Karl Lagerfeld Essay

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Karl Lagerfeld (born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt on September 10, 1933 in Hamburg) is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld has his own label fashion house, as well as the Italian houseFendi. Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg. He has claimed he was born in 1938, by Elisabeth (born Bahlman) and his Swedish father Otto Lagerfeldt.[5] He is known to insist that no-one knows his real birth date. Lagerfeld grew up as the son of a wealthy businessman from Hamburg who was introducingcondensed milk (Glücksklee-Milch GmbH) to Germany;[8][9] his mother is from Berlin.[10]According to Alicia Drake,[vague] Lagerfeld's mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, was a lingeriesaleswoman in Berlin when she met her husband and married him in 1930. In 1955, at the age of 22, Lagerfeld was awarded a position as an apprentice at Pierre Balmain after winning second place, behind Yves Saint-Laurent, in a competition for a coat sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat. In 1958, after three years at Balmain, he moved to Jean Patou where he designed two haute couture collections a year for five years. His first collection was shown in a two-hour presentation in July 1958, but he used the name Roland Karl, rather than Karl Lagerfeld (although in 1962, reporters began referring to him as Karl Lagerfelt or Karl Logerfeld). After launching himself as a freelance designer, working with brands such as Mario Valentino, Repetto, and the supermarket chain Monoprixand with financial backing from his family, he set up a small shop in Paris. At the time, he had also been maintaining a design contract with the Japanese firm Isetan, to create collections for both men and women through 30

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