Caroline de Maigret

“Karl was very fun and witty and brilliant, but what I was most amazed by was his faithfulness. That’s really rare nowadays. Chanel is famous for it too, it keeps its people forever.

I first met Karl when I was 20. I did a casting for the show, and his team asked me to stay for a whole month, so he could create the collection on me. It was very impressive to me, because I’m French, and the house is super iconic. And with Karl…I always felt like I had to be at his level—which is unreachable! But spending time with him, I realized that he also was always making jokes all day. In the 1990s, it was all about the supermodels and star designers, and Karl was even more of a superstar.

We met again when I was about 35. I was doing a radio show, and he came into my radio truck, and he was meant to stay for five minutes and he ended up staying for 20 talking about his relationship with music and fashion. When he was a kid, his mother played the violin, and he would turn the pages of the music. I hadn’t seen him in many years, and a week later, his team asked me to walk in the cruise show later on that month. That’s how I started to work in fashion again, and with Chanel again. I was extremely flattered to be asked—and surprised. I was 35 at the time, and age was different then. I wasn’t ready to go back to fashion. I had a life: I was a mother, an entrepreneur.

But going back was way more fun cause I had things to tell, things to share with Karl. It was a mature relationship, where you could talk about life and literature and the arts, which I couldn’t do when I was 20. Karl was very generous—to me, to his team, to his friends. His faithfulness was part of that generosity, and in turn, you never wanted to let him down; you wanted to keep bringing things to the table for him. But it was easier to make him laugh than to impress him with your knowledge.”

Jeremy Scott

“Karl was many things to many people but to me he was one thing most importantly—he was my friend.

Having come to Paris straight out of college in New York and to only have just entered the mainstage of the international fashion capital, with only a handful of shows under my belt, I would never have guessed that Karl and I would become the best of friends.

He took a liking to my work and really championed me and my vision. His mere “cosigning” of me as a designer made a lot of fashion’s “establishment” pause and take notice, and as a result, take me more seriously. I have so many memories of our times together; at L7 in the photo studio creating images, flying to Monaco for Helmut Newton’s birthday bash, and attending his shows. But I would have to say that the times I cherish most were those spent with him doing fittings at Chanel. I loved sitting next to him while he worked—observing the fluidity of his decisions, the precision of his vision, and his manner of ease. It was all so inspiring. He had a relentless dedication to creation.

During one of Karl’s couture fitting sessions, he told me he loved my outfit and wanted to take a photograph. He directed me upstairs to madame Chanel’s historically preserved apartment and took the photo that would become my favorite portrait of all time. I was wearing a vintage black motorcycle jacket over an old fake Chanel T-shirt with a real Chanel necklace that he had given me, and I was sitting on Coco Chanel’s couch. He loved the combination of real and fake, high and low, the masculine and the feminine.

He told me that I was the only designer other than Madame Chanel herself (and Karl of course) who had ever been photographed on that couch! Now if that is not enough to make an aspiring young designer’s dreams come true, I don’t know what is.

But that was just Karl. He was passionate about things and people that inspired him, and he loved and championed those people. He was the original original and I am forever grateful for his presence in my life.”

Silvia Venturini Fendi

“I was only a child when I first saw Karl. His appearance and figure, wearing a white gown, made me think of him as a painter. I could feel something magic was happening and would perceive the energy and excitement from my mother and her sisters when he was around. When we started working together we had a very special relationship, based on a deep and very genuine mutual affection. Karl Lagerfeld has been my mentor and my point of reference. We didn’t need to talk too much to understand each other: a blink of an eye was enough. We had a lot of appreciation and respect for each other. ”

Amanda Harlech

“Karl was a lightning conductor—he fed voraciously off positive energy. One of the reasons he could divide himself between collections, photo shoots, architectural projects, moviemaking, and exhibitions was because he gathered gifted and engaged teams around him. He could switch from house to house and from book to book like a blade of light. I remember him asking me once, at the Café Flore, if I had ever tasted a frankfurter. I hadn’t, so he ordered me one, and just as I took my first bite he asked me, in rapid-gunfire succession, “Why do you think Rilke is untranslatable from the German? What is your favorite Emily Dickinson poem?” His mind rolled like mercury.”

Tadao Ando

“I believe I first met Mr. Lagerfeld around 1990 in Paris when he approached me. I had designed a seminar house at Vitra in Germany from 1987-1993, but I remember meeting him before that time.

I often visited Mr. Lagerfeld’s house in Saint-Germain. Mr. Lagerfeld owns a bookstore [there], and there was an atelier nearby.

Mr. Lagerfeld likes architecture and photography, and every time I went, he took pictures in the studio behind his atelier. He also made a book about the Vitra Seminar House that I designed. When I visited his house, he asked me how I would like to eat, and asked me whether I would like Japanese, Western, or Chinese food. I’m not a gourmand, so if I ask for French cuisine, it’s served right away. They prepared 3 kinds of dishes at the same time so that I could order anything.

I can only speak Japanese, and specifically the Osaka dialect, so communication through language was a bit of a struggle. Dinners tend to be long. Mr. Lagerfeld even said, “Ando is something else, he endured a three-hour dinner even though he only understands Japanese.” Personally, I was hoping to receive praise for my architecture [laughs].”

Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti

“Valentino had met and became friends with Karl in Paris in the 50s, but I didn’t know him. One evening we were walking along Via Veneto and at the Harry’s Bar Valentino recognized Karl and we sat down with him all night. He was all alone in a city that was still unfamiliar to him, which gave me a sense of fragility. He was in Rome to work for a maison owned by an American, Tiziani, who was never heard of again later on. It is the only memory of a more modest and fragile Karl, far from his strength and glamour.” —Giancarlo Giammetti.

Carla Bruni

“I was lucky enough to have known Karl for many years and I keep an indelible impression of life and ardor from him. It’s as if deep down he wasn’t really gone, as if he was going to enter the room any minute, followed by his royal procession. He succeeded in doing this, it seems to me, leaving a trace of him which still beats and which resembles him. Even gone, Karl remains alive. I often imagine him leaning over us from above, observing with satisfaction all the tributes paid to him here below…

My relationship with Karl has been long and stable, from my young years to his last show he showed me nothing but kindness and consideration. And despite the immense talent that was his, despite his charisma and his creative power, despite the energy he diffused and which animated him, despite the bewitching charm of his brilliant and sharp mind, despite his elegance and generosity and despite his wicked sense of humor, it is his kindness that I remember the most. These marks of friendship that were his, these signs that he sent in difficult times or in happy times, his delicacy towards others. Everyone knows the character that was Karl Lagerfeld and the aura that surrounded him, but all those who approached him know that just behind his armor of image and modesty there was also a kind heart.”