In 1975, Lagerfeld became the first fashion designer to create a perfume without having his own brand of fragrances. He created the fragrance while working for Chloé, where he stayed until 1978. The perfume was also called Chloé and said Parfums Lagerfeld on the bottle. The design of Karl's coat was produced by Balmain himself, and the renowned fashion icon did wonders for Karl's confidence and professional career by hiring him as his personal assistant. Thanks to talent, longevity and great productivity, Karl Lagerfeld may have done more than any other designer to shape the look of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
It's a testament to the impact that Karl Lagerfeld had not only on the world of fashion but also on culture in general, that if you attended a costume party in recent years, you would be guaranteed to see at least three young people wearing talc-covered pigtails, three-button shirt collars and black leather driving gloves, in the Kaiser Karl style. Karl Lagerfeld's immensely credible stance in the fashion industry was due to his focused and passionate vision of the segment from the start. Even then he knew what being Karl Lagerfeld meant to people, what it meant to the world, so he amplified it a little bit to achieve a comedic effect. Karl Lagerfeld's contribution as a fashion icon has helped shape the fashion industry into what it is today in many ways.
