Karl Lagerfeld

Born 1933; Lagerfeld was the son of a wealthy German businessman. The wealth his farther had allowed him to study in Paris at the age of just 14 and become an artist as well as designer. Since his 30's he has been taking part in prestigious competitions and worked for many top designer brands like Chloe and Vogue. He also used his own fashion and style to produce his own label which he eventually sold but kept all design control of.

The model in this image is Abbey Lee, one of the most sort after models of the fashion industry. With recent work being completed for the likes of Hugo Boss and Gucci. To me this image feels like Lagerfeld is trying to make Lee look fragile and delicate. A lot like a china doll. Her bleach blond hair is decorated with an array of flowers and translucent materials. Gold has been used as the main jewellery material probably to match the hair and similar pale yellow tone of her skin. The reds and purples used for the lipstick also matches other areas of the image including the cloth she is wrapping herself in and dark tones of the eyeshadow used. 

I think that Lagerfeld has used two lights to create this image. It looks like a snoot was used on the light for the background due to the gradual fading in tone outwards from the centre of the dense area. I also think that he has used a form of flash ring that has created two clear lines down the face and their reflection is visible in the models eyes.

 

            

 

Lagerfeld has made his own fashion/style into a brand. He uses his name, face and distinct blacked out glasses as the label for his designs, many know who he is and his work because of the massive amount of unique branding. All of these images shows how he would normally dress: the sunglasses, white hair in a pony tail, high white collar, dark suit, jewellery on the tie or necklace and finally the gloves. Lagerfeld has also created extra areas on his website which publicises his lifestyle. Karlism is an area where himself or assistants would post sayings/quotes from him. There is also an area called The Karl Daily which to my understanding is a newspaper that is about Lagerfeld, his latest designs and stories that is of interest to him and his brand.

This might be something that I can think about, using repetitive imagery to communicate awareness of a style or brand, maybe even create a brand. I would then have to think about typography and what the brand would be. I would also have to consider what the continuous theme would be since as I wanted to experiment with different colours and styles.