Ever the designer, Karl Lagerfeld meticulously orchestrated his now immortalised image. His tailored, monochromatic uniform – the high collared shirt, black jacket, slim trousers, and patent boots – formed his unwavering base, to be topped off with whichever of his staple accessories took his fancy that day.
Between the rotation of glistening tie pins, silver chains and chunky, costume rings, there were always two consistencies – his opaque, thick-rimmed sunglasses, and his leather, usually-fingerless gloves.
But unlike other parts of his signature look, Lagerfeld’s constant covering of his hands ran deeper than fashion. Over the years, peppered between the lines of his many outlandish interviews, Chanel’s late creative director gave insight into the reasons behind the gloves.
“In the old protocol, it is impolite to say hello to somebody who is wearing gloves,” he said in one such interview. “And you know I cannot sketch if I have leather here [on my fingertips]. It also makes the arm longer. And you know what it means in French to have a long arm? It means you are influential.”
And while no doubt status played an element in the thinking behind the gloves, Lagerfeld acknowledged he had a dislike for his hands from a young age, stemming from the comments of his beloved mother Elisabeth, who is said to have drilled into him that his hands were ugly.
-
The annual Metropolitan Museum of Art's Costume Institute ball, better known as the Met Gala or Met Ball, has unveiled the theme for its 2023 event — and it's in honour of late fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld. Photo: Net-a-Porter -
Lagerfeld at the Chanel spring/summer haute couture show in 2009. Reuters -
Lagerfeld with model Stella Tennant during Chanel's Metiers d'Art show in 2011. Reuters -
A look from the Chanel haute couture autumn/winter show for 2015-2016, designed by Lagerfeld. Photo: Chanel -
A behind-the-scenes look at Chanel’s autumn/winter haute couture 2016-2017 collection by Lagerfeld. Photo: Olivier Saillant -
A model during the Chanel haute couture autumn/winter 2018-2019 show. Getty Images -
A beachside setting was built in central Paris for Lagerfeld's spring/summer 2019 collection for Chanel. Photo: Chanel -
Lagerfeld with models after a show in 2011. Stephen Lock for The National -
Stella Tennant wears a look by Lagerfeld for Chanel's 1997 autumn/winter haute couture collection. AFP -
Models wearing tweed and plastic heads walk the runway in Chanel's spring/summer 2017 collection. Photo: Chanel -
Lagerfeld with Claudia Schiffer and Naomi Campbell at the finale of his Chanel 1997 spring/summer show in Paris. AP -
Cara Delevingne wears a look from Lagerfeld's autumn/winter 2019-2020 collection for Chanel. EPA -
Pink was prominent in Lagerfeld's Chanel cruise collection 2018. Getty Images -
Model Antonina Vasylchenko wears Look 42 at the Chanel 2014 spring/summer haute couture show in Paris. Photo: Chanel -
At the age of 21, Lagerfeld won first prize in the coat category at the Fashion Design Competition in Paris, on December 11, 1954. Getty Images -
Lagerfeld is seen with model Ines de la Fressange in this photo taken on March 13, 1987. AFP -
Lagerfeld in France, circa 1960. Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images -
In 1983, Lagerfeld joined Chanel as its chief artistic director. A year later, on March 5, 1984, he completed his haute couture collection in the Chanel studio on rue Cambon in Paris. Getty Images -
Lagerfeld in 1958. Getty Images -
The designer with two models, circa 1984. Getty Images -
Lagerfeld and model Lily-Rose Depp after Chanel's haute couture show in January 2017. EPA -
Lagerfeld with model Cara Delevingne, one of his many muses, at Paris Fashion Week in 2014. Getty Images -
Model Kendall Jenner and Lagerfeld at the Chanel show in Paris in 2015. Photo: Olivier Saillant
“When I was 14, I wanted to smoke because I wanted to look grown-up,” he once said. “But my mother said: 'You shouldn't smoke. Your hands are not that beautiful and that shows when you smoke.”
The German designer, who was creative director of Chanel, Fendi and his own eponymous brand, died on February 19 in Paris at the age of 85.
He had been ill for the past few weeks, and missed the final bow at both of Chanel’s Paris haute couture shows.
Lagerfeld’s contribution to the fashion industry over the past five decades is difficult to overstate. He was known to be exceedingly prolific, creating seasonal ready-to-wear, cruise and pre-fall collections for all three of the brands he was associated with, as well as two haute couture collections for Chanel each year.
His collaborators, friends and fans from around the world have been paying tribute to the designer, who has been deemed a "creative genius" who "changed the face of fashion".
