The legal fallout from the death of Karl Lagerfeld four years ago is still heavily draped in secrecy. But, ahead of a major exhibition of the great German clothes designer’s work in New York, a new BBC documentary is about to offer a glimpse of his unusual private life and shed light on his enormous financial legacy.
While Lagerfeld’s vast Parisian apartment remains sealed and his £150m estate is tied up in protracted negotiations between lawyers in Monaco and Paris, it has emerged that the leading beneficiary of his will is set to be the 33-year-old French model Baptiste Giabiconi.
Immediately after Lagerfeld’s death in February 2019 at 85, speculation centred on rumours that his beloved fluffy white cat, Choupette, would be in line for a substantial feline fortune. But now Giabiconi has confirmed to the makers of the documentary that he believes he is “at the top” of the list of inheritors. In a rare interview, the model also discusses Lagerfeld’s abortive plan to adopt him as a son.
“He wanted to adopt me, but the paperwork, there were too many steps,” Giabiconi explains in The Mysterious Mr Lagerfeld, to be broadcast on BBC Two on 26 April. The model, who featured in many of Lagerfeld’s promotional campaigns, was close to the designer in his later years, but he tells the filmmakers they were “not intimate”.
“We asked Baptiste a lot of quite straightforward questions,” said Michael Waldman, who made the film for the Arena documentary strand. “It is the first time many of Lagerfeld’s inner circle have spoken publicly, and when a much older man has a close friendship like that, people make assumptions. But it seems that, if not exactly ‘innocent’, the right word for part of that complicated feeling he had is ‘fatherly’. The adoption plan, which both seemed to have wanted, was odd, not least because Baptiste already has a father. But he did tell us that he loved Lagerfeld. In the end, a picture of Lagerfeld’s almost monkish existence emerges.”
The Hamburg-born designer became a dominant figure in the world of haute couture after he moved to France in the 1950s. He was creative director of Chanel in Paris for more than four decades and held the same role at Fendi in Milan. Recognisable for his trademark sunglasses and high white collars, he owned several homes, including a grand estate in Biarritz and a large villa outside Paris, in which it is believed he never stayed a night.
Giabiconi was one of two models who became part of Lagerfeld’s extended family of friends and colleagues. The other, American Brad Kroenig, is also featured in the documentary and talks for the first time about the big impact Lagerfeld had on his life and on his family, including his two sons, who are the fashion designer’s godsons.
Kroenig, who lives in Florida, met Lagerfeld when he was 23 and then became the top-earning international male model for three years running. The generous Lagerfeld entertained the Kroenig family every summer in the south of France. “I think I bought a coffee once,” says Kroenig in the film.
Lagerfeld gave valuable gifts to his friends, including cars, flights and homes. His American niece, who hardly knew him, recounts how he insisted on designing her wedding dress for free. It arrived after a flight on Concorde just before her big day. “He was generous throughout his whole life,” she tells the documentary makers, adding that as his closest living relative she expects nothing further: “There is no need.”
Princess Caroline of Monaco, another friend, is also believed to be a beneficiary of the will, said Waldman: “She is expected to receive a number of knick-knacks and personal items.”
Lagerfeld’s lawyer reveals in the film that property in Monaco has complicated his tax affairs. Other contributors who have never spoken before include Lagerfeld’s bodyguard, Sébastien Jondeau, his neighbour in Paris, his doctor and his long-time creative muse Lady Amanda Harlech, ex-wife of the late Francis Ormsby-Gore. She received hundreds of books about history and culture, all sent to her farmhouse in Shropshire, because Lagerfeld wanted her to build a library there.
He spent more than half a million euros a year on books at the Paris bookshop Librairie Galignani. “Books were food for Karl,” comments Jondeau.
The saddest notes are sounded when the feature-length documentary turns to the lost love between Lagerfeld and Jacques de Bascher, who died at 38 of complications from Aids in 1989. The couple had a tempestuous relationship, not least because de Bascher was also involved with Lagerfeld’s great fashion rival, Yves Saint Laurent. Lagerfeld fell out with other friends for much less than this sort of romantic betrayal. “There was great loyalty towards him from friends,” said Waldman. “But he was an absolutist in everything, which made it hard. He dropped one friend for years because she wore an outfit by Saint Laurent.
In the same way, he could also change as an act of will when it came to his own domestic aesthetic, which went from 18th century to futurist by way of art deco. Even his weight changed drastically – he lost 60lbs in seven months.”
Lagerfeld’s last great love was for Choupette, acquired from Jondeau. The blue-eyed white Birman is now worth an estimated €3m from the modelling work and personal appearances that continue after her owner’s death.
Those who worked alongside the famous designer all emphasise his extraordinary work ethic. He never admitted illness and worked up to the end on several collections a year for Chanel, for Fendi and for his own label, Karl Lagerfeld. Each of these brands will be celebrated at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute this spring in the show Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.
Harlech has written this month in Vogue of the speed at which Lagerfeld worked simultaneously on several collections: “Watching him pounce on fabric swatches or an embroidery technique, I was wide-eyed and a bit stunned: there was no hesitation. As Karl often said, there was ‘no second option’.”
The BBC documentary, in which Harlech also features, reveals the designer’s terror of ageing and death. “Lagerfeld’s doctor tells us that he had never had another patient like him,” said Waldman. “He just would not accept his own mortality.”
