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Karl Lagerfeld was a fashion industry icon and one of the most acclaimed designers in the 20th century, spending many of his years thriving in brands like Fendi and Chanel, collaborating and creating ready to wear and couture lines as well as his own label later on.
Lagerfeld was born in 1933 in Hamburg, Germany in a wealthy family led by his German businessman father an a Swedish mother, with the later turned fashion designer becoming a fluent linguist, who spoke an impressive four languages, including German, English, French and Spanish.
The designer will be honored at this year's Met Gala.
What did Karl Lagerfeld do in the fashion industry?
Lagerfeld fully entered the fashion industry when he began working with Pierre Balmain as his assistant after having won a coat design competition in 1955, starting his path working for couture houses like Tiziano, Chloe and Curiel, which sparked his arrival to Fendi.
But perhaps Karl Lagerfeld will mostly be remembered for his time in Chanel, after arriving in 1982 as a designer after Alain Wertheimer asked him to join the house, with many thinking that it was a wrong move by Lagerfeld, who never look back and redefined the codes by which Chanel had their designs made, taking the founder's vision to a whole new level, taking the world by storm.
"Everybody said, 'Don't touch it, it's dead, it will never come back.' But by then I thought it was a challenge," Lagerfeld told the New York Times.
Lagerfeld took the brand to entirely new heights, designing cult items and taking the interlocking C's to a whole new level around the world.
Karl Lagerfeld founded his own line and had his own shop
In 1984, Karl Lagerfeld founded his own fashion line, with the designer admiting to Vogue that it wasn't his lifelong dream to have a his name on a shop, but it was the right time to do so as he had made a name for himself, and it would be a waste not to use it.
Tommy Hilfiger group bought the brand in 2005, with Lagerfeld continuing to be involved as chief creative with very much hands on the design process.