Lagerfeld Gallery (Q4983)
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Lagerfeld Gallery is a fashion house from FMD.
| Language | Label | Description | Also known as |
|---|---|---|---|
| English | Lagerfeld Gallery |
Lagerfeld Gallery is a fashion house from FMD. |
Statements
As the Lagerfeld Gallery show finally got under way after an even longer than usual delay (thank the Carrousel du Louvre's arduous security procedure), it looked like the designer was going to stick to riffs on his signature strict suiting—this time with white shirts trailing floor-grazing arm bands. But Lagerfeld did introduce a more feminine note to the proceedings, via jackets, vests, and sheaths with circular and teardrop-shape cutouts. For evening, he was of two minds: On the one hand, there was a beaded cocktail dress with spaghetti straps, and on the other, a chiffon gown that was sleeveless and sheer in parts—not necessarily practical, but not predictable either.Lagerfeld sold this label to Tommy Hilfiger less than a year ago, with growing the business topmost in his mind. But if he's really thinking big, it would've been nice to see more of his fantastic—not to mention highly bankable—denim.
4 October 2005
Karl Lagerfeld's dynamic soundtrack mixed Prince with Scissor Sisters in a metaphor for his collection's playful juxtaposition of proportions—from the eighties, there were broad-shouldered swing coats, short or long but always with a great deal of swagger, and from today, superskinny pantsuits that define a new silhouette.Tommy Hilfiger Inc. bought the Lagerfeld Gallery label at the end of last year, and that development seemed to signal a heightened sense of luxury at the house—from the extraordinary LED backdrop that spelled the designer's name (and also reappeared on low-slung belts that anchored the designer's second-skin pants) to the collection's embarrassment of furs and fur trims. Lush fox stoles wrapped asymmetrically around the body with jersey ties, while narrow turtleneck sweaters had detachable funnel collar and bib combinations to help deflect the sort of glacial weather that Paris experienced the morning of the show.For day, Lagerfeld wrapped his heroine dresses with habitual geometric rigor—and added a great deal of swingy volume to coats to balance the lean looks beneath. But for all that clean-cut severity, his after-dark clothes were a riot of prettiness. Standouts included slipper satin and jersey gowns with twisted apron halters and soft evening dresses with a thirties flavor in dusty boudoir pinks and teals, belted with garlands of chiffon roses like those once used by Madeleine Vionnet.
1 March 2005
Kaiser Karl once famously said that his women's collection for Lagerfeld Gallery is the way he would dress if he were a woman. Fair to assume, then, that the corresponding men's collection is aimed squarely at the designer himself. For fall, the point was driven home by belt buckles that shouted "KARL," an ice-pink tie with his name scrawled across it, and the leanness of the tailoring (reflecting M. Lagerfeld's much-publicized trim physique).But the Lagerfeld man looked slightly askew this season, and it had something to do with the relentless eighties edge of the collection. Sure, there's a wave of bands like Franz Ferdinand and Interpol who are mining this particular corner of pop culture for the mother lode. But the skinny pin-striped suit and white sneaker combo is too purely retro to stand as a contemporary fashion statement. (Joe Jackson is now a nostalgia act, after all.) Pointy white ponyskin loafers paired with narrow trousers didn't help, and neither did the irony of a white hoodie that identified its wearer as a "trustafarian" (i.e., a would-be bohemian supported by a trust fund). Part of the word was picked out in an Yves Klein blue, which also cropped up as the lining of a coat and the New Wave-ish stripe on a tie. Much more promising were a couple of items that featured an updated camouflage print, especially a jacket with knitted cuffs.
28 January 2005
The art of dressing the runway is serious business in Paris. Leave New York to its simple and straightforward white—all the better to play the supporting role of blank canvas. Here, they're always trying out new materials for the models to traverse: a gasoline slick, a layer of sand, or, as happened this season at Lagerfeld Gallery, silver glitter on a midnight-black floor.More importantly, though, did Karl Lagerfeld's collection itself sparkle? There were certainly shining moments. The multitasking Monsieur Lagerfeld hasn't totally abandoned the androgyny theme he has been exploring for several seasons: There were sweeping fedoras, starched wing collars on dresses, and skinny smokings with supertight pants. But the majority of these pieces were much softer (bloused and pleated dresses), brighter (a palette of hot pink, pale lavender, and buttercup yellow amid the monochrome), and lighter (skirts atop stiffened petticoats, a recurring trend here) than other Lagerfeld Gallery offerings of late. That was particularly true of the evening looks that closed the show. The same wispy, wonderful, weightless quality Lagerfeld injects into his furs for Fendi, or his cardigan jackets for Chanel, came through beautifully in a series of silk dresses slipped over sweeping gauze underskirts.
5 October 2004
Karl Lagerfeld has always been pretty adept at drawing on a wide range of disparate references to make one very satisfying collection. Such was the case with his fall show at Lagerfeld Gallery, where sports influences, menswear tailoring, and slinky chiffon eveningwear all mingled happily on the same runway.Lagerfeld opened with a selection of sexy, sportif snow parkas and anoraks, which then morphed into masculine wool pantsuits, some featuring leather panels inlaid at the waist, worn with substantial-collared white cotton shirts. He also showed some great zippered jackets, cut close to the body from purple astrakhan or brown leather. Evening meant a series of slinky chiffon dresses, long and short, which came pleated and trimmed with leather. At the close of the show, Lagerfeld made another reference, this one inadvertent: He quick-stepped around the runway in a natty silver-gray suit that would have looked just as good on one of his models. The designer himself as inspiration? Now there's a source worth quoting.
3 March 2004
"Graphic effects!" exclaimed the designer backstage before he was swamped by well-wishers. Right. And there were plenty of them in his Spring collection, from the waspish silhouettes to the laser-sharp pleated dresses and bold prints.Lagerfeld flitted from one theme to the next in his quest for a striking statement. Tough-shouldered jackets and stiff little skirts in croc-stamped leather were swiftly replaced by a fleet of sinuous, slithering sheath dresses—some with Grecian folds, others that clasped at the shoulder with a silver buckle. Next up, a couple of bikini-clad beach babes, whose jersey robes fell to the floor at the pull of a strap. Then came the faded denim: a natty cropped jacket here, a curvy pinafore there. These were hotly pursued by dainty chiffon dresses—in chocolate, black, or coral—given a graphic twist with shoulder straps and waistbands cut from sparkling shagreen.Of course, the proceedings wouldn't be complete without the designer's obligatory strict black suits, worn with crisp white shirts, high starched collars, thin black neckties, and super-svelte skirts of both the mini and pencil persuasion. Nor would the show be the same without one of Lagerfeld's witty, self-mocking edicts: T-shirts, as slender as the designer himself, were branded with the message "4 Slim People." As if there was any doubt.
8 October 2003
The Carousel du Louvre turned intergalactic for the Lagerfeld Gallery show, as red laser beams flashed and models emerged from clear beam-me-up-Scottie tubes to hit the runway.The proceedings opened with a series of strict black suits—jackets and waistcoats worn with crisp white shirts, leather ties, and cropped skirts or cuffed trousers, all as skinny as the man who designed them. The collection ran red hot—thanks to fiery crimson miniskirts and fringed cherry-red fur scarves that dangled alluringly down the back almost to the knee—then turned icily chic, as twinkling platinum mesh tops and embroidered silver overcoats made an appearance to the sound of a disco-fiedNutcracker Suite.What held it all together were the impossibly high starched Edwardian collars—think Ryan Phillippe inGosford Park—that the models wore with everything from suits to faded denim jeans from Lagerfeld’s two-seasons-old collaboration with Diesel. “It starts with the collars,” said the designer backstage when asked about his inspirations. “It’s not a historical reference or a menswear influence. It’s simply the idea of an impeccable white turtleneck that gives a clean, streamlined, graphic feeling to jeans, to T-shirts—to everything.”During the final walk Lagerfeld took to the runway himself, in his own tight jeans, narrow black jacket and, of course, one of the mood-setting collars, his hair held in place by the same gleaming silver clip that had adorned the models’ ponytails. “Maybe it’s a little too much for me?” he asked well-wishers after the show. “Not to worry, Monsieur Lagerfeld,” an admirer assured him. “You wear it well.”
6 March 2003
How to wear ultra-short? It's the brainteaser of spring fashion. For his Lagerfeld Gallery collection, Karl Lagerfeld gave shorts themselves a try. As part of the Diesel jeans group he integrates into the collection, Lagerfeld put frayed-edge denim shorts beneath minute chiffon dresses and under the teeny veils he had flipping around in place of evening skirts.The jeans, with their signature center-front seam, sculpt the skinniest thigh on the planet. For spring, they're done in pale blue, cross-dyed purple and blue, faded black, or white, and lopped off just below the calf. Lagerfeld often put them under pretty lavender chiffon dresses for a more covered-up option.For all the denim, this wasn't a casual collection. There was a Lagerfeldian framework that included formal jackets and crisp white shirt collars alongside feminine silk dresses. He did a few twists on the tux, including black taffeta-sleeved evening coats, cropped boleros and a white-tie vest. A line-up of pewter ciré swimsuits with boy-cut legs touched on the '60s trend. And the famously slimmed-down designer rivaled any model when he took his final bow in a pair of those long, leggy jeans.
3 October 2002
If idle hands are the devil's playground, Karl Lagerfeld is destined for sainthood. There's the Chanel and Fendi jobs, not to mention innumerable collaborations, photo projects, drawings, furniture designs, books, houses—OK, he's busy. But never too busy, it seems, to play with some fashion ideas. Which is where Lagerfeld Gallery comes in. Lagerfeld Gallery started out as a group of items shown at his Left Bank art gallery (hence the name), but has since evolved into a true collection.Lagerfeld is particularly good at taking one or two big ideas and looking at them from all sides. For Fall, he played off two of the season's favorite icons: denim and black dresses. The famously slimmed-down designer clearly wanted to share his rediscovery of all things skinny. At the heart of the collection were skintight blue jeans (created for Lagerfeld by Diesel), boot-cut or as knickers and worn with teetering heels. He paired those with fitted jackets, crisp white shirts or black knit tops—perfect dressing for a woman who likes uncomplicated style that still packs a punch. When she's feeling a bit more like playing the sex kitten, Lagerfeld's customer will change into one of his satiny, figure-hugging black dresses or skirts and add a slouchy bag from another of the season's collaborators, accessories designer Matt Murphy. Simple ideas, made new and interesting—that's how Karl keeps his fashion wheels rolling.
7 March 2002