Karl Lagerfeld Biography and Photos

Karl Lagerfeld Biography and Photos

Karl Lagerfeld (born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt; September 10, 1933) is a German-born fashion designer and artist based in Paris, France. He has collaborated with on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as designer at fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld helms his own label fashion house which produces luxury fashion items (including haute couture, perfumes and accessories).

Karl Otto Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg, Germany. He has alleged he was born in 1938 however it has been reported that he was actually born in 1933 (according to the local christening register); indeed the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has quoted his former teacher and classmates as confirming the earlier date, His older sister, Martha Christiane (a.k.a. Christel), was born in 1931. Lagerfeld also has an older half-sister, Thea, from his father's first marriage. His original name was Lagerfeldt (with a "t"), but he later changed it to Lagerfeld as "it sounds more commercial."

Though Lagerfeld has stated that his father was Swedish, journalist Alicia Drake in The Beautiful Fall (Little, Brown, 2006) established that Karl's father, Otto Lagerfeldt, who made his fortune introducing condensed milk to Germany, was indeed German. According to Drake, Lagerfeld's mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, was a lingerie saleswoman in Berlin when she met her husband and married him in 1930.