Original subtitles

Karl's image was iconic and he knew it.

He had to invent this personality, and so he played with that.

You recognise the man with the ponytail, the glasses and

the collar. You could even just have those three elements and it works.

Karl is a mother BLEEP! icon and he'll always be an icon.

My job is to make believe, but I have to be careful

because I can turn myself either into a cartoon...

You have to change, you have to kill yourself,

you have to destroy yourself, because then I can rebuild.

As the world reacts to the news that fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld

has died, questions are being asked as to where his

$200 million fortune will go.

Lagerfeld told an interviewer that he will be giving his riches to his

pet companion, among others,

and this cat has a lifestyle to maintain.

Designer Karl Lagerfeld was one of the most flamboyant

and recognisable figures in fashion,

and one of the most mysterious.

His influence was immeasurable, from the Chanel catwalk

to the high street.

He made fortunes for himself and the corporations behind him.

His extravagance was legendary, but who was the real Karl Lagerfeld?

He says often that he was like a marionette, like a cartoon,

but he knew this marionette he was creating was to hide something.

This is a story with unique access to his inner circle,

many talking for the first time, to reveal

the true face of the man behind the sunglasses.

You know, whatever you did in fashion, who cares?

I'm very, very much against what all the designers do now,

that make retrospectives.

This, I think, is the unhealthiest thing in fashion ever.

Who wants to know that you are there for 40, 30, 25 years,

and then they do it again. They did it for the 20 years,

they did for the 25-year, they do for the 30th.

I mean, it's like going to your own funeral, I mean, who cares?

In fashion, nobody wants your past.

What's interesting is to be part of the moment and be

part of tomorrow, but certainly not of something that's over, huh?

The passing of Karl Lagerfeld at the age of 85

leaves a hole in the world of fashion.

Simply put, he was the most prolific

and influential designer of his time.

To many people, Karl Lagerfeld was the last iconic

designer of his generation,

and his death marks the end of an era across the fashion world.

Apres moi, le deluge.

He always said, "No, no, I don't want anything for my funeral.

"No ceremony, nothing."

He refuses death.

He does not want to think he disappears. Right, that's it.

He just continued to do the collection

up to the end.

I mean, who does that?

That's why we called him the Kaiser.

King Karl.

All the intimates were there.

Sebastien the bodyguard,

one of Karl's best friends - Princess Caroline of Monaco,

male models Baptiste and Brad,

along with his sons, and Karl's godsons, Jameson Karl and Hudson.

They've all gathered to honour Lagerfeld's legacy.

But behind the scenes, there's an unspoken question -

who did he leave his money to?

No-one knows who will get what, and whether his famous cat,

Choupette, could get the lion's share.

If you have children, everything is written in the law,

so you don't have to do anything.

But if you don't have children, you'd better have a will.

And in Karl's case, there is a will.

Yes, I think it's public information.

I will not tell you what is inside.

Do you know?

Of course I do!

Can't you tell me anything, Celine?

You can ask somebody else.

CLAMOURING

He never talk about his death.

He never talk about money.

He never talk about what he's going to do with the money.

Of course we can see he lives

like a king. His paintings,

his apartment, his house.

You know, there was so many things,

but I don't know what's happened with his money.

Sebastien?

I heard that there was a testament

and the names of seven people,

but we don't hear really what's going to happen.

One person who knows more than most is Lagerfeld's right-hand man

and bodyguard.

And I really need a wet suit.

Yeah, you need a wet suit today. Yeah.

Do you keep fit?

I try. Well, not bad for 47, nearly 48.

I was paid to make a secret, to make everything's going well.

My mission was to make his life going to un tapis volant, you know?

A flying carpet. A flying carpet.

That means everything have to be done, or run,

to be not have a problems.

WHISTLES GENTLY

He believe in me

to be still there, you know, after 20 years.

To be the last one close to him,

because he didn't want someone else at this moment.

For me, St Tropez was for rich people.

I have nothing to do there. I was not coming from that,

until the times I went there with Karl.

And Karl, "Yes, you should have a house there."

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no." I said, "Karl, yes,

"I would love to have a house there but how do you want me to do it?

"It's not possible for me to buy a house."

He said, "Yes, look for a house, I will help you," you know?

And it's like that, then I have my house.

So he was very generous?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

He was generous with everyone. All the people around him.

Even my servants, huh, they are spoilt like family.

They get apartments, houses, cars and everything.

But, you know, they do more for me than anybody else, huh?

I, except sketching, I know not to do anything. I'm totally stupid.

I don't know how to cook, I don't know how to clean.

I don't know... I don't know nothing.

But tell me about, then, the will?

He put some different name and he did 30%,

20%, 20%, 20% for her,

and the rest for those three people, four people left, that's it.

And are you one of those names? Yeah.

Like Baptiste and Brad.

Brad was very close to Karl.

And after Brad, it was Baptiste, you know?

I think Karl has special links between them, you know,

that I didn't have with Karl. It's something different.

They were more close in a few years

than people who was there already for 40 years.

In fashion circles, they would be known as Karl's muses,

a source of inspiration.

Often, they would all appear on the runway together.

But the closest to him were Baptiste and Brad.

Nowadays, Brad Kroenig and his wife, Nicole, are real estate agents

in Florida, where they live with their sons, Hudson and Jameson Karl.

Have a good game. Have a good game, buddy.

The first time I met Karl was in Paris, a private airport,

and I was doing a shoot with Karl.

I think it was me and a couple of male models.

So, in fact, you met him on the private plane?

Yeah, I think that's where I did meet him, and

we all flew down to South of France to Biarritz, where his house was.

He had a huge compound there.

I think he had, like, four or five different houses on it.

You had to take a golf cart from one house to the other.

And he had this beautiful pool, all black slate and underground music.

It was really cool.

We did a shoot there the next day, and we had an instant

connection because the other two male models, I think he photographed

them for five minutes, and he shot me for, like, 12 hours.

So, right from the get-go, we had a great connection

from model to photographer.

Um, can I ask a direct question?

He left a will. Can you tell me anything about that?

Yeah, I'm not sure on any of that stuff, really.

No, he never really talked about death. He never really did.

I think it was a kind of a negative topic so he just didn't want to

bring it up. There was never really any negative talk about anything.

He was always upbeat, positive.

It's hard to do, but somehow he got away with it and did it, you know?

Oh, Mr Hudson!

Mr Hudson, how are you?

Ah! Welcome to you.

Finally, huh?

Hudson, Brad's elder son, was Karl's godson.

Oh, it's for Choupette.

We have to give it to you, Choupette.

You come to the house and give it to Choupette yourself. Huh?

Huh? Yeah. OK.

Look what I got? Oh, I like that, yes.

That's from me, I got it.

The Ritz Kids. Oh, you got it at the Ritz.

Yeah, that's from the hotel.

Yes, I know. Yes. LAUGHTER

You have to say thank you to the lady called Celine. OK.

Celine, her name is Celine. Ask for Celine.

But then, a rival for Karl's attention appeared on the scene.

# Je t'aime... #

Today, Baptiste Giabiconi is

preparing for a raunchy photo shoot.

How are you?

Nice to see you.

Good to see you too.

You too. It has been ages.

Hi, everybody. Hello.

Hi, hi.

Take it off. Nice, yeah. Touch the hair.

Yeah, they are beautiful.

Yeah, that's great, beautiful.

Cool, OK!

Yay!

Cool.

OK.

Oh, that's very cool.

Rock star.

And then another beautiful creature who was to win Karl's heart

came on the scene.

One day, Baptiste, he asked Karl to keep his cat during his holidays

and we were all, like, shocked!

He had the cat for the Christmas, the New Year holidays.

And after that, that start to be like crazy. Crazy!

I never thought that I could fall in love with an animal like this, huh?

A friend of mine said I'm leaving for two week,

could you keep it for two week?

When he came back, I said, "I'm sorry, Choupette is mine.

"I don't give Choupette back."

And she became a world-famous star, you know.

She has her own fortune from things she did, in Japan

and in Germany for cars and things like this.

And whenever I go somewhere,

children say to me, "How is Choupette?"

Karl turned Choupette into a superstar with an estimated

fortune of three million euros,

considerably more than many supermodels.

We've got some products of Karl Lagerfeld, that's only a sample.

Really? Are there lots?

Hundreds, yeah, this is... I mean,

this is a little wallet representing Choupette.

There is, um, what do we have?

We have a little figurine done by Doki Doki.

Is that Japanese?

Er, I think so, yes, yes, yes.

Apparently that's worth a fair bit.

Oh, really? Yes.

The Private Life of High Flying Fashion Cat.

You were Choupette's lawyer?

Under French law, um,

the image right of an animal belongs to the owner.

And you can't own a pet if you're dead.

SHE LAUGHS

That's a good start!

Choupette Lagerfeld was very important to people.

They wanted to know what was happening to Choupette

after the death of Mr Lagerfeld.

The will is a rather complicated thing, isn't it?

It's very complicated. That, that... I probably don't have all the

answers, and I don't have all the answers,

and I think we'll know once it's concluded and people will speak out.

Right now, it's very secretive and very closed, closed doors.

You know in James Bond...?

SHE LAUGHS

Shall we go and see her?

I think we should go and see her. Yeah, yeah, let's go.

SPEAKS FRENCH

You have to see her. You would fall instantly in love with her,

because she's unbelievable

with these huge sapphire eyes.

Very coquettish, but she's over-groomed and everything.

She's like a chic lady, like a kept woman, with her personal maid.

THEY SPEAK TO CHOUPETTE IN FRENCH

And she gives something magical that I understand

the Egyptians from...for 1,000 years before Jesus Christ,

for them the cat was the most important animal, huh?

I understand that, huh?

And she gives energy. It's very strange.

When I have her next to me, I feel like a telephone what has recharged.

Choupette's former home, overlooking the river Seine,

where Karl lived for 11 years,

above his ever-curious first-floor neighbour.

The shutters were never open.

Really? Never open.

Day and night, closed, like that.

The lights were on 24 hours a day, every day. Wow.

Whether he was there or if he wasn't there.

And the other windows give onto the Seine.

He overlooks the Louvre, the, you know, it's Paris.

Why don't you?

Well, because he didn't... He didn't leave me the apartment!

HE LAUGHS

To whom DID he leave the apartment?

Nobody knows. It's a big, big thing.

The apartment is sealed.

The only things that have been taken out are the books.

That's the only thing they took out.

Here we go again.

They're clearing Karl's apartment.

God knows what that is.

I heard it was books but I'm not sure.

I don't think it looks like books.

They're here for about two weeks, I was told.

I'm an antique dealer, and I met Karl when I opened my first shop -

1979. And then I never saw him again.

Then I moved in the building. I didn't know he lived here.

And one day I was coming out, and he said,

"Juan, hi, how are you? What are you doing here?"

And I said, "Well, I just moved here."

And he had a lot of people who worked for him.

He had a chef who cooked for everybody. He had, uh, two,

well, he had Sebastien, who was his right-hand man.

He was very nice. Always very polite, always very nice.

Very friendly.

Sebastien first met Karl as a 15-year-old, on a job in his

school holidays with his step-father,

who was an antique furniture mover.

At the time, Karl was living here -

a private house in the centre of Paris, known as Hotel Pozzo.

When we arrived there, I was thinking I was arriving to the

Chateau de Versailles. For me this kind of thing was, like, never seen.

I was, like, very young,

full of life and I was asking about everything in the house.

We were doing moving things, but when he was next to us,

I was asking about the history of the furniture,

about history of the book, about the, you know?

And that was making a lot of fun for Karl.

And I became not close

but we had something together, you know?

Some of Karl's greatest extravagancies were his homes,

and their priceless 18th-century furniture.

What is it about the 18th century?

One day, I saw in a gallery

when I was something like four or five years old, a painting

depicting the dining room in the Chateau de Sainte Cecile.

And I thought that this is the way life should look,

and that I was born too late.

I liked the style, I liked the design of the houses.

I liked the concept of the lives and the spirit.

Artist Patrick Hourcade first met Karl in 1976.

I help him a lot to discover all these 18th-century period.

That's why we have a fantastic relationship from the beginning.

Patrick, what do we have here?

Um, it is a bedroom, as you see.

And this bed has a long story,

cos this is 18th-century military bed.

For how many people? One.

It's a king size for single.

HE LAUGHS

Was that appropriate to Karl?

And Karl was sleeping in always long,

and I was sleeping always along in another bedroom.

The second thing which is important is a bookcase you see there.

Not because of furniture but because what was over.

In there I hide... Not hide, but I keep

the ashes of the mother of Karl, during two years.

So that's where the ashes of Karl's mother... Lived there?

When I decide to divorce with Karl, I gave back the ashes.

And I wrote to Karl very strictly and I said,

"Karl, this is the ashes of your mother.

"I hope you will be very happy now."

And he send me back by fax, nine page,

tell me that he will be never happy,

and he was very disappointed about, you know, our relationship,

so he was...it was...

I keep the letter. It was between crying and nostalgia of the past.

No, I had a nice childhood in a period when the world was not

that great. Nothing I can say, against, huh?

I'm not still recovering from an unhappy childhood, no.

I never played with children. I only was sketching and reading.

I was on the best of terms with my father,

and even better terms with my mother.

Karl's older sister Christiane left Germany in her early 20s

for America, where she settled and had her first child, Caroline.

They're both standing outside.

Their eyes are like this. "What are you doing?!"

She's already texted me - "Can't you call me?"

Oh, really? About us being here? Yeah.

Small town, everybody knows everybody.

Everybody knows everybody.

That is a studio picture of Karl and Christiane.

I think she was a tomboy.

She did describe getting in trouble with her mother a lot

and he was the favourite.

Caroline first met her uncle in 1974, when he paid an imperial visit.

We lived in this grey house. Ah.

And that was our driveway.

There was a fence, so it was narrow, and the limo pulled up

and took up the entire driveway. And all the little children in the

house, my three brothers and myself, ran out to see what the deal was!

A limo in this neighbourhood had never been seen before, never.

He was dressed so elegantly and he had a black beard

and jet-black hair and talked so fast, and my mother was

so happy to see him, and my father was, you know, bustling about.

And here's a picture of us just google-eyed.

There's my uncle. Mm-hm. There's me, my younger brother.

And I know that we were just staring at what he was wearing.

He had on wool trousers that were wide-leg,

and really highly cuffed and like clothes we'd never seen before.

So I was 13, maybe 14.

My brother was 12 or 13 and terribly dressed in the '70s,

wearing polyester. And we're fat Americans!

He had dinner with us and then he asked my parents if

my brother Karl and I could come and visit for the summer in Paris.

And of course we were jumping up and down

and, "Please, please, please!"

Fashion mecca Paris had lured Karl from Hamburg 25 years earlier.

At only 21, Karl won the prestigious Woolmark Prize for coat design

in the same year that Yves Saint Laurent, only 18,

won the prize for dress design.

They were to become the two most influential designers of the age

and bitter rivals in both work and, later, love.

It's a portrait of my grandmother by Marie Laurencin

but also Marie Laurencin at that period, like many women,

like the Bloomsbury. My English grandmother was more Bloomsbury's.

They also had affairs with women so it's a sort of a family portrait.

And Karl was interested in buying it?

Well, Karl asked me if I still had it. He never said...never...

He would never say "buy".

That's Karl, very young,

and that's me.

We had a fight. Ah. Yeah, we had a fight.

What was that about?

Saint Laurent.

THEY LAUGH

Explain.

I was wearing suits and not,

I mean, I used to dress in Saint Laurent.

Was that a fatal error, from his point of view?

Well at some times it...maybe it wasn't very intelligent of myself

to be like that. Still, we didn't speak together for a long time.

Then when I took over Vogue, we laughed and we laughed, and we said,

"Why didn't we see each other for all that time? It's ridiculous."

Meanwhile, Karl had been enhancing his reputation

for inventive and exciting design,

working for some of Paris's top couture labels

and busting a few taboos in the process.

When I start working with Karl,

I was 20, like that, 23. Ah!

I was, like, a strange person.

And now this is a portrait that he did of me that I like,

like a sphinge or a faun

and he called it Le Bel Indifferent, after Cocteau.

Do you recognise yourself?

I was like that, yeah.

And I like myself to be like that.

Unfortunately, it's no more.

I thought, actually, when I met him that he was Italian.

He had long, curly black hair.

I thought he was an Italian gigolo

because he was so chic, you know, for the time. Did you tell him that?

I told him that, of course, and he loved it.

He thought that it was very amusing.

In the early '70s, Karl's eye was caught by a person

who was soon to become his muse.

Jacques de Bascher was a young man in Paris.

He was dying to meet Karl. I met him in a party in Paris,

and I introduced him to Karl.

The image of Jacques de Bascher pleased Karl. He like the same image as Karl.

By that do you mean not just the way he looked but what he represented?

Yes, also. His naughtiness and his nightlife, crazy nightlife.

As Karl didn't go out at night. He was the good boy at school,

the first of the class, very serious.

But he found attractive people who were the opposite?

Exactly, exactly.

The more perverse.

The cushion was a friend of mine who gave it to me,

and I think it's brilliant.

HE LAUGHS

The chairs all look very comfy. They are.

I'm a very comfortable man.

Tell me about Jacques.

I only met him once and I thought he was so seductive, but danger,

so I never, I never...

I never went there.

Why dangerous?

Well, he had those two men at the same time.

Jacques had also caught the eye of Karl's rival, Yves Saint Laurent.

So, a complicated relationship?

Ooh! Imagine, yeah. Guess so.

But I think that Saint Laurent was more, er, in love with Jacques,

and I think Karl was more intellectually involved.

One version of the story is that

Jacques was sort of the love of Karl's life.

Yes, apparently he was.

But the love of... I don't know how Karl loved.

I mean, he was such a remote person.

Even though he may have been very nice with his friends and all the

things, but he was, I think,

probably a very remote and private person.

Karl and Jacques was absolutely the perfect love story

and the perfect impossible story.

Karl has a problem with sex. He can't have sex.

And Jacques was crazy about sex.

That's why he let Jacques, um, going everywhere!

With many, er, with many attraction for him.

I am a kind of voyeur, you know?

I want to watch everything - what's going on in the world, on TV, in

the street, in the newspaper. I'm a paper freak, I love newspapers.

So, er, I'm much more informed than people think.

And I don't go out a lot, nearly never. Even...

Why not?

Because I have too many things to do and I want to do them.

You know, there are zillions of books I have to read,

a zillion things I want to look at.

The tonnes of things I want to sketch too.

I like to paint, I like to illustrate.

There are so many things I want to do. There is

not so much time for me to go out and, you know, to recharge

your batteries in a job like this, you'd better stay alone a lot of time.

This is Jacques in Paris, in the apartment,

in our trip in 1974.

And what's he wearing?! He was wearing lederhosen.

What was Jacques like? Tell me about him.

Oh, I had a massive crush on him!

I didn't know that I did for a few...for a week or two,

and then the more time I spent with him, he was just stunning.

What did you understand was Jacques'

relationship with Karl at that point?

Assistant? Friend? Close friend?

He was, er, yeah, he would do whatever needed to be done.

He took care of us for a couple of weeks.

We did get to go shopping and I did buy dresses

and my first pair of high heels. I thought I was the bomb.

Was Karl paying for all this, presumably? Yeah.

I got my first mascara. I hadn't worn make-up.

He took me to the salon, cut my hair, dyed my hair.

I didn't even look the same, but I was still a fat American.

Um, hadn't been to a fine restaurant ever,

so we were in for a treat because he took us to restaurants,

he took us shopping. Um, and he stayed up all night, working,

I recall that, and after a while, he got back into his routine.

This is him working in his apartment and I ran into the room

and snapped a picture of him like, "Candid!"

He didn't like that.

Oh, we have a lot of things here.

We have a lot of things here, I recognise!

So, this is my first Chanel suit.

I like it, look.

It's perfect!

How old were you, can I ask, when you were given this?

Er, '71, I was about 25, 20... I don't remember.

SHE LAUGHS

The move that was to make him world-famous came in 1982,

when Karl was suddenly brought in as creative director

of the legendary House of Chanel, which was struggling,

11 years after the death of its founder, Coco Chanel.

The great fashion innovator was hired to bring the

ageing brand back to life.

He took the studio of Mademoiselle Chanel, of course,

and he came with a new team.

Totally new team, young team, around his studio.

People always think about Chanel as if she was the top of fashion

all her life. I can tell you, after the stupid things she said about

the knee and the miniskirt, it was something people were not excited

about because it was very middle-aged.

She was mean. Mean bitch, huh?

I have nothing against mean bitches, being quite mean myself.

That's not a problem.

He made a lot of changes, a lot, a lot of changes.

He hired top models.

That was very new.

He was crazy for Ines de La Fressange,

who start to be our muse and she helped a lot Chanel.

Then Ines left and we had to find a new face,

and Claudia Schiffer arrived. She gave something to Chanel

which was quite new. Her sex appeal and her freshness.

He was very provocative. He sent her on the podium with a very little

bikini, and the president of Chanel at that time,

he said, "You are sure?"

And he said, "Let me... That's not your job, it's my job."

SHE LAUGHS

We became again a young company.

But, you know, my job is to make believe.

And as long as people think it looks Chanel, even if it's nothing

to do with Chanel and she never did that before, who cares?

My job is to make the image of whatever it is,

and those elements can all be used to be put somewhere

to make it look Chanel, or whatever people think Chanel is or was,

because who cares? That's not the problem.

The problem is the fashion message from today.

He was aware of business?

Oh, totally, totally aware of business.

He didn't care about marketing but he was the king of marketing.

APPLAUSE

Because he knew where he could stop and where he could go,

and if he was going too far, you know? He was incredible.

Karl was a very, very good PR person,

the king of the storytelling.

My father, when he was 83, he sold his business

and he died at 90 from boredom.

I did work on the music, I designed the sets myself, everything.

Everything. I do everything myself. I designed the print,

I designed the buttons, the jewellery.

I did, then they know how to work it out, because they have

the techniques and all the proportions, but I do everything

myself. In three seconds, like this. CLICKS FINGERS

When the owners of Chanel hired Karl,

he has to be free,

so he had the money he need to make the shows he wanted to do.

He was free.

But sometimes they were quite extravagant,

weren't they, the shows? Yes, and why not?

We... He can afford it!

But Karl was not only chief designer at Chanel,

he had the same job in two other fashion houses -

Fendi in Italy and his own label, Karl Lagerfeld.

By now, he was earning a fortune,

but his attempt to protect it from France's new higher-taxing

socialist government was to bedevil him for the rest of his life,

and cause problems after his death.

Monaco offered not only a tax haven where residents pay no income tax,

but also proximity to his friend Princess Caroline, who

he'd known since she was a teenager.

He liked her. She's very beautiful, she's intelligent, she's a princess.

She inspired him and he inspired her.

I think he was always helping her doing the Bal de la Rose, which was

her big tradition that she has to go through with charity and everything.

You better have a best friend that has good ideas for the music,

for the invitations, who loves a party and organising all that.

I think they were a team.

He enjoy, um... Having Caroline as an image for Chanel,

because she was very much in the magazine at the time

and she was always dressed with Chanel, so it was a good...

I told you he was a marketing man, even in his relationship.

With his royal connections,

Karl was offered a long lease on the magnificent villa La Vigie,

perched on a cliff overlooking the Mediterranean.

La Vigie means?

The place from where you can watch wealth,

and from there you see everything, huh?

House with a view.

Yes, it's not a room in a house with a view, exactly.

The beautiful thing here is the light, the air,

all the windows open, so there are enough other intimate rooms in the

house that I wanted those three rooms like nearly one big ballroom.

Very open. I bet you throw some pretty good parties here.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

Tell me about the people who come and visit you and stay here.

I hate name-dropping.

La Vigie is in fact just the other side of the unmarked

border, in France.

The bombshell meant that Karl would now have to pay

French tax after all.

How is it possible for an intelligent man

to not know that that house was not in Monaco but it was in France?

Do you believe he didn't know it was in France?

The house?

Karl was forced to sell his beloved 18th-century furniture

to pay his tax bill.

By this time,

he had already lost the love of his life, Jacques de Bascher -

the man he had to share with his rival Saint Laurent,

and had then looked after during his final months living with Aids.

He never forgot him.

The first time he really spoke to me about Jacques,

he said, "Ah, today it's 20 years".

I said, "20 years of what?"

You know? And he say, "Ah, it's 20 years, then Jacques disappeared."

Because he was talking to me about Jacques, about the story,

about how Jacques was crazy but he was very cultivated.

He was like... He explained so many things about Jacques

on his private things, you know?

He was very sad after the death of Jacques de Bascher, um, of his

mother too. It was at the same time,

and I think he begins to eat a lot.

On this year when he lost Jacques, he was still good-looking, you know?

And after that, he didn't take care of this and he...

He start to take some weight, you know?

But he got fat at the time, yes, because he loved to eat.

When we were going to Germany, we were eating currywurst

and he was...

He was crazy with currywurst.

I like them, too.

You are unbelievably thin! Stand up, do a little spin.

I went on a diet, you know.

60lb, you lost.

Exactly, in seven and a half, nearly eight months.

I had the feeling, "It's time to change."

What I like best in life is change. That's why I'm in fashion.

This was really a turning point in his life because the image was

so important, the TV, the social media.

Karl Lagerfeld!

He accept old television show, the interview, the picture...

It was incredible. It was such a change in his life.

It was a real turning point.

Then he did the book - how to lose weight.

Nothing, he left nothing to someone else.

He never stopped thinking of something new.

That's what he did the whole time. He was the first one to do H&M.

Karl Lagerfeld is a brand.

In one night, the time to do the windows,

he became extremely famous to a mainstream audience.

The collection was launched, and I mean, it was, pfff,

big thing all over the world.

People were laying outside of the doors of the H&M boutiques

in New York and Paris, to be the first one to come in.

It's a huge turn in fashion,

but it changed the way of living of Karl, truly, from one day to the other.

Karl's lawyer, Celine, also acted as his agent, brokering deals.

She found his new-found fame did half the work for her.

They were expecting so huge demands

that they could behave strangely.

I received the proposal. I did not answer right away, and one week

after, I received the same proposal but it was twice the amount.

Twice the amount?

And I had done nothing!

I was then to make a T-shirt with the face of Karl,

that sold out in five minutes in H&M.

He understood logo before anyone else,

logo is the thing before anything else.

They love it!

That's my business card. The name of the brand became the face of Karl.

You don't need to read Karl Lagerfeld, that's huge.

The way he dressed was so original.

He was often saying, "I'm a kind of Charlie Chaplin."

A book holder, I love it.

It was very, very special way to transform himself into an icon.

Now, tell me about the look, though. I mean, look at that collar.

They are like washable turtlenecks. They are, they are, they are...

Listen, do that again! No.

Very stiff. Yes, because it's good for the position, you know, huh?

Yeah, it keeps you like this.

I have a kind of a pre-1940 German officer

feeling in my bones, in my position.

Regiment and, yeah.

That's something I got. There's nothing I can do.

I thought it was cool cos it was different, you know?

And no-one did that.

And, but he pulled it off as it was totally normal.

Like I never even... When I saw him, I never even thought anything.

I was like, "Oh, that's just Karl." That's just how he was, you know?

Did you ever see him dressed in other things?

No, he would always wear that, even on holidays.

He kind of enjoyed that, you know? That he was mysterious

and people were interested in him.

I thought he was the strangest person I've ever met.

I thought the way he dressed was very weird, I really did.

Amanda Harlech was at Karl's side at Chanel for the last

20 years of his life and became a frequent visitor to his many homes.

I think his houses actually often

flagged-up a transformation before he transformed.

He had his apartment in the Quai Voltaire,

which was like a spaceship.

Almost like living in an X-ray, really. And Karl lived in this

extraordinary twilight shadow world.

How often did you see him?

I saw him practically every day that he was in Paris.

Whenever he came down or he came in, we saw each other quite often.

But antiques were the things that you had met over?

Yeah. Well, I mean I think he knew very well he had a great eye.

I mean, he's had a great eye for all periods.

I mean, he went from 18th century to his apartment

upstairs. Now, it's all white with neon lights.

I think it's insane, but anyway, that's what he did

and that's the mind he had.

The books were hidden behind frosted glass panels,

and yet you could see the spines of the books. Shadows.

I like the idea of moving,

not being the victim of your possessions.

What is it about the hip and the young that attract you?

It's the reflection of the time we live in. If you think it was better

before, you know, the worst thing in life is old friends or people

you know from a long time saying, "You remember the good old days?"

Forget about the good old days! It makes your presence second-hand.

What's interesting is now, because you... Now and tomorrow.

If you think it's better before,

then you can commit suicide immediately!

He was always working, he was always busy,

he was always talking about the next thing he's working on.

I mean, he was very focused all the time, even on vacation

he was working 12 hours a day.

He was working on sketching and working on reading

and his next concept, his next show. He'd come out to lunch and tell us

what he's working on and then after lunch he'd say,

"I go to work," and he'd work till nine, ten o'clock at night.

Then we'd have dinner and then we would go to town every night at

12 o'clock, one o'clock for a drink, get home at two and he would stay up

two, three o'clock reading, you know, returning faxes,

texts, phone calls.

If he had a cold, he would not bring it up.

He would just push through, and act as if everything was normal.

So he really was an incredible strength when it comes to

that stuff. He rarely showed weakness at all. Ever.

Because he was always interested by youth and by new.

He was interested by what was new.

He let the other ones get old.

He never wanted to be old.

He didn't like to speak of age,

and when I speak of my age, he say, "Stop."

He was surrounded by young people.

He didn't like to see all the elder people. That's why perhaps

he didn't like to speak of my age,

because I was too old for him!

Karl was hardly shy in expressing his controversial views,

getting into hot water over remarks about Adele's looks, amongst others.

Do you think that women are enslaved in way by the fashion industry's

insistence on women being thin?

Yes, but I see it as like a normal evolution, you see?

You mean it'll be OK for women to be fat in the future?

I'm afraid, yes.

But not OK now? No.

Brad was only 23 when he met 70-year-old Karl.

In a short time, Karl was putting him in almost all of his shoots -

the Chanel catwalk, and in every campaign.

Brad became the world's top male model for three years running,

and they became close.

We started doing just photographs, not professionally

but just, you know, on our own. And then after doing it for a while,

he decided to do book on me. So we did a... It ended up being

five years. It was called Metamorphoses Of An American.

And what was it like to be direct...

What was it like being shot nude by him?

Yeah, it was, it was... It felt natural, you know.

I mean, as a model, I mean, it's not... Nowadays, it's not as typical,

but back in the days, if you look at all the supermodels, they all

were photographed nude, so I didn't think anything of it, you know?

But then, five years after meeting Brad, Karl came across

18-year-old Baptiste.

I think he find him, he was the first one to find him

to become a model. And after he make him a celebrity, let's say, because

he was using all the time. It's true he was...he's still very beautiful.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Whoa...

Whoa...

OK, OK.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great, that's great.

Baptiste was the only one that - you know in French we call someone

you or tu - he was the only person I know called Karl tu. Only one.

We all figure that he have a crush on Baptiste, that's for sure,

he's exceptionally beautiful. But I will, personally, me,

I never see any, OK, kissing, er, but no, er,

maybe like a little, eh. Nothing could be sexual or anything.

This, no. People talk a lot.

Me, personally, I never see anything.

That's so good. Put it against the mirror.

But in the end, the adoption didn't go ahead.

Baptiste puts that down to the complications of French bureaucracy.

However, Karl did become a godfather to Brad's two sons,

Hudson and Jameson Karl.

Yeah, he loved the boys. It's like they were his grandkids.

Always looked out for them, always wanted the best for them,

always make sure they're doing good at school, their education,

make sure they're going to go to good schools.

And between personal and work, I mean, we spent more time with Karl

throughout the year than we did even with our own families.

Karl brought the whole family over every summer

to stay with him in the South of France.

This one I love. This one was in St Tropez, and whenever we would arrive,

we'd, you know, bring something with us, and this year I had

brought, um, framed pictures of the boys, and he really loved them.

He immediately had them hung up and I just...

I love his smile on this one, and he just

looks, like, proud of the boys and it's very sweet to me, this photo.

Oh, was that at the party where we were all holding, like, Karl faces?

That was in New York.

Um, it was like a popsicle stick with his face on it,

and we used to carry it around.

There was a dinner in New York and

they had one of these at every single place setting.

I mean, Karl was a master at marketing and PR,

and we were in St Tropez at lunch and he just said,

"Oh, do you think Hudson can do the show?"

I was like, "Yeah, of course, Karl".

And, you know, I had no idea if he could or not. I just said yeah.

And, er, cos he was only... He'd just turned two.

So I figured it was just going to be a typical runway. You know,

30 seconds down, 30 seconds back.

So we got to the show and it's an 11-minute walk.

They did a replica of the Versailles garden,

in the Grand Palais, so it was a massive set.

I was like, "This is going to be a disaster."

And he was just like...professional as can be.

He asked me to pick him up, so I picked him up

and then, sure enough, Karl was right. Like, it was picked up by

press all over the world. Me and Hudson in the Chanel show.

APPLAUSE

What he create on the runway was extraordinary.

Everything he built at the Grand Palais,

you know, from the airport...

..to the supermarket...

..to the art exhibition...

..to the reconstruction of Paris with the bridge and the little shop.

The launch of the rocket.

The forest.

Each time, it was like a surprise, and you know this? One year in

advance because it took one year to prepare all this stage.

It gave the sense of humour, and people loved that

because fashion is to make a smile on your face.

INDISTINCT QUESTION

Uh, cool, it was fun.

My favourite fashion person is Karl.

So this picture right here was the

first time I ever met him, in Berlin.

You don't obviously remember that but... Yeah.

And then this was Sebastien,

he gave me a pair of gloves and we were, like, boxing.

And then, over here... Yeah?

Um, he drew me these. Is that you?

Yeah.

Looks like "For Hudson". That kind of looks like "love",

"St Tropez" and I can't read the last word

but then I see "Karl" at the bottom.

Karl gave this to me a few years ago. I think it's really cool.

What...?! Is it just a fantasy?

Yeah, I mean it would be cool if it was real but...

You went on private jets with him but they weren't called that.

Yeah, no.

Private jets?

Yeah, of course private jets.

Taking everybody to La Reserve in St Tropez, then taking everyone

to Tokyo, then flying there, then flying there.

And giving things to everyone the whole time.

Instant - you liked something, he bought it for you.

And he was buying for...tonne of clothes,

every Saturday or every two Saturdays for Brad, Baptiste and I.

So you got a lot of clothes out of it?

Yeah, of course.

It's a shame.

Where are they all?

They are in storage. I need a bigger house to put them!

When we were with him in a shop,

he'd say, "You want that? You want that?"

And he offer us. It was absolutely incredible.

He was so generous.

He bought all my telephones.

"Which colour you want? Black? Pink? Silver?"

I said, "Black is fine for me."

IMITATES CARD READER

We were requesting for extravagant conditions.

I negotiated a huge plane with, like, two bedrooms,

two, uh, showers and...

A whole plane?

Yes! And, um, we were in the plane and he said,

"What do you think, Celine? Isn't it a bit big?"

I remember when we used to fly on his plane, it was funny

because he used to sleep sitting straight up. And I always used

to think it was weird because I don't know anybody that can do that.

You could never pay something with Karl, never.

Oh, really? No, never.

I think I paid for a coffee, one time, for him. It was at the

Cafe de Flore in Paris, and I said,

"Oh, Karl, I'm going to get the coffees."

He said, "Make sure you tip well, darling."

Karl's biggest treat for himself was to buy books,

lots of them - at this book store, three times a week.

Everything was very fast when Karl was coming here.

He would come in this way, of course stop at the fine art department,

and ask what was new, and was like a child in front of a Christmas tree.

You've got thick folders of bills, all KL?

September, August...

Books was food for Karl.

He had lot of knowledge of everything.

Portraits of John Berger on art, ancient Greek economy,

British grammar.

He was reading all of them so fast.

He loves a few before the Greeks, the rest of us.

No other couturier in the world is so complete as Karl.

Dickens, Religion And Society.

He had a knowledge which was incredible.

He didn't have to read them completely, he was so quick.

The Art Of Nijinsky. The Sense Of Beauty, of course.

And the books would be bulging.

And the cost that day, the total?

The cost that day, 30,242 euros,

so, you see?

That's just one day?

That was just one day, yes.

Karl told me once that he had 300,000 books.

And to give you an idea, if you look at the store here, we have

30,000 books, so that means that he had ten times this volume of books.

This shop has... This shop, 30,000.

So we're looking at - there's a bit behind us, we're looking at nearly

30,000 books? Yes.

And he had ten times that? Ten times.

That's a lot of books.

It is.

I can tell you that he was our best client, and he was spending

between 500,000 and 700,000 euros a year.

On books, in this book shop? On books.

With you? Yes.

Over half a million euros a year? Yes.

So, you looked after him well?!

We loved him, of course, but not for his money - for his culture.

Very often, he was taking a book and putting it close to his heart

and saying, "This is going to be my gift for tonight," and, er,

he was in love with books, I can tell you.

And then there was all the books he was offering to people.

His collaborators, his friends, to the models,

to share his tastes in literature or in philosophy.

I mean, did he buy books on philosophy for young models?

Yes, he did. And he was convinced that they

would be absolutely seduced by it.

So... Did you ever hear whether it worked or not?

Uh, I'm not sure it worked. SHE CHUCKLES

But he tried, and he kept on trying.

This extraordinary room, elsewhere in Paris, stores only part of Karl's

huge collection, which he would often share with Amanda Harlech.

Art Deco, that's very Karl.

Voice, very important. We Are Who He Loved.

He reminded me frequently that my knowledge of English history,

British history, was really bad.

Thump, came the book.

The Saga Of Paper, Karl's passion.

Opera, Structuralism In Dutch Architecture.

I mean, he would smile about it.

He would never make you feel low self-worth.

It was more an invitation - "Learn!

"Go, come on." It was like he sensed we are blessed

to have this life force.

He was buying books for me and he was,

"You should read that, you should know about this." All the time.

He was very generous but he was not stupid. To buy these kind of things

was to buy the things to make me more intelligent.

He gave me the possibility to not talk about only sport

or clothes, he was giving me the possibility to talk about

history, to talk about art, to talk about, you know, all those things.

He make me love the things around - the history of this

building, the history of this statue, the history of this

tree, the history of this everything, you know?

Because he was giving you another way to explain.

That's why he was my best professor.

In 1992, Karl had a special gift for his niece Caroline,

soon after she got engaged.

There was a phone call that my mother and I made to him and I said,

"I'm getting married!" And he said, "Of course I shall make the dress."

And I was, "D-d-d," speechless! "OK!"

And this was back in the day when we were faxing,

and sketches after sketches after sketches

came across the fax machines.

"With all these sketches, you will get an idea of the dress.

"I think it will make you look thin and tall."

I'm neither!

My mother measured all parts from the head to the wrist to the

whatever, and I drew my foot on a piece of paper

and faxed that to him.

And then heard nothing.

And I wasn't worried at all. I wasn't worried at all.

The dress did not come until the day before the wedding.

He put it on the Concorde, it had its own plane seat, and it

was delivered by a driver to my house in the middle of a snow storm.

Do you still have it? I do.

Can we see it? Sure.

So this is the...

Oh, my goodness!

This is it.

Wow!

Puffy sleeves!

It's all lace. It's seven layers of lace, actually.

Seven?

Explaining to me... The seven layers...

Everyone was just waiting to see this dress,

because by then I was talking about it a lot.

Like, "How exciting is this?"

And what was the reaction?

It was awe.

Karl's generosity continued over the years,

sending gifts and money to Caroline and her mother.

They were in contact until the end. But in fact,

she never met her uncle again.

Can I ask a very direct question?

Did he leave you anything in his will?

Uh, not that I know of.

I don't think the will's resolved.

I think you're right.

Does that surprise you?

No. He was generous throughout his entire life.

There was no need to. None, no need.

I was pleased to be related at all!

I didn't ask for anything.

I was overjoyed and surprised that he wanted to make a dress for me

because, sure, we are distant.

It's...there's no bitterness or anything at all, ever. Never was.

The people Karl chose to be closest to him

in his later years were also a kind of family.

The one absolute requirement was devotion.

Planet Karl is black and white, made of loyalty and friendship.

The recurrent reason of someone disappearing from Planet Karl

was him to be betrayed.

That was the worst.

They called me the right arms of Karl Lagerfeld.

And he heard that some head-hunter were looking for me

for other collection. That, he didn't like at all.

You know, after 15 years, you need to move on.

I needed to express myself somewhere in a way, and to be on my own

so, little by little, the relationship disintegrated.

We didn't even say goodbye to each other when I left Chanel.

Really? No.

You don't leave Karl Lagerfeld.

All the people who tried to leave them, then they were out,

so I was one of them. Like Claudia at one time,

Ines at one time.

In a way, he cut you off.

He cut me off, it's true.

You know Choupette, of course, but is not a nice girl.

Very jealous girl, Choupette. Really?

She's a mean cat, yes.

You know, for Christmas I give him all the time like a sort of scarf

in cashmere with some coat that he like, and he told me,

"You know what?

"Choupette, she never destroy anything in my clothes,

"but she destroyed totally your shawl."

So Choupette was jealous, and when I see her sometimes,

she can bite, she can scratch you. She's not a nice girl.

Is she in any way a little bit of a diva?

Oh she's a diva. Oh, she's an enormous diva.

I've never seen anything like this. And if she doesn't want, well,

it's her decision. We won't force her. We know if she's going to like

it by presenting. And if she doesn't, well, it's a no.

Sorry, we can't do it!

Why do you think Karl was so...the English word is besotted?

He want to protect himself,

and he did not want to show the people his real feelings.

He usually had always black glasses to cover his eyes

and once he had, uh, see-through, not see-through but only tinted.

So I said, "Karl, I can see your eyes," and he said...

He took the glasses off and he said, "Yeah, they're really sad."

Why do you think he always hid behind sunglasses?

Because he didn't really want people to really know him, I guess.

That's why. Maybe not to see the real Karl.

Karl didn't only hide his feelings from others, he was

secretive about anything which could portray weakness in himself,

which is why only one person knew about his final illness.

That day I was on the beach with a friend of mine,

and Karl called me. He say, "Seb, I have a problem."

I said, "What?" "No, no, no, it difficult to explain."

Because Karl told me on the phone

it wasn't possible for him to pee.

And imagine me - I didn't know about nothing about that, you know?

He needed an emergency admission in the hospital,

in the intensive care unit.

It was a... The situation was very bad.

I tried to explain to him the situation

and to tell him that the situation was very bad, and we had to

fight in order to allow him to survive as long as possible.

But he was not listening. He was thinking just,

"You are the doctor, I am Karl.

"I do my job, you do your job.

"But please just do what is important, what is right to do.

"But if you try to explain to me,

"maybe I will hear you but maybe not."

Did that surprise you?

Yes, completely. I don't know any patient like him.

I was, like, million times scared about what he had

than he was himself.

And he decide not to be...to get the surgery. It was his choice.

And to try to find the best way,

like, with medicines.

You have, like, press everywhere in the world who love this kind of

story, you know? They would be very,

very happy to get some details of everything.

The medicines, I was putting everything under my name.

And I make all of this like this, to protect, you know? The info.

I was telling Sebastien everything because, uh, as I could not explain

to Karl anything. I was trying to explain him, and Sebastien was

always going back to me and telling me,

"You must do it, you must explain."

I say, "I tried! He's here in front of me.

"Then, Karl, I want to tell you something, you have to hear me!"

HE LAUGHS

Karl was very strong man, you know?

Physically and mentally very strong.

I think he never accept, that's why also he was always doing

things like nothing happened, you know? Like nothing exist on him.

He was working all the time, all the time.

He was putting all his energy in his job.

We didn't know anything that he was ill.

I didn't know anything about that.

But he faked it. He started hiding himself with the beard

and all that. Then he didn't show at the end.

I mean, he showed but he didn't walk up at the end of the shows

and everything, but his way of fighting was now.

Until the last moment, we were thinking,

"We're going to find a solution."

The day before Karl died, he said,

"Do you think I'm going to... It is going to be possible when I get out

"of here, like, Wednesday or Thursday?

"And like this we can be at the Fendi show."

And the day after we were having... 12 hour after, it was done.

Were you there?

Yeah, of course I was there.

GRAND CLASSICAL MUSIC

I imagine the succession will be a lot of money?

Because of tax?

I don't know, it's very mysterious.

The accountant disappeared, er...

You say the accountant disappeared?

Tell me what is known, or what is rumoured.

Well, I... Rumoured, I mean, he had a little accountant,

which was a little man always walking behind him like that,

sitting in the third row of the shows. He was always around.

Apparently, he disappeared.

He was the, the... He was there for 30 years, 40 years.

As the main accountant, for the money?

Yeah, of course, and for me was very important.

This guy was protecting a lot.

Like I did until the end, you know?

But at the end I should not.

CHUCKLES

I was really pissed.

What do you think... I'm still pissed.

It turns out that Karl's accountant has moved to Switzerland

and he can't answer any questions, due to ill health.

So Karl's presumed heirs are none the wiser about what,

if anything, they're going to receive.

The situation left at the end was not very...

How to say that? Er... Tidy?

This kind of big succession, it can take ten years or...

Really? Mm.

And you have France and you have Monaco.

Part of the succession is, er,

is managed in Monaco.

Mm.

Does that complicate things?

Yes.

And we have big problem in France with the residence, you know?

What, France or Monaco, is that...?

Yeah, yeah, there is problem like this and taxes problem,

you know? And it became like...enormous,

and now we are still trying to deal with that.

How's it going?

Not too good, but we will see.

You're smiling, though. You're keeping happy?

Yeah, I smile. I smile because what do you want me to do?

I don't want to kill myself because of this.

Do you miss him?

Of course I do.

I only... I think I am only starting to recover.

Really? And it's long time. Three years on the ninth.

Because it was almost a day today

we were, uh, talking almost every morning.

What did you talk about every day?

SHE LAUGHS

Secrets!

Things that you can say only to your lawyer.

I mean, he changed my life. I met him at 23, you know, at the time I was

still modelling. I was a good model at the time, but he definitely

brought my career to a whole 'nother level, which I never would have had.

It was amazing and then everything he did for us, my family

and the kids and the travelling and all these experiences

we got to have. It was like a movie. It was almost like living a dream.

It's about to go down.

My eyes are hurting.

There it goes.

It looks like it's sinking.

When he passed away, I think I was almost in shock.

He'd played such an important role in my life.

It was pretty hard.

Of course he completely changed my life,

yeah, in good and bad reason also. Because most of the things, they are

good because he gave me the chance to make new things and to

arrive in a new world. And I arrive on this world, and I was on the top.

It's like to live with a lot of things and everything's, er, crash.

I always keep two feet, you know? One in where I'm from, and the

one where I was, you know?

And I make the balance like this in my life.

But you think you are still from there, but you're not from

there any more, but you are not also from...you're not

from there too. You don't know really who you are,

because at one point you're living in a different world, you know?

And it's difficult to go back.

You cannot go back to your old world, it's impossible.

It's impossible, you prefer to die.

You see what I mean?

It's difficult. It's a difficult way.

As those closest to Karl mourn, Choupette has already moved on.

She has a raft of marketing appointments in her diary.

We are presenting three products that we've collaborated with,

er, today, and so one of them is a transport, travel, er, bag,

made for cats. And, um,

and, yeah, she's sharing this adventure with us.

We never know what she thinks.

It's like she thinks...

She's always thinking about her next move.

STIRRING CLASSICAL MUSIC