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Karl Lagerfeld Accomplishments

Decent Essays

Karl Lagerfeld was and still is an influential icon in the fashion industry. Currently, he is associated with the biggest designer brands in the world. How has this individual accomplished so much? I look to explore and analyze his past, and identify the key turning points in which he has impacted the industry most. This in depth analysis will allow us to better comprehend this man’s fashion genius.

Karl Lagerfeld is known to have developed a style of his own. He is known to be one of the finest and well renowned designers in the fashion world – “ [he] has been recognized as the most respected and most influential fashion designers in the history of this industry” (ThinkFashion, 2009). He is often described as a risk-taker with his innovative …show more content…

He was born in 1933 in Hamburg, Germany to a wealthy family – his father was a German businessman and his mother was Swedish. In Lagerfeld’s early years as a teenager, his parents allowed him to move to Paris at the age of 14 – by the age of 16 he submitted several of his sketches and fabric pieces to a design competition. Lagerfeld won first place – meeting another winner, who later became his close friend, Yves Saint Laurent. After winning the competition, he began working in 1955, for French designer, Pierre Balmain, as his junior assistant and then later as his apprentice. Three years later, he worked as a self-employed designer for Valentino then in the 1960’s he was designing fur coats in Rome for Fendi. Without owning his own label, he was the first fashion designer to create a perfume, which was for Chloé in 1975. When Coco Chanel passed away in 1971, her brand was no longer as successful as it used to be even though they continued providing for a wealthy clientele. Unsuccessful attempts were made in order to revitalize the haute couture brand for twelve years. The brand continued launching but eventually began to struggle with preserving its reputation of luxury without a lead designer, until Lagerfeld revived the brand in 1983 and became the art director while he was also starting his own line, Karl Lagerfeld in 1984. Karl renewed the brand by

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