Karl Lagerfeld is a fashion legend – the cause of countless speculation – and now the most revered and hardest working man in the business offers an insight into his extraordinary world.
Often referred to as Chanel’s ‘Knight In Shining Armour’, when Lagerfeld joined the label as Chief Executive of Design in 1983 he lifted the fashion house from relative dormancy to global success story. But until recently he never discussed his private life in public, remaining to many a fashion enigma defined purely by his trademark white ponytail, severe collars, black shades and fabulous creations.
After two years of work, from over 200 hours of footage, director Rodolphe Marconi presents the first up-close-and-personal portrait of the fashion icon. Meet Karl Lagerfeld the photographer and painter, the great lover of cinema, the book collector and art connoisseur. See him at home in his Parisian apartment, a magpie’s treasure chest piled high with books, drawers stuffed full of papers and bowls overflowing with his signature rings.
Watch him sketch in private, as his pen translates visions from his ‘dreams’ to the naked page with eloquent ease. Watch him meet and greet press and interact with concierges, flight assistants and staff with good humour and courtesy. From presenting his collection in the glare of the catwalk to relaxing in his Biarritz mansion, dining alone in his hotel suite to a photo-shoot with Nicole Kidman, Marconi leaves nothing hidden.
And Lagerfeld is a willing subject. He’s amusingly wry, responding with candour to questions about his private life, and offering views on the world that are both astute and thought provoking. Intellectually insatiable, he devours literature, film and painting, and insists he is only as good as his last collection. In short, this is an intimate and human portrayal of the man who has single-handedly kept Chanel the gold standard of designer labels. It’s an invaluable, unmissable peek at the man behind the sunglasses.
