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Karl Lagerfeld tribute: A visual provocateur and tireless innovator who never fell out of style

Karl Lagerfeld is the man who took fashion off the catwalk and made it a blockbuster to rival any Hollywood film.

His legacy extends beyond a perfectly cut bouclé jacket, the most exquisitely crafted couture gown or even his own signature monochrome look. His contempt for the ordinary meant that the mundane had no place at his design table. Or anywhere near him.

Instead, his world was one of fantasy, from within which catwalk productions were transformed into multi-million-pound spectacles, among them a supermarket which featured more than 500 Chanel products, an imported 265-tonne glacier and even a 115ft rocket which took off as the show got underway.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

For fashion week attendees, a Chanel show is more than a chance to view clothes on a catwalk, it is a chance to immerse oneself in the mind of the planet’s most progressive and imaginative designer. For him, the impossible was possible, and no expense was ever spared.

As a designer for Chanel, Fendi and Chloe, Lagerfeld’s dedication was creating impeccable design for the world’s most fastidious fashion consumers. A tireless innovator who throughout his long career stayed entirely up to speed with the latest developments in music, art, film and technology, he was a lifelong learner who progressed with the times and a man obsessed with youth. In this respect, he never fell out of style.

(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

To him, Chanel was more than a fashion house, it was a way of life to which he dedicated his. Always respectful to the vision outlined by its founder Coco Chanel but never unoriginal, he sought, always, to marry the codes of its legacy with an aesthetic that belonged in the here and now.

A visual provocateur who shot every Chanel ad campaign, Lagerfeld understood how to make fashion excite beyond its purpose to line a wardrobe. He created visual stories and a work of art that deserved to be marvelled at on billboards and on the pages of every fashion magazine across the globe.

Lagerfeld will always stand as a pioneer. His influence reaches beyond the ateliers of Paris into the wardrobes of everywoman.