Fashion drawing for Tiziani

[Rome, circa 1965]
1 drawing (300 x 400 mm) in felt pen with 3 stapled fabric coupons (711 top left).

Long-sleeve jacket model, Mao collar, gray tone.

We apologize for the imperfect translation generated by Deepl for the purposes of the show.

From 1963 to 1969, Karl Lagerfeld began his career at the Tiziani fashion house run by the American designer Evans Richard. Six years of creations and collections for Italian women and the brand’s prestigious clients, from Elizabeth Taylor to Doris Duke and Gina Lollobrigida. In 1965, after his second collection at Tiziani, Fendi brought Lagerfeld into the company, for a collaboration that would only continue to grow, creating the brand’s logo as soon as he arrived. It lasted until Lagerfeld’s death, despite his other commitments for other houses (Jean Patou, Chloé and Chanel, of which he became artistic director in 1983).

Fifteen years earlier, he had won the prize of the International Wool Secretariat, organised by the Woolmark brand – ex-aequo with Yves Saint Laurent: a fashion design competition that opened the door to his first creations. The couturier Pierre Balmain, who was part of the jury, noticed him and recruited him as an assistant until 1962. Richard Evans would say of Lagerfeld that he was then “a genius in the making”.

Lagerfeld’s early original drawings are extremely rare: the couturier always hated to keep his sketches, drawings and drafts, which he systematically threw away after use: “I throw everything away. The most important object in a house is the rubbish bin! I don’t keep any of my archives, no sketches, no photographs, no clothes, nothing! “(Interviews in The New Yorker, 2007).