and the colors you need those years in advance so you can experiment and develop ideas in all of the three professions that he loves so much they all begin with the choice of material in photography you have to choose your medium whether it be a daguerreotype a silkscreen a jealous and silver print in the case of a book what paper to use in which ink and believe it or not he knows his stuff so it's not like an amateur talking to a professional printer when we talk about different formulas about how a book will be printed it's a conversation between equals informally even beyond be stamped as authoritative on Gazette stood the catalog for the upcoming Chanel show is almost finished laka vel takes part in a spontaneous meeting here in Hamburg he's meticulous and checks every detail Lagerfeld doesn't schedule appointments so his staff take advantage of every opportunity - left incomplete he doesn't get tired you can work with him at 5:00 in the morning and develop ideas during the day you make corrections and at 10:00 in the evening he's still alert if you have a question you get a clear precise answer and fought Paul the compliments he put caesar the invitation what's it like the invitation is Matt it's Matt I once hung an abstract picture on the wall Carl called me over and said look at this do you see something I said no not really he said it's upside down I said oh then he said that's what happens when you drink red wine Lagerfeld keeps to a demanding schedule when he works in Europe he takes a private jet after business is concluded he returns to Paris to spend the night at home I don't feel the need to wear people around me all the time I'm happy at home with my drawing paper and my books and all of that that's the most exciting thing there is for me I have enough flying time under my belt so I can set my own pace his team accompany him on his travels back in Paris he'll be alone [Music] no one may enter Lagerfeld's apartment which is exquisitely purist in style apart from his staff and his current companions who pet the cat who is now a star in her own right that's my nature you know I'm a Puritan at heart very much so that's probably partly a self-preservation instinct something like that he's been hopelessly straight legs I never drank alcohol smoked or took drugs I was always a bit of an outsider that's why it's been easier for me to survive than for some others in the 1970s and 80s he watched while many of the others in the fashion scene spent their nights in clubs like the palace are they partied till dawn it was a new free and liberal era it was during that period that lack of help became enamored with Jacque DeBusschere a young French dandy who moved in aristocratic circles a biased a geography and he embodied a kind of French elegance and French culture you don't see anymore he was completely impossible I'll say that right off and his ideas were difficult to defend but there was something very French in a positive way about him despite his politics and all of that that input additionally Dean on savita but he was the love of your life yes not like that I wouldn't be here today it was age that killed him after all that's why he is much younger than me we were like father and son that's what's unusual about the story another Lord did accept sister I admire self-destructive people who don't but I'm not a rescuer that everyone is master of their own fate someone once say the most important thing is not to save yourself but to lose yourself but that's not for me it took care of Jacques when he died yes of course I'm not cold-hearted someone just thinks of himself quite the opposite before at peace you are with yourself the better you can take care of others [Music] in 1977 Jacques DeBusschere made what was probably the first fashion film about a Fendi collection designed by his partner Karl Lagerfeld Lagerfeld is now watching the film for the first time in 37 years and is visibly moved the memories all returned of those years and of their great but impossible love he puffed up it was impossible to bear tragic Lanka felt says in French Jacques went out every night he wasn't one to work unlike Lagerfeld himself the film will be screened as part of an exhibition at the Munich House - kunst set to open that evening along with the new Fendi boutique or the elegant maximillian's tazza shopping Boulevard the Munich smart set had been there for an hour waiting for Carl as they all call him there though they've never actually met him but for Lagerfeld the film is more important the guests are getting restless and the organizer of the event is at a loss the schedule has been turned upside down Fila how long always doing too many things I really shouldn't make any appointments because 24 hours in a day just aren't enough I don't want to be rude but in this field you can't just schedule two hours of sketching after two hours it might all just get thrown away by my rubbish bins best customer if I kept my eye on the clock the entire time I'd be even more hysterical do I have a touch of hysteria anyhow but that would make it horrible Karl Lagerfeld is also a film director in one of his projects he cast Geraldine Chaplin as Coco Chanel Lagerfeld's film shows how he perceives his illustrious predecessor the Lagerfeld a blend of humor and irreverence is the best way to preserve the memory of a legend when we talk about Chanel today it's those first pictures of the gold chains which in estill of Hassan's wore as a belt for years that must have been the entire 80s that was the new image of Chanel not this somewhat musty image we knew from before Karl took over but this new and very positive image of femininity and before that he worked at Chloe and then at Karl Lagerfeld mid caliber fade started everyone said don't do it it's impossible that the nowadays everyone's breathing new life into old companies how to make them the owner told me to do whatever I wanted and if it didn't work it worked brilliantly and he became one of the richest men in the world which is fine for me money is something you throw out the window and then it comes back in through the door and money can't buy happiness after Jacques de Bie shares death Lagerfeld gained a lot of weight he threw himself even deeper into his work he was omnipresent his empire extended across the entire world he conducted his business in three languages and wherever Lagerfeld went the rich and the famous paid him court he's happiest when he's doing three things at once preferably in several languages while on the phone with Fendi in Rome he's selecting models for his next show and in French he says I'm never satisfied or happy I don't have one personality I have three very amusing when I write in German when I'm asked to translate it into French it ends up completely different but I don't express myself the same way I have three different mentalities I don't translate my own writing would bore me to death and I would never say the same thing it's all done so you're not translatable no not replaceable [Music] Lagerfeld has always relished a challenge especially one that requires discipline in the year 2000 he decided to radically change his diet with the help of a doctor and a chef he started losing the extra pounds his plan was to lose 40 kilos in 13 months and I suddenly realized I had to do something it wasn't good for clothes and I love clothes my doctor told me to lose weight 40 kilos I've gained some back but you don't want to lean what's the first piece of clothing you put on after you drop the weight and it's all man that's fine there's a kind of reading go down of black red Samir made by Eddie Suleiman for Dior was made just for me today I only buy off the rack it's better to fit your clothes and to force them to fit you and my self discipline is to your size 48 my knee discipline is good architects patio today he glides over the runway almost as lightly as his models [Music] if could I no sign of it if there's one thing I hate its responsibility I'm completely irresponsible I don't want to own a company and be the boss where everyone is dependent on me I prefer to just stop by and say do this and do that and that's it total freedom is the opposite of responsibility I never have meetings people come to my studio and talk with me and then I want to think it over if I don't want to spend hours listening to the chatter of people who were trying to justify their salaries he prefers to travel instead he designed a hotel in China in Dubai he organized a Chanel show the affluent clientele there liked to see and be seen when he's traveling for work his entire entourage accompanies him some of his seamstresses and stylists have been part of his team for 30 years however the perfectionist laravel always goes backstage to make sure that all is as it should be for Lagerfeld nothing is routine he lives for the moment when he accepts applause he says it is as a representative of the group [Music] Disha after sauna gansley he has very long and enduring relationships with his assistants and the people he works with fast fine shortly it's all very warm and caring on both sides globba he had an opportunity and he seized the opportunity to create exactly the kind of work and working environment and life that he wanted lemes made sucia [Music] a photoshoot with Sebastian under the new face of the lack of Elle brand Rondo is also his personal assistant yes his personal assistant he's also been Lagerfeld's bodyguard for 15 years he's well versed in the laws of the street I used to do a lot of boxing and I still train two or three times a week and when it comes to protecting Lagerfeld jean de says he will stop at nothing don't have limits not as far as protecting him a crowd is gathering at the fork Fung Museum in Essen for a major retrospective on Lagerfeld and just as at all such events Sebastian Rondo is at Lagerfeld side so is Catalina lebar there's been his head of publicity for 30 years now he's long forgotten most of what is being shown here Lagerfeld says and it has nothing to do with art in any case I'm not a serious artist I'm not an artist at all I make things that I like and that's it whether other people like it or don't I don't like this obsession with art nowadays everyone wants to be an artist to be taken seriously I don't I don't want people to think I'm a serious person you can be a serious person fine but there's no need to make a show of anything Susy [Music] [Laughter] [Music] I'm Morgan I'm early in the morning he writes and ten he sketches fashion for one of his fashion houses then we work on a photo book then he sits in the studio and develops concepts for a big photo shoot he comes up with commercial advertising for companies he designs objects that are then built he designed a car and a helicopters a concert piano he's always involved with all sorts of things and sets no limits permanent appointed cheap kind of guns I think it does for some I think what makes Carl special is that he has maintained the curiosity of a child he's annoyed year and his Kinder's he's been able to hang on to that the vat for his part Lagerfeld says he's not a big fan of exhibitions like the one here in Essen it's always other people who come up with the idea the past isn't where he likes to spend his time [Music] chef's Nordic given by Finn did not long ago at Fendi they showed me a microfilm labeled 70,000 sketches by Carl done over 50 years but that's the past the future is more interesting you might as well quit if you're going to rest on your laurels then come on like a hot button so you live for tomorrow I live for today paradise now otherwise you can't do a job like this if you're complacent and wallow around in your old rags it doesn't good I'm gay doesn't so it's the moment that counts if you always think you should be doing something else you might as well kill yourself memories always seem rose here you can't live off of memories I'm glad for what I've done in my life but I have no desire to relive it okay I'll buy shops were half mystical in style if I just talking to max we're leaving [Music] you [Music]

Channel: DW Documentary

Views: 582,004

Rating: 4.8387523 out of 5

Keywords: documentary, Karl Lagerfeld, fashion documentary, Karl Lagerfeld documentary, sunglasses, Puma, Vogue, Chanel, Fendi, Dior, Balmain, Lagerfeld birthday, fashion, style, designer, outfit, fashion style, runway, catwalk, style icon, clothes, fashion hacks, clothes ideas, mode, clothing hacks, clothing, models, fashion show, style ideas, trends, celeb style, Chloe, H&M, Macy’s, Falabella, Jean Patou, fashion week, Paris, Milan, Berlin, DW, Deutsche Welle, DW Documentary, Karl Lagerfeld died

Id: XPt1dAwHM_o

Length: 42min 26sec (2546 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 09 2018