MYTHOS CHANEL & LAGERFELDS MODELS

We just came back from a few, but wonderful sunny days in Hamborg. And to my big surprise, there actually were a couple of exhibitions, that I was eager to see.

That is above mentioned: Mythos Chanel  at Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe. In the description of the exhibition it says :
"She was very selfconscious, independent and businessminded - Coco Chanel was much more than just a fahion Icon.
She revulotioned the female fashion in the beginning of the 20. century, by making it more usable and comfortable.
She raised  "the little black dress" and invented the suit, that since has carried her name. With great outlook, she already launched her own perfume in the 20´ies and completed her brand Chanel with additional fashion accessoires.
The exhibition displayes on top of 70 original creations, many examples by Karl Lagerfeld, that since1983 have kept the rich in tradition fashionhouse Chanel, up to date." 

 Photo: Daniel Clément

Very fascinating exhibition, that only can be recommended. Especially because you actually could get close enough to the clothes, to see how they were made. The exhibition runs until the 18. of may 2014.

We bought a "combiticket", that also gave us access to Hamborg Kunsthalle, where they by "coincidence" displayed an exhibition, called Feuerbachs Musen - Lagerfelds Models.

Here was a comparation between artist Anselm Feuerbach (1829-80) and Karl Lagerfeld searching to actualize an eternal beauty, based in the Antique ideal.
The overall theme of the exhibition was the Cult of beauty, that makes the model to an Icon. This exhibition runs until the 15. of june 2014.

  Photos: SIK-ISEA (P. Hitz) og Karl Lagerfeld, Moderne Mythologie, 2013, 

(Ausschnitt), © 2013 Karl Lagerfeld

Very interesting, if you are interested in those problems. But also if you´re interested in seeing how a  multitalented Lagerfeld works with art. Check out older posts about Lagerfeld here and there.

A FASHION HISTORY CLASS

 

If you are interested in fashion history, the Fashion series, The Story of Fashion, as some may remember from 1987, told by Karl Lagerfeld, been reissued on DVD.

You can become wiser about how they looked at fashion at that time and among other things read a review here or take a sneak peek here.

At that time I only bought the first part on video, so I think I would like to acquire the entire series on Amazon.

KARL LAGERFELD CONFIDENTIAL

Karl, forever young, staging himself as a Rock-star.

I have to link a short comment to Go´ Morgen Danmarks (Morning TV) feature of the above mentioned film this morning.

Because there is divided opinions about The Fashion documentary by Rodolphe Marconi from 2007, about and starring Karl Lagerfeld (b. 1933) .

The Question is, if the Film is not more selfconfident than confidential. If you research a little bit, you find that it is actually made on request, to give a certain image of Karl Lagerfeld, especially after the writer Alicia Drake in 2006 wrote The Beautiful Fall, a critical novel about Yves Saint Laurent, Karl Lagerfeld and his background. You can read a review here.

I mentioned Karl Lagerfeld in a post earlier, about Yves Saint Laurent. They were both discovered in 1954, at a Design-competition of The Internationale Wool Secretariat  .

Karl Lagerfeld first became a designer for Balmain and later for Jean Patou. After that he was working freelance from 1962-82, for among others, Chloé and Italian Fendi, which he still designs for. In 1983 he was hired by the House of Chanel and since then been able to renew and lead the House towards its succees of today.

Karl Lagerfeld is a workaholic and has at the same time as he has been designing the many different collections, also been photographing the Campaigns of Chanel for many years.
 
One could argue that he would not have been where he is today, without his work-obsession. But for me it seems like a kind of escapism. But read more here and judge for yourself.