The Chanel Haute Couture Spring\/Summer 2019 fashion show as part of Paris Fashion Week. (Victor VIRGILE\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
It was only in 1983, 12 years after Chanel died, that a young Lagerfeld \u2013 by then already known as a fashion w\u00fcnderkind \u2013 was tapped to head up the languishing Chanel house. He was chosen because of his acknowledged creative genius, as well as his innate understanding and respect for what Coco Chanel had created, and had proven his chops while establishing the heritage French brand Chloe as an \u201cit\u201d brand that embodied the bohemian sensibility of the early \u201970s.<\/p>\n
Lagerfeld\u2019s first couture collection played on the tight-and-trashy look that was in vogue in Paris at that time \u2013 a trend that Lagerfeld had helped shape before he was tapped to helm Chanel. The skirt suits were slimmer and sexier and worn with wide obi belts; evening dresses were flounced and tiered and topped with tulle boleros; gems were sewn onto a dress bodice as a trompe l\u2019oeil of a necklace; white pique four leaf clover flowers were pinned onto the shoulders of suits.<\/p>\n
This debut collection for Chanel received mixed reviews. Some believed the Chanel brand should have died with its founder, since she and her aesthetic were irreplaceable, while others thought that Lagerfeld\u2019s touch paid proper homage that also showcased how he would shape the brand in the years to come.<\/p>\n
It was the latter opinion that proved to be the most accurate.<\/p>\n
That initial couture collection, with notes of verve and excitement usually reserved for ready-to-wear collections, was a success, setting in motion a lifetime contract with Chanel. Within a few seasons of his tenure, Chanel became the most exciting and coveted ticket at Paris Fashion Week. The shows were theatrical, the clothes were at once experimental and traditional; both fashion-forward and classic. Over the years, Chanel shows \u2013 mostly housed in Lagerfeld\u2019s favored venue of choice, the Grand Palais \u2013 became grand productions where a runway could become a dreamy beach, a swanky airport, a French bistro and once even a supermarket in which every product bore the Chanel name and models carried grocery baskets edged in Chanel\u2019s signature braided bag chain.
But Lagerfeld\u2019s greatest service to the Chanel brand was his ability to erase the negative associations with Chanel, including the founder\u2019s anti-Semitism. In fact, his contribution to the brand\u2019s aesthetic and ethos was so extensive that his work often eclipses that of Coco Chanel herself. Many books written about the Chanel collections over the years often overlook the early years pre-Lagerfeld (much to the chagrin of Amazon book reviewers). Indeed it was only in recent years that the depth of Chanel\u2019s involvement in Nazism has come to light. Lagerfeld made the brand so iconic and inclusive that it was easy to forget everything that was problematic about Chanel herself.<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t to say that Lagerfeld hasn\u2019t had his own brushes with racism and bigotry. In 2017, he used the legacy of the Holocaust to attack German Chancellor Angela Merkel\u2019s refugee policy, saying, \u201cYou cannot kill millions of Jews and then take in millions of their worst enemies afterwards, even [after] decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
But what Lagerfeld created in the Chanel brand is so iconic, so overwhelmingly representative of wealth and luxury, so removed from controversy and politics (even a runway show dedicated to feminist slogans and protesting felt excessively bland because it lacked edge or controversy), that even Lagerfeld\u2019s most problematic moments somehow got excused and pushed aside \u2014 that is the power of Lagerfeld\u2019s Chanel.<\/p>\n
But now that Lagerfeld is dead, the future of Chanel is again in peril: Who can replace a man who was such a virtuoso that he made Chanel into the most important, most recognizable brand \u2013 both in name and aesthetics \u2013 in fashion today? Let\u2019s just hope that Chanel doesn\u2019t languish for decades once more as the company searches for a designer who can respect and understand Lagerfeld\u2019s vision, even as she or he remakes the brand in his or her image.<\/p>\n
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