The mini-series “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” profiles a fashion icon DW 01/07/2024

Who said that no man is a prophet in his own country? A few weeks ago, the Senate of the German state of Hamburg decided to rename part of the street Promenade Karl Lagerfeld. Although it is only 150 meters long, it is very central and even close to Felix Jud, Karl Lagerfeld's favorite bookstore. The Hamburg native was known to be a book lover.

Meanwhile, the French, usually skeptical of German fashion, have dedicated a brilliant streaming series to the designer called “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld.”

Behind the project is the venerable French film group Gaumont, founded in 1895 and one of the oldest film production companies in the world.

This origin is a good thing, Simone Schlosser, an entertainment journalist and one of Germany's leading experts on series, told DW. “It would be strange to approach the whole subject from a German perspective, after all, Karl Lagerfeld spent almost his entire life in France,” she said.

A German in Paris

The first six episodes have been available since the beginning of June on streaming providers Disney+ and Hulu. If successful, they will mark the start of a much longer production run.

Director Jérôme Salle and the writing team initially focused on a single decade of Lagerfeld's eventful life, from the early 1970s to the early 1980s. The final episode (for now) ends with an alleged fax from June 1981, in which Lagerfeld is invited to take over the famous House of Chanel as its new artistic director.

Some viewers might have preferred to see the Lagerfeld series begin with this scene, when his success as a creator really began to take off. Others may find it fascinating to see young Karl, born into a wealthy Hamburg business family in 1933, the year Hitler rose to power, arrive in Paris at the age aged 19, from an unpopular Germany, and climbed the ranks to become the chief designer of major houses in the fashion capital of the world.

Intrigue, sex and fashion in the City of Lights

Regardless, limiting ourselves to Paris in the 1970s makes for a fascinating setting. The fashion industry is booming, parties and drugs abound, and virtually everyone is sleeping with everyone.

Paloma Picasso, daughter of the legendary Pablo Picasso, sets the tone for the jet-set, Andy Warhol passes through the closed doors of his boudoir, Marlene Dietrich (played by Sunnyi Melles) celebrates her voluntary isolation. And there is an enfant terrible, a genius around whom the fashion world revolves: Yves Saint Laurent, played by Arnaud Valois. Unstable, eccentric, very French, in contrast to the eccentric but businessman and somehow very German Karl Lagerfeld, played by Daniel Brhl.

Yves and Karl are two opposites who attract each other; they are both adversaries and confidants. They compete with each other and can't let go of each other, especially when the attractive dandy Jacques de Bascher (Théodore Pellerin) appears. Bascher, Lagerfeld's great love, also had a passionate affair with Yves Saint Laurent. This love triangle alone would be worth a series.

Are fashion stories trendy?

“Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” is the third series about a fashion designer to hit the international streaming market since early 2024. The productions about the Spanish fashion designer Cristobal Balenciaga (who bears his name) and “The New Look”, a production centered on Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, were launched at the start of the year. Coincidence?

To a certain extent, said series expert Schlosser. But only in part, because the productions follow a trend. “They all have an interesting main character who, in some way, doesn't embody the dominant 'old white man' figure. They're queer characters, for example, so you can use them to explore questions of gender. identity,” she said.

At the same time, fashion series in particular are a typical form of escapism of the time, Schlosser said.

“Because they have everything we need: a fascination with the stories, the historical context, the beautiful costumes and sets. You immerse yourself in another world, that of the catwalks and workshops, which is otherwise very far from YOU.”

Brhl transforms into Lagerfeld

But, as Schlosser points out, “Becoming Karl Lagerfeld” has something that other shows don't: lead actor Daniel Brhl.

“I think Brühl is simply brilliant in the role of Lagerfeld! » enthuses Schlosser, echoing the unanimous praise addressed to the German actor. His choice may seem unlikely at first, as the gentle-looking star of films like “Good Bye, Lenin!” ” has little in common with the notoriously acerbic fashion czar.

It’s all the more fascinating, Schlosser says, to watch Brhl’s transformation. “At first, his Lagerfeld is nothing iconic: no ponytail, no fan, no sunglasses. Then it starts, slowly. Little by little, his hair gets longer, his glasses get more and more tinted,” she observed. And then comes the magic of acting, and we see Karl Lagerfeld, the man, with all his flaws.

The series is “uncomfortably voyeuristic”

It's the result of Brhl's meticulous research into the role, which included interviewing Lagerfeld's friends and closely studying the designer's gestures and gait.

He and co-star Pellerin were so absorbed in their roles that they even posed for a romantic couple off set: Brhl informed his wife that he was “temporarily” in love with a man. And when describing the enormous bouquet of red roses Pellerin sent him, he admitted, “My wife has never received anything like this.”

“Daniel Brhl's interpretation is very sober. He doesn't make a caricature, but plays the role with great sincerity and gratitude,” Schlosser said. His interpretation allows us to see Karl Lagerfeld as a great romantic, and sometimes as a tragic character.

But Schlosser's praise doesn't extend to the production as a whole. “I think the show doesn't really do justice to the figure of Lagerfeld, and it's often uncomfortably voyeuristic,” she said.

There is a lot of information about the creator's private life, even if he has never revealed much. “He was a very private person,” she said.

Of course, Lagerfeld and de Bascher loved each other, or the real Lagerfeld wouldn't have spent months at his AIDS-stricken companion's bedside (his beloved “Jaco” died in 1989). “But the show's creators keep trying to put the two of them in sex scenes together, and I don't think that's a good thing,” Schlosser said.

As Lagerfeld himself once said: “I don't like to sleep with people I really love. I don't want to sleep with them because sex can't last, but affection can last forever.”

This article was originally written in German.