Karl Lagerfeld and the Chanel Renaissance

Chanel SS 1994 ready-to-wear

“What I do, Coco would have hated. The label has an image and it’s up to me to update it. I do what she never did. I had to find my mark. I had to go from what Chanel was to what it should be.” 

– Karl Lagerfeld

It’s been just over a year since the famous German designer’s death, and he leaves behind a confused legacy. On one hand he is the genius that reinvented Chanel, who breathed life and modernity into a tired fashion house. On the other hand, the man has said some horrible things. Karl’s comments read like a game of bingo of all the insensitive things your old, bigoted, slightly-senile relative could say at Christmas dinner. In 2011, when Dominique Strauss-Kahn was accused of rape by a hotel maid, Lagerfeld sent his friend flowers and told Style.com: “He is really charming. He’s fun, he’s great. He’s a sweet guy – as long as you’re not a woman. That’s the problem.” In 2018, when stylist Karl Temper was being accused of inappropriate touching of models, Lagerfeld defended him, saying: “If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery, there’ll always be a place for you in the convent.” Taking his dismissive comments towards instances of sexual misconduct, it may not be a stretch to say that Karl’s own blasé attitude towards the mistreatment of models contributed to the code of knowing silence that protected sexual abusers in the fashion industry.

With the unveiling of countless cases of sexual assault in Hollywood in recent years, the question of separating the art from the artist has never been more relevant. I’ve never particularly liked Karl Lagerfeld: I first became aware of him as the surly, platinum-pony-tailed man, clad in a black suit and spouting fatphobic comments such as, “No one wants to see curvy women on the runway.” But, as my appreciation and knowledge of fashion has developed, I’ve begrudgingly had to cut Mr Lagerfeld some respect. The man was a legend. A hateful man whose poisonous words were not victimless, but a great contributor to the annals of fashion. Certainly no icon for women’s rights or body positivity, but a fashion legend.

Chanel SS 1992 ready-to-wear

What was so special about Karl Lagerfeld, you ask? Let me take you on a little fashion history lesson. It may be strange to think now – with quilted Chanel bags dominating Instagram and the Chanel No. 5 fragrance being a household name – but there was a time when Chanel was anything but ‘hot’. Though Coco Chanel was a pioneer for women’s fashion in her prime, the house had remained stagnant since her death in 1971, over a decade before Karl first came to Chanel. “When Lagerfeld took over the Chanel collections, they had one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel,” said former fashion editor Marian McEvoy, in a 1992 profile about Karl for Vanity Fair. Appointed chief designer of the house in 1982, Lagerfeld knew he had to inject some youth into the brand to make Chanel trendy again. 

Chanel spring 1992 couture 

“He’s got to destroy Chanel in a way, otherwise he just becomes a caricature of her.” 

– Suzy Menkes

Luckily Karl, a self-professed fashion opportunist, was a master at cherry-picking current trends and combining them with the quintessential Coco elements to bring in commercial success. Vogue called him “the industry’s pre-eminent pop culture sponge”. Karl referenced 90s hip-hop, with oversized chain belts, gold necklaces and baggy denim shorts, and 90s grunge, with dyed hair, septum piercings and black, contrast-stitch denim. When it became acceptable to sport activewear all day rather than just at the gym, Karl was there with leggings that could be paired with a Chanel jacket. His spring 1994 ready-to-wear show featured a model roller-skating down the runway, in reference to the popular-in-the-nineties hobby. When “designer water” was trending (no joke), Lagerfeld’s Chanel fall 1994 ready-to-wear show featured a shoulder-hung, leather-threaded gold-chain water bottle holder. Models held flip-phones dressed up in bejewelled Chanel cases. His spring 1996 ready-to-wear collection anticipated Juicy Couture by almost a decade, with logoed velour tracksuits. Quilted biker jackets were paired with traditional evening wear, and models strutted down the runway in fishnet stockings. Coco’s fondness for pearls and costume jewellery remained, but under Karl they were taken to new levels of maximalism. Tweed was still a prominent feature of the brand, but Karl experimented with more modern, synthetic materials such as cellophane and Astroturf. The quilted leather Chanel bag still made many an appearance, but Karl brought in the younger backpack and belt bag too. The signature Chanel black-tipped slingback pumps were joined by platform heels and biker boots. Skirt suits were combined with bras and corsets in a matching pastel tweed. Blazers were matched with tiny shorts, logoed men’s briefs or cropped T-shirts. His spring 1995 ready-to-wear show featured skirts with slits and zips, designed to reveal matching tweed panties. And though his runways were often styled in a sexy, youthful way, the garments themselves did not alienate the brand’s traditional customers, with the classic Chanel suits being as appropriate as ever for the refined, older woman.

Chanel SS 1995 ready-to-wear

Mind you, Karl didn’t do it all alone. He was lucky to have the well-known Chanel marketing symbols which he could use to his advantage: the tweed suit, the camellia, the interlocking CC logo, etc. In this way, he not only modernised the brand but strengthened it, making it clear what Chanel’s essential ingredients were by constantly playing with them and tying every collection back to Coco. He drew attention to the brand as Coco’s legacy particularly in the finale of his spring 1995 ready-to-wear show, where a host of supermodels came out dressed as the designer, imitating an old photograph of her. In a 1991 article for Vogue, “The Chanel Obsession”, journalist Jane Kramer linked Lagerfeld’s time at Chanel with the rise of Postmodernism. She notes that 1983 (Karl’s first full year at Chanel) was “the year modernism in art… began to give way to ‘citation’ and ‘quotation’, and images of the past became, so to speak, the accessories of the present.”

Chanel SS 1994 ready-to-wear

This was a good time for Karl to be fashioning a uniform for the powerful executive woman, since the 80s were a time in which women increasingly joined the workforce. And for this occupation they needed the pragmatic suit rather than extravagant but impractical couture. Karl also benefitted from his close friendship with Vogue editor Anna Wintour, one of the most influential people in fashion. She could be frequently seen sporting the Chanel suit and her oversized Chanel sunglasses almost never left her face. The pony-tailed architect of the Chanel renaissance himself admitted that he came to the house at the right time: “All this media stuff didn’t exist when I started at Chanel. I made over the image with things that would sell. I didn’t have to be outrageous.” 

Chanel SS 1992 ready-to-wear

                                                                                            

Bernard Arnault, chairman of fashion empire LVMH, watched Lagerfeld with envy and respect. Karl’s success at Chanel created a ripple effect through fashion, with Arnault ushering in young designers all over the place to head big fashion houses in the hopes that they could imitate Lagerfeld’s grand makeover or at least generate lots of press. John Galliano at Dior, Alexander McQueen at Givenchy, Marc Jacobs at Louis Vuitton, Michael Kors at Céline, Tom Ford at Gucci. With the decline of couture, as high-society women (traditionally couture’s biggest customers) increasingly opted for more wearable garments to suit their busy lifestyles, designers were realising that the real money was in accessories, something a 20-year-old might buy. Karl knew this, which is why his models were often adorned “just like a Christmas tree”, with accessories that immediately said Chanel: strings of pearls, gold chains, quilted leather, the interlocking C’s.

Chanel SS 1996 ready-to-wear

Teri Agins described Karl’s influence in her book, The End of Fashion: “By the end of the [80s], Chanel was more than just viable – it was red hot, more popular than it had been under Coco Chanel…” His mark on the industry is clear. Karl Lagerfeld has contributed much to fashion, and I think it’s fine to be able to celebrate his art whilst criticising his exclusionary attitude and terrible comments. The fact that a man like Karl, talented as he was, was at the top of the fashion food chain reflects on the industry and its values. His name doesn’t need to be scrubbed out of the fashion archives, but people should think twice before idolising him as a sartorial saint. There’s a lot of talk about the future of the industry, and though we want his talent, we want none of his hate.

The finale of Chanel SS 1995 ready-to-wear

Words by Anastasia Vartanian