Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses

The first publication dedicated to Karl Lagerfeld's glamorous homes, known for their eclectic interiors, ranging from the Art Deco to the ultramodern.

While Karl Lagerfeld was famous for being at the very centre of the fashion industry for over half a century, he was equally opinionated when it came to interiors, which acted as a private creative outlet alongside his fashion designs.

Following an overview by Patrick Mauriès, each house is introduced by a short text by Marie Kalt unveiling its history and identifying key designers and pieces. The homes are documented by date, beginning with rare photography of Lagerfeld’s early addresses in the 1960s and 1970s, through to his final house purchase in 2009. From the elegant Art-Deco inspired apartment in Saint-Sulpice, Paris, to the incredibly ornate 18th-century mansion, Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo (his muse and collaborator Amanda Harlech described Lagerfeld as having ‘a Versailles complex’) – Lagerfeld’s houses reveal he was a collector of a Renaissance scale, and showed spectacular range in his decorating styles. Lagerfeld would balance the old with the new, humorously describing the minimalist decor of his 200-year old apartment in Quai Voltaire, Paris as ‘like floating in your own spaceship over a very civilised past’, and moved from one atmosphere to the next, leaving a Memphis-designed apartment in Monte Carlo for a Grand-Tour themed Roman pied-à-terre, followed by bucolic French country houses and even a majestic Nordic villa in his native Hamburg.