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T A L E N T , B O L D I D E A S A N D E N D L E S S P R O D U C T I V I T Y . . .
’ T H E U L T I M A T E S A V V Y DESIGNER KARL LAGERFELD’
Karl Lagerfeld is a versatile designer, linguist, literary enthusiast, photographer, interior designer, stage and set designer, collector, filmmaker and philanthropist. In addition to all these multifaceted intellects, he is the greatest intellectual of fashion, with a vast culture! The other thing I value about him is that he is a fashion designer with manners and confidence. I would also like to add that Karl is a writer and publisher; even wrote diet books. What a talent he is!
I
have been a fan of Karl since I was a child, not only because of his versatile talents, but also because of his personality and philosophy of life. But unfortunately this legendary man, Karl Lagerfeld, passed away four years ago. I have no doubt that every garment Karl created, though I like to call them works of art, will continue to have an impact on fashion for generations to come… The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York created an exhibition in July that theorized some of Karl’s private works over his 60-year career with the theme “A Line Of Beauty”. Of course I could not miss this unique exhibition! The exhibition inspired me so much that I decided to write a nice article about Karl. Because I can say that I found myself in a world of inspiration! The reason why this exhibition was so important for me: Karl’s sketches.
The exhibition was in
such a beautiful
composition;
underneath the
designs were Karl’s
special sketches.
The curator of this
exhibition called ‘A Line Of Beauty’ is Andrew Bolton. Andrew was inspired by the “line of beauty” theorized by the 18th century British painter William Hogarth (British, 1697-1764). (Title Page Of The Analysis of Beauty, 1753) William Hogarth was the namesake of this mindblowing exhibition. Andrew wanted to immortalize Hogarth’s ideas that a onstantly curving, everchanging line captures something more. Andrew created an exhibition space that follows the straight and curved “lines” and their intersections in Lagerfeld’s designs. Of course, this was not the first exhibition bout Karl. There have been many exhibitions about Karl before. In 2015, a retrospective of Karl Lagerfeld was held at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany. Modemethode (at Bundeskunsthalle). German-born Karl Lagerfeld is known in the fashion world for bringing a new perspective to classic shapes and taking fashion in new directions.
In a storied career spanning 60 years from 1955 to the present day, Karl’s creations still retain an extraordinary sense of the present and originality. At the exhibition in New York; They feature work ranging from Karl’s designs for Chloé, and FENDI in the 1960s and 1970s to when he was head designer at Chanel in the 1980s and beyond. He even had designs for his own brand. It was a great feeling for me to see Karl’s designs for Chanel, Chloé and Fendi in chronological order! What special masterpieces Karl has left us!
Since the beginning of his career, he has worked for luxury brands such as Balmain, Patou, Fendi, Chloé, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel. He has created creations for Fendi (1965-2019), Chloé (1974 – 1983, 1992 -1997), Chanel (1982 – 2019) and his own ‘Karl Lagerfeld’ brand (1984 – 2019). I’m not even talking about his collaboration with the special collection he made for the fast fashion brand H&M in 2004! I cannot stop telling you about Karl. Before Karl thought of becoming a Fashion Designer, he considered a career as an illustrator, especially as a cartoonist. In some of his interviews, he talks about his passion and nostalgia for Simplicissimus (1896-1967), the German weekly satirical magazine he collected as a child and which continued to inspire him as an adult. In interviews, Karl describes his versatility as an innate talent. Anna Wintour, in her article about Karl, writes about how Karl fell in love with his solitude. She also says that one of Karl’s favorite things to do is to read a book alone and adds that Karl has a long work schedule that lasts until 2 or 3 o’clock every night. So, did the designer, who enjoyed being alone so much, never have a love story? During my research, I was also struck by the fact that Karl had no news about his private life. Karl always attached great importance to the privacy of his private life.
Each work in the exhibition increased my admiration for Karl even more. Colors, textures, accessories, flowing and smooth color, haute couture outfits created from the combination of different fabrics, feathered dresses, jacket dresses created from belts, creative outfits that pushed the limits of imagination, light and flexible fabrics, gloves, lace, crystal stones, intertwined fabrics of different types were almost talking to each other…
The combinations of colors and clothes beyond elegance were in perfect harmony… The exhibition included accessories with contrasting male and female themes, romantic and military contrasts, rococo and classical style coats, futuristic jacket suits, dresses decorated with handmade floral motifs, clothes inspired by geometric shapes, as well as clothes with abstract themes. In this part of my article, I would like to talk about his works in the exhibition, especially his sketches. Of course, we designers always
make sketches as
part of our design
process, but this
is usually a means
to an end, not an
end in itself, as in
Karl’s case. What
I observed in the sketches exhibited in Karl’s exhibition was this: each design was accompanied by Karl’s meticulously drawn sketches. Both when I looked at the sketches and when I looked at the clothes, I could see a perfect drawing. Karl has managed to explain exactly the design he wants to explain with all the details in his sketches with a very special language. I watched the sketches for hours without realizing how the time passed in front of the sketches. Afterwards, I looked at the harmony and harmony of the sketches with the clothes. Each work was like a part of the whole… Another detail that caught my attention was that Karl would send his drawings to his studio just before he left his house. This way, he wanted the work to start before he even arrived at the studio. It was like he was always racing against time. And what do you think is the difference between an artist and a designer? I think Fashion is definitely more practical and commercial.
Think about it, artists work on their works sometimes for months, sometimes for years. But designers, the faster they sketch, the more success they can achieve. Because the designer is racing against time, following the season and the faster he sketches, the more products he can produce. Karl was always adamant that fashion is not art and fashion designers are not artists… ‘Fashion is Fashion Art is Art’ – Karl Lagerfeld. His team was also very valuable to Karl. He worked with talented artisans in tailoring ateliers. He always had a deep respect for them. There was even a special video in the exhibition. They interviewed Karl’s team in the video. The designer’s perfectionism was on the lips of the whole team… I think this was the key element in Karl’s career: Per-fect-ionism! Let’s talk about the clothes; Karl has always been inspired by art, movies, music, design, fashion, literature and philosophy while creating his collections. He combined the parts he was inspired by his own
imagination. Sometimes this
creativity manifested itself in a coat, sometimes in a haute couture evening dress or accessories…
Romantic dresses, refined military-style clothes; rococo/ classical on the one hand; some completely futuristic; some decorative; floral and geometric clothes, futuristic and abstract jackets and many more… Karl was inspired by the ‘Rhythm color’ works of Sonia Delaunay, who continued the Cubism movement. In the photo I took for you, you can see that Karl has used bold colors and contrast very well with his own creativity… Colors, simple geometric circle, square, rectangle, triangle details have gained brand new meanings with this design of Karl… The reason why this current exhibition in New York was so close to my heart was that it was the first survey exhibition of Karl Lagerfeld’s (1933 – 2019) lifetime art. It was also the first retrospective exhibition after Karl’s death. ‘A Line Of Beauty’ was a thematic and conceptual exhibition in every respect. I hope you enjoyed reading this article because I still feel the sparks of this exhibition on me…
T A L E N T , B O L D I D E A S A N D E N D L E S S P R O D U C T I V I T Y . . .
’ T H E U L T I M A T E S A V V Y DESIGNER KARL LAGERFELD’
Karl Lagerfeld is a versatile designer, linguist, literary enthusiast, photographer, interior designer, stage and set designer, collector, filmmaker and philanthropist. In addition to all these multifaceted intellects, he is the greatest intellectual of fashion, with a vast culture! The other thing I value about him is that he is a fashion designer with manners and confidence. I would also like to add that Karl is a writer and publisher; even wrote diet books. What a talent he is!
I have been a fan of Karl since I was a child, not only because of his versatile talents, but also because of his personality and philosophy of life. But unfortunately this legendary man, Karl Lagerfeld, passed away four years ago. I have no doubt that every garment Karl created, though I like to call them works of art, will continue to have an impact on fashion for generations to come… The Metropolitan Museum Of Art in New York created an exhibition in July that theorized some of Karl’s private works over his 60-year career with the theme “A Line Of Beauty”. Of course I could not miss this unique exhibition! The exhibition inspired me so much that I decided to write a nice article about Karl. Because I can say that I found myself in a world of inspiration! The reason why this exhibition was so important for me: Karl’s sketches. The exhibition was in such a beautiful composition; underneath the designs were Karl’s special sketches.
The curator of this exhibition called ‘A Line Of Beauty’ is Andrew Bolton. Andrew was inspired by the “line of beauty” theorized by the 18th century British painter William Hogarth (British, 1697-1764). (Title Page Of The Analysis of Beauty, 1753) William Hogarth was the namesake of this mindblowing exhibition. Andrew wanted to immortalize Hogarth’s ideas that a onstantly curving, everchanging line captures something more. Andrew created an exhibition space that follows the straight and curved “lines” and their intersections in Lagerfeld’s designs. Of course, this was not the first exhibition bout Karl. There have been many exhibitions about Karl before. In 2015, a retrospective of Karl Lagerfeld was held at the Art and Exhibition Hall of the Federal Republic of Germany. Modemethode (at Bundeskunsthalle). German-born Karl Lagerfeld is known in the fashion world for bringing a new perspective to classic shapes and taking fashion in new directions.
In a storied career spanning 60 years from 1955 to the present day, Karl’s creations still retain an extraordinary sense of the present and originality. At the exhibition in New York; They feature work ranging from Karl’s designs for Chloé, and FENDI in the 1960s and 1970s to when he was head designer at Chanel in the 1980s and beyond. He even had designs for his own brand. It was a great feeling for me to see Karl’s designs for Chanel, Chloé and Fendi in chronological order! What special masterpieces Karl has left us!
Since the beginning of his career, he has worked for luxury brands such as Balmain, Patou, Fendi, Chloé, Karl Lagerfeld and Chanel. He has created creations for Fendi (1965-2019), Chloé (1974 – 1983, 1992 -1997), Chanel (1982 – 2019) and his own ‘Karl Lagerfeld’ brand (1984 – 2019). I’m not even talking about his collaboration with the special collection he made for the fast fashion brand H&M in 2004! I cannot stop telling you about Karl. Before Karl thought of becoming a Fashion Designer, he considered a career as an illustrator, especially as a cartoonist. In some of his interviews, he talks about his passion and nostalgia for Simplicissimus (1896-1967), the German weekly satirical magazine he collected as a child and which continued to inspire him as an adult. In interviews, Karl describes his versatility as an innate talent. Anna Wintour, in her article about Karl, writes about how Karl fell in love with his solitude. She also says that one of Karl’s favorite things to do is to read a book alone and adds that Karl has a long work schedule that lasts until 2 or 3 o’clock every night. So, did the designer, who enjoyed being alone so much, never have a love story? During my research, I was also struck by the fact that Karl had no news about his private life. Karl always attached great importance to the privacy of his private life.
Each work in the exhibition increased my admiration for Karl even more. Colors, textures, accessories, flowing and smooth color, haute couture outfits created from the combination of different fabrics, feathered dresses, jacket dresses created from belts, creative outfits that pushed the limits of imagination, light and flexible fabrics, gloves, lace, crystal stones, intertwined fabrics of different types were almost talking to each other… The combinations of colors and clothes beyond elegance were in perfect harmony… The exhibition included accessories with contrasting male and female themes, romantic and military contrasts, rococo and classical style coats, futuristic jacket suits, dresses decorated with handmade floral motifs, clothes inspired by geometric shapes, as well as clothes with abstract themes. In this part of my article, I would like to talk about his works in the exhibition, especially his sketches. Of course, we designers always make sketches as part of our design process, but this is usually a means to an end, not an end in itself, as in Karl’s case. What I observed in the sketches exhibited in Karl’s exhibition was this: each design was accompanied by Karl’s meticulously drawn sketches. Both when I looked at the sketches and when I looked at the clothes, I could see a perfect drawing. Karl has managed to explain exactly the design he wants to explain with all the details in his sketches with a very special language. I watched the sketches for hours without realizing how the time passed in front of the sketches. Afterwards, I looked at the harmony and harmony of the sketches with the clothes. Each work was like a part of the whole… Another detail that caught my attention was that Karl would send his drawings to his studio just before he left his house. This way, he wanted the work to start before he even arrived at the studio. It was like he was always racing against time. And what do you think is the difference between an artist and a designer? I think Fashion is definitely more practical and commercial. Think about it, artists work on their works sometimes for months, sometimes for years. But designers, the faster they sketch, the more success they can achieve. Because the designer is racing against time, following the season and the faster he sketches, the more products he can produce. Karl was always adamant that fashion is not art and fashion designers are not artists… ‘Fashion is Fashion Art is Art’ – Karl Lagerfeld. His team was also very valuable to Karl. He worked with talented artisans in tailoring ateliers. He always had a deep respect for them. There was even a special video in the exhibition. They interviewed Karl’s team in the video. The designer’s perfectionism was on the lips of the whole team… I think this was the key element in Karl’s career: Per-fect-ionism!
Let’s talk about the clothes; Karl has always been inspired by art, movies, music, design, fashion, literature and philosophy while creating his collections. He combined the parts he was inspired by his own imagination. Sometimes this creativity manifested itself in a coat, sometimes in a haute couture evening dress or accessories…
Romantic dresses, refined military-style clothes; rococo/classical on the one hand; some completely futuristic; some decorative; floral and geometric clothes, futuristic and abstract jackets and many more… Karl was inspired by the ‘Rhythm color’ works of Sonia Delaunay, who continued the Cubism movement. In the photo I took for you, you can see that Karl has used bold colors and contrast very well with his own creativity… Colors, simple geometric circle, square, rectangle, triangle details have gained brand new meanings with this design of Karl… The reason why this current exhibition in New York was so close to my heart was that it was the first survey exhibition of Karl Lagerfeld’s (1933 – 2019) lifetime art. It was also the first retrospective exhibition after Karl’s death. ‘A Line Of Beauty’ was a thematic and conceptual exhibition in every respect. I hope you enjoyed reading this article because I still feel the sparks of this exhibition on me…
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