b. 1933, Hamburg, Germany; d. 2019, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Lagerfeld was born on September 10, 1933, in Hamburg, Germany. At a young age, he showed interest in fashion, but would not pursue it until his teenage years. Initially wanting to be an illustrator or portrait artist, he moved to Paris and began studying drawing and history. In 1954, a seventeen-year-old Lagerfeld entered a contes…

b. 1933, Hamburg, Germany; d. 2019, Neuilly-sur-Seine, France Lagerfeld was born on September 10, 1933, in Hamburg, Germany. At a young age, he showed interest in fashion, but would not pursue it until his teenage years. Initially wanting to be an illustrator or portrait artist, he moved to Paris and began studying drawing and history. In 1954, a seventeen-year-old Lagerfeld entered a contest organized by the International Wool Association and submitted a series of sketches and fabric samples. He won first place with a sketch for a coat. Pierre Balmain, the designer who produced the coat, offered Lagerfeld a job as his junior assistant. By 1957, Lagerfeld was the art director for Jean Patou. After his time with Patou, he became one of the first freelance fashion designers. As a freelancer, he worked with various haute couture collections between France, Italy, England, and Germany. Most notably working with Chloé in 1964 and Fendi in 1965. When Lagerfeld joined Chanel 1983, he was already a major star in the fashion industry, but this collaboration would eternally cement his place in fashion history. Though mainly known as a fashion designer, Lagerfeld was also a skilled illustrator. He never went anywhere without a pencil and paper, constantly drawing fashion designs, caricatures, and technical drawings. Sketches were his main medium of communication, an action almost done compulsively. His fashion drawings usually included handwritten notes along the margins, often attaching swatches of fabric designs.