Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld
Lagerfeld at a Fendi store opening, May 2014
Born	Karl Otto Lagerfeld (1933-09-10) 10 September 1933 (age 83) Hamburg, Germany
Residence	Paris, France
Nationality	German
Education	St. Annes School
Occupation	Fashion designer
Parent(s)	Otto Lagerfeld Elisabeth Bahlmann
Labels	Karl Lagerfeld (since 1974, various brands) Chanel (since 1983) Fendi (since 1965), Chloe (1963–1978, 1992–1997), Jean Patou (1958–1963), H&M (2004) Hogan (2011), Macy's (2011)

Karl Otto Lagerfeld (born 10 September 1933) is a German fashion designer, artist, and photographer based in Paris. He is the head designer and creative director of the fashion house Chanel as well as the Italian house Fendi and his own fashion label. Over the decades, he has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art-related projects. He is well recognized around the world for his trademark white hair, black glasses, and high starched collars.

Lagerfeld was born on 10 September 1938 in Hamburg, Germany and is the son of businessman Otto Lagerfeld (1881–1967), and his wife Elisabeth Bahlmann (1897–1978). His father owned a company that imported and produced evaporated milk, while his grandfather Karl Bahlmann was a local politician for the Catholic Centre Party. His family belonged to the Old Catholic Church. When she met his father, Lagerfeld's mother was a lingerie saleswoman from Berlin. His parents were married in 1930.

Lagerfeld is known to misrepresent his birth year, claiming to be younger than his actual age, and to misrepresent his parents' background. For example, he has claimed that he was born in 1938 to "Elisabeth of Germany" and Otto Ludwig Lagerfeldt from Sweden, although these claims have been conclusively proven to be entirely wrong, as his father was from Hamburg and spent his entire life in Germany, with no Swedish connection whatsoever. There is also no evidence that his mother Elisabeth Bahlmann, the daughter of a middle class local politician, called herself "Elisabeth of Germany." He is known to insist that no one knows his real birth date. In an interview on French television in February 2009, Lagerfeld said that he was "born neither in 1933 nor 1938."

In April 2013 he finally declared that he was born in 1935. A birth announcement was, however, published by his parents in 1933, and the baptismal register in Hamburg also lists him as born in that year, conclusively proving that he was born on 10 September 1933.Bild am Sonntag published his baptismal records in 2008 and interviewed his teacher and a classmate, who both confirmed that he was born in 1933. Despite that, Karl Lagerfeld announced publicly that he was celebrating his "70th birthday" on 10 September 2008, despite actually turning 75.