Remembering Karl Lagerfeld
Join us as we look back on the fashion icon and legendary book lover.
Karl Lagerfeld poses in 2008 in his Paris studio where floor-to-ceiling stacks accessible by ladder and staircase took bibliophile style to new heights. Photo by Eric Dessons/Sipa USA via AP.
Karl Lagerfeld (1933-2019) is best known for his ferociously inspired fashion endeavors, having served as Chanel’s creative director for nearly 40 years, as well as helming Fendi, Chloe, and his own eponymous brand, among countless other roles held and contributions made during his unparalleled career.
At Booktique, he is best known for his obsession with beautiful books.
A book collector, book publisher, author, and even bookstore owner, Lagerfeld is said to have amassed more than 300,000 volumes, with a focus on the categories of art, architecture, design, photography and fashion, along with rare editions of magazines and books.
Lagerfeld constructed libraries in each of his houses and devised artful rooms and stacking methods to display his collections. The oft-photographed floor-to-ceiling shelves in his Paris studio took bibliophile style to new heights, featuring ladders and staircases and endless towers of colorful books.
“I’ve only wanted paper and beautiful colors. And books. They’re all I need, and the rest I can do without.”
“I love this place so much that it is a part of me,” said Karl Lagerfeld of the bookshop he founded in Paris, called 7L Bookshop. Photos courtesy 7L Bookshop.
In 1999, Lagerfeld founded his own bookstore, 7L Bookshop on Rue de Lille in Paris, converting a former photo studio into a retail space filled with books. A popular stop in Paris for Lagerfeld fans, 7L stocks works from Lagerfeld’s own publishing venture, Editions 7L, and other art book publishers from around the world.
The Book Lounge in The Karl Lagerfeld Macau hotel, designed by Karl himself. Photo courtesy of The Karl Lagerfeld Hotel.
Lagerfeld’s final project before he died in 2019 includes a stunning homage to beautiful books. The Karl Lagerfeld Macau, a hotel he designed from the ground up, which opened its doors in June 2023, is every bit as opulent as his fashion creations. Its crown jewel is the Book Library, featuring gilded keyhole doorways framed by horizontal stacks of more than 4,000 books, hand-picked by Lagerfeld for this custom-designed space.
“Books are the best company you can keep and they give you the most enchanting pleasure.”
Chanel’s Fall/Winter 2019 library-themed runway presentation at Paris’ Grand Palais. Photo by PIXELFORMULA/SIPA.
Nearly five months after Lagerfeld’s death, his successor at Chanel, Virginie Viard, carried on his book-loving legacy for her first couture show, transforming Paris’ Grand Palais into a circular book repository that referenced Coco Chanel’s library at her 31 Rue Cambon residence. As models walked beside elegant sofas and wing chairs, guests got a look at Fall/Winter 2019 couture looks dubbed “librarian-core”—a bookish version of what Karl himself called “intellectual sexiness” which was an aesthetic he promoted through his own fashion designs. He once said of books, “I could not dare to live without them.” Sexy indeed.
“Books are sufficient to themselves. They ask for nothing, they are silently patient, but they are always there for you. There is no distance between them and us. It’s breathtakingly easy to open a book. They should be an everyday affair. I could not dare to live without them.”