This is the million dollar question. Karl Lagerfeld is refuting at the suggestion in Alicia Drake's book The Beautiful Fall, that Karl Lagerfeld had a middle-class upbringing instead of one of royalty.
The German-born designer has fired off a furious letter to Alicia Drake, the author of The Beautiful Fall, taking issue with the suggestion of his cousin Kurt, one of the book's sources, that he grew up in a four-bedroom bungalow rather than a 14-room castle. The letter was even accompanied by photographs to support his position.Strangely, it is not thought to include complaints about other aspects of the book, including his rivalry with St Laurent, the French designer, and suggestions that he is an outrageous self-promoter. Instead, the letter is a reaction to allegations in the book accusing Lagerfeld of "continually changing and embroidering his life history... Everything he came from was grey, flat and colourless."
Drake asserts that Lagerfeld's buying of a château in France in 1973 was the turning point. She writes: "Karl had long indulged in stories of his nobility and family fortune, but from this time on his memories of his childhood became more grandiose.
"There was talk of a personal valet as a child and a French governess... The villa at Bad Bramstedt metamorphosed into a 'country estate', a château or a castle dating from the 19th century. He moved its location 150 km (93 miles) farther north than it was."
Call me what you like, insists Lagerfeld, but I was never middle class [Telegraph]
Written by Lauren Burch
(Image source)
Drake's claims and Lagerfeld's reply will intrigue the fashion world. Lagerfeld delights in describing his upbringing in a castle which, he insists, he shared with a retinue of servants and 56 war refugees. He also recalls having asked for a valet at the age of four, a French teacher at five, and, as a child, requesting a different bicycle for each day of the week.Drake, however, claims that the Lagerfelds lived in a dull German suburb where "residents tended to pink rhododendrons and lived behind leaded window panes". She also suggests that the family suffered economic hardship during the war, claiming: "At the nadir of their fortunes, the Lagerfeld family had just two pieces of bread left to eat, one for Karl and another for his sister."
susiesneds
You know that really hacks me off!! I mean come on!! Poor Karl Lagerfeld!!
Imagine the "horror" of growing up MIDDLE CLASS?!!
A FOUR BEDROOM home instead of a CASTLE?!
Sheesh...
Before you know it, starving people of the world will start ranting on about how they have been misunderstood and that the dirt huts they live in really have more room than they thought!!
I just hate it when that happens.
KittyLiterati
The answer is C) Delusional.
I love his Chanel designs, but Karl Lagerfeld needs to get real. He looks like Dame Judi Dench in drag.