The Genius Of Karl

The prolific designer remained fashion’s tour de force until the very end.

- Gerald Tan

By the time you read this, Karl Lagerfeld would have been laid to rest, his ashes scattered with his late mother’s and his former lover’s, the French dandy Jacques de Bascher. For a man whose very presence dominated the realm of fashion, it was a surprisingly low-key affair. But should we have expected anything less from Lagerfeld, who, over the course of a career spanning more than six decades, consistently eschewed sentimentality? He was pragmatic even when it came to his final send-off. “I arrived one day, and one day I will leave,” he explained in an interview, baulking at the idea of a traditional burial. “But let it be said, there is no urgency. I am like Madame Porgès, who lived during the Belle Epoque. When she died, people said she was the only survivor of a world she was not part of. Well, that’s it, this world, I was not really part of it…”