Fashion Gossip: Karl Lagerfeld died broke?

According to a bio by his longtime friend Patrick Hourcade, Lagerfeld spent money like it was water, lived well beyond his (very extensive) means, and left a pile of debts tens of millions high. Apparently the only reason his estate hasn’t been sent into bankruptcy is to avoid tainting the Lagerfeld brand, so at least that income keeps streaming.

Plus, Lagerfeld was an inveterate liar (well, fabulist), telling all kinds of tales about his background.

Any of the fashion mavenns here have inside info how much of this is true?

Choupette better get herself a good lawyer!

he showed up to a function late in life, toothless and disheveled.

He may (or may not) have been worth $300mm and earned $50mm/year as frequently reported, but he ALWAYS struck me as someone who had no sense of reality and would demand fresh cut flowers at a cost of $10K a day or would take one taste of $20K caviar, but spit it out and exclaim it was terrible.

I also imagine accountants and lawyers running around behind him fixing stuff after he's pulled some crap or other, offering settlements with NDAs and the like.

He didn't have a spouse or kids to leave anything to, right? .. Weren't there reports of the cat inheriting? .. lol

So why not spend it? Like the saying goes, You can't take it with you.

Spending more than you have coming in is a common failing for the fashionable set

R1 I thought he was homeless not toothless?

I mean it’s like Michael Jackson. He died broke but he was living in a mansion and doing whatever he wanted.

Did anyone ever read this book? Aside from dead ALT?

So Karl Lagerfeld was a Republican?

It's not as if a single person on earth ever looked at Karl Lagerfeld and thought, "Well, he seems like a serious, well adjusted guy!"

He always seemed like an unlikable freak. Only nice to cunts like Anna Wintour.

R10 don't think any of us would turn down that toy

Lagerfield did invent an aristocratic background for himself. He was also a profligate spender who had to be bailed out at least once by Chanel. At his death, thought, he was thought to to own a few nice apartments and perhaps a house here and there. Choupette had funds set aside for her and whatever was left went to several male models. I don’t know if the estate has been closed, they were having trouble locating documents.

R13 Don't think any of us could afford him .

@r14: But it seems those apartments (and chateaux, he owned a couple of those too) were one of the causes of his giant debts -- he just bought whatever he liked, without thinking about money.

Apparently few of them are worth what he paid for/ put into them, and there are huge tax liabilities to be settled.

I do totally believe that they can't find the necessary documents, though -- it sounds like Lagerfeld was the type to just throw "banal" papers into random boxes (or trash bins).

R6 Michael Jackson had Billionaire benefactors looking after him in the last decade of his life.

Being Michael Jackson had a lot of perks. People wanted to be around him for clout & because he was Michael Jackson. Paying for private jet rides, 5 star hotel stays, expensive dinners & new clothes etc!

That's the case with a lot of people.

I didn’t know he had died.

R16 I met Brad Kroenig a long time ago. He was already a fairly successful model and I was working at a New York City residential real estate brokerage firm. It was back when there were almost as many storefront real estate firms in Manhattan as pizzerias. But my office was on a second floor so walk ins were unusual. I was chatting with the receptionist when in walked Brad. I recognized him instantly because men like that look like they fell from Mount Olympus. He had an appointment with the manager of the office and In walked him back to his office.

They didn't meet for long and after Kroenig left, I asked the manager what he was doing there. "Is he going to work here?!" I'm sure I was vibrating at the thought. My manager said, "No. He was dropping off his New York State real estate license. It's about one price of property someone he knows is selling. A lot of people get a license for one deal. They get their license so they can be listed as the seller's agent for a $5, $10 million dollar home. It's all very inside. Sometimes a deal is already lined up. It's easy money for them and for us."

R20, Kroenig always seemed very cash-conscious (not that there’s anything wrong with that).

Sotheby’s has sold off several Lagerfeld properties and other various flotsam and jetsam from his estate. It doesn’t appear to have yielded the enormous fortune people once thought he had. I hope that all the guys got something for their trouble.

Lagerfield did invent an aristocratic background for himself

Nothing wrong with that.

I remember reading that he owned two adjoining Paris townhouses and used one of them as an office/kitchen. It sounds like he had a pretty nice life, broke or not. Another detail I remember was that he had his bed linens changed every single day.

M. Lagerfeld kept to rather old aristocratic if not royal ways.

The two adjoining townhouses in Paris functioned as "state" and "personal" apartments if you will. One was where M. Lagerfeld entertained, conducted business, received visitors and guests, in short public use. Other townhouse was "private" and that meant just what word implies; no one was allowed to enter that side if M. Lagerfeld was in residence. This applied not just to guests, visitors, or whoever else but maids and other staff as well.

"Another detail I remember was that he had his bed linens changed every single day."

Another of the old ways M. Lagerfeld clung to was always sleeping on freshly laundered and ironed bed linen nightly. IIRC all his linen was vintage French, of which he had an enormous collection. Everything both bed and bath linen was changed daily.

Now this is rather old, it is how royalty and upper classes did things until rather recently, some still do. As First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy gave orders that bed linen in master bedroom at White House were to be changed twice per day. President Kennedy was fond of taking naps or at least lying down (due to health issues), and thus POTUS and FLOTUS always rested on clean linen.

M. Lagerfeld commented in some interview that average persons could never afford to own vintage French linen nor the upkeep his housekeeping required. That is quite true. That's at least 14 sheets, 14 or 28 (maybe more) pillow slips, and perhaps 7 duvet covers and whatever else was on bed that was changed daily. Think of the laundry bills! It was all likely sent out to a special blanchissage de fin which isn't inexpensive.

"Not that he’s gone monastic or sworn off all things with a past. At the risk of sounding pretentious — his word — Lagerfeld supposed he possesses the world’s largest collection of antique sheets to dress his cloudlike bed, white sheets only: “Printed sheets are for people who don’t wash them often.…I think I have the biggest trousseau in the world and I love it. Even on my canopy I have antique pillows. Everything has to be washable.”

Houchl likely will win. But if it's only a squeaker she will have problems governing.

R26 posted in wrong thread.

Disregard and carry on...

Does anyone have an update on Choupette, by the way? That is one pretty kitty.

As of last August Choupette was alive and well.

Thank you! I also just found an article in the DM. (Link in following post.)

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

Can animals actually be legal heirs? I’m assuming not.

It always gets me that he had a sister living in just an ordinary little house in a small town in upstate Connecticut.

Google "Karl Lagerfeld sister" and follow the links to a periodical forbidden by DL.

I found Lagerfeld to be such an annoying Kraut. He had such ugly opinions about other ethnicities and his OCDs were so typically Teutonic. He also had dirty asshole face!

Still managed to look distinguished close to the End

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

I always felt that Lagerfeld was a very unhappy, morose kind of person who acknowledged early on in life that he'd never be truly happy so devoted his life to design and luxury. Lagerfeld stated in 2007 that his controversial persona was an act. For some reason I get the impression he was gay yet asexual. He certainly loved Jacques de Bascher however. Lagerfeld seemed dead inside.

R32, no, but you can do things such as set up a trust fund to pay for their care.

Estates don’t go into bankruptcy.

Well, he was no Lacroix, sweetie!

The one who dies owing the most money wins.

[quote] "Can animals actually be legal heirs? I’m assuming not."

Of course they can, R32!

Along with his sheets his face was ironed and starched twice a day.

I met Mr. Lagerfeld in New York a few years ago. He was flirtatious but also sweet. He wasn’t pretentious like he is in interviews…it’s just nervousness.

When I was younger, so much younger than today, my mother was friends with a lady who worked with KL closely for many years.

Surprisingly, she only had good things to say about him in all the years they worked together. I also knew a model who had worked with him, and she still raves about him being one of the nicest people she’s ever met.

It seems to me that his public persona was much different from the real KL.

Dear lord, most of his Parisian home looked like a Serbian Dental Surgery. Not a bit of warmth in those photos.

Could be wrong, but just cannot picture Karl Lagerfeld having hot jungle sex. He just seemed wound up a bit too tight for that sort of thing.

Now could picture KL saying something like; Ich will dich vögeln, dir Dinge beibringen, calmly with a bit of a sneer.

R1 says "he showed up to a function late in life, toothless and disheveled."

Poor guy, I could have helped!

What’s a blanchissage de fin ?

Bblanchisserie or blanchissage de fin are laundries or laundresses that handle finer household and body linen. This as opposed to "gros" which would be normal household linen and clothing.

Best analogy can give for British or North America would be "French hand laundry".

Fine embroidered, lace trimmed, etc... linens and so forth would be sent to a higher quality of laundry or service than everyday things.

There are a few places in France and other parts of Europe that still do "de fin" service.

New York City like many other urban areas once had many French hand laundries. Or at least laundries that offered both fine and regular services. Most have long since gone out of business.

His latter-day, emaciated, silver Mozart Vampire look was an improvement over his earlier Bob Colacello phase.

Second what R47 says-- I suspect Karl's scary reputation was mostly front. Here's a link to a cute story about Lagerfeld helping a little girl with her costume for a fancy dress party in Paris.

R25 that bedding, for all its frill and finery, looks frumpy and not too comfortable.

The reported wealth of most celebrities usually turns out to be a bunch of hog wash. They may be rich, but they're rarely as rich as they (or others) claim. These celebrity net worth sites are beyond a joke. Just because someone has verifiable earnings throughout their life of a certain amount does not mean they're worth all that money. Those sites have no idea what kind of financial obligations the people they report on have.

No one, most markedly the OP, has produced any evidence that he was broke. Do you wonder why false information and conspiracy stories become “truth”? No one pays attention to content authenticity. No one “thinks”.

Evidence OP?

As for speculation about the net worth of famous people- yes it’s only a guess and often very inaccurate. Why? Because the evidence can be obscure and unavailable. Ownership can be wrapped in financial instruments that are not directly linked to their “owner”.

Much of my net worth at times has been part of an LLC or a trust that did not have my name attached. Very common. Other examples abound as well.

Understandable, R19. He always looked liked he had died decades ago

With so many fashion designers you can point to exactly what they did to become famous-- for example, with Chanel, it was the use of Jersey as a design fabric; the little black dress; and the Chanel suit--but with Lagerfeld I never know what he was famous for designing other than making himself look like a vampire.

He was a divisive figure, even among people themselves. I always marveled at how he exemplified the worst characteristics of the Germans and the French (I'm half-German and went to a French school for more than a decade). That said, when we crossed paths (I had to greet him and escort him up a staircase for a Vogue party), I was shocked at how starstruck I was. He did have remarkable presence, which was hardly diminished by the fact that he invented 3/4 of his life (fraction used charitably).

R34 In the early 90s when I worked in fashion it was widely discussed that Karl made stompy clompy Claudia Schiffer a star—giving her the plum assignments in the shows—because of their shared Teutonic heritage.

Chanel shows under Karl were always pricey spectacles…I can see him becoming very accustomed to spending other peoples money.

It was obviously an investment on Chanel‘s part, because now nobody talks about them.

Anyway, whatever happened to his bodyguard and that Brazilian escort?

"Anyway, whatever happened to his bodyguard and that Brazilian escort?"

M. Sébastien Jondeau is well and sends his warmest regards.

"Sotheby’s has sold off several Lagerfeld properties and other various flotsam and jetsam from his estate. It doesn’t appear to have yielded the enormous fortune people once thought he had. I hope that all the guys got something for their trouble."

In what world does an estate auction bringing in €22 million in total not "yield a tremendous fortune"?

""Can animals actually be legal heirs? I’m assuming not."

Response:

"Though Lagerfeld is German, the pair resided in France, where the law prohibits pets from inheriting their owners' wealth. German law, however, allows one's wealth to be transferred to an animal. "

"In France you cannot name a pet as a beneficiary. In order for a beneficiary to receive an inheritance, it has to be a physical person or a foundation," said Valerie Duane-Dray, an international inheritance lawyer based in Hollywood, Florida. "

R6 Michael Jackson was living in mansions AS AN INVITED GUEST in his last years. He didn't own them.

R61, Lagerfeld’s clothes always seemed like recollections of an imaginary past, some place very beautiful and luxurious but not quite real. They had an aura rather than a specific personality.

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