Karl Lagerfeld: A Fashion History

An extraordinary biography of Karl Lagerfeld, based upon a series of rare, powerful, and emotional interviews--the real story, full of inside details, that repeatedly surprises and enlightens.

Ottavi enjoyed a rare degree of open and candid access to Lagerfeld in his later years, and this biography offers an unparalleled look into the iconic designer’s complex personality and wide-ranging creativity. Lagerfeld himself wanted this to be a frank, honest, serious account that would be an invaluable resource for fashion lovers and admirers of his incomparable legacy. Unlike other recent books, this intimate portrait deftly reveals his true inner nature in his own words.

Based upon interviews with Lagerfeld over the course of two years prior to his death, this biography is further enriched with memories, stories, and anecdotes from close friends and associates including the Princess of Hanover, Bernard and Hélène Arnault, Silvia Fendi, Bruno Pavlovsky, Tom Ford, Alessandro Michele, Valentino, Carine Roitfeld, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Inès de La Fressange, Linda Evangelista, Tadao Ando, Fran Lebowitz, and others.

Lagerfeld was many things: inspired creator, witty raconteur, media darling, highly cultured, eccentric in his manners, insatiable at work, ultra-sensitive, and given to maintaining grudges. This narrative includes Lagerfeld’s own especially perceptive insights into his relationship with Jacques de Bascher, his only true love, and how Yves Saint Laurent’s later passion for de Bascher resulted in the infamous break in the longstanding friendship between the two couturiers.

Marie Ottavi is a well-known writer for the leading French daily, Libération, specializing in fashion, pop culture, and lifestyles. She is the author of the critically acclaimed biography of Jacques de Bascher published in 2017.