The designer’s homes served as blank canvases for his decorating genius.
A new volume of fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld’s 13 luxurious homes includes properties in France, Italy, Germany, and Monaco. And that doesn’t even cover them all. Others include the Château de Penhoët, in Brittany; a house on Grand Isle in the middle of Lake Champlain; and his apartment on Manhattan’s Gramercy Park, which he sold in 2013. If the number of properties was extravagant, the diversity of styles was amazing as well. This erudite aesthete who died in 2019 enjoyed everything from 18th-century splendor to elegant contemporary designs.
Every new home provided an excuse for Lagerfeld to embark on a different decorating adventure. “Buying excites me,” the fashion designer known for his wit once said. It was the quest for the perfect object and its eventual acquisition that motivated him. Once any particular design project was completed, he often grew weary of it. As early as 1975, the designer was selling his purchases of Art Deco furniture and curios through the auction house Hôtel Drouot. While he delighted in collecting unique design pieces by the Memphis group to decorate one of his Monaco apartments, he later parted with them at auction without any regrets. “He would leave one world to invent another,” says Patrick Mauriès, coauthor of Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses. There were a few treasures, however, that the author did not want to part with, like furniture from the 1920s signed by Süe et Mare, and fashion watercolors by Georges Lepape and Bernard Boutet de Monvel. They evoked for him the elegant and exciting years that his mother used to tell him about. Another important and consistent element in his decorating schemes was an abundance of art books. Lagerfeld accumulated tens of thousands of them. What might look excessive to some was genius to others.
Karl Lagerfeld: A Life in Houses, by Patrick Mauriès and Marie Kalt, is to be published on January 16, 2024, by Thames & Hudson. Take a closer look at the designer’s living spaces below.
Rue de l'Université, Paris
In this Paris home, Lagerfeld’s salon was overflowing with vases by Jean Dunand, cigarette cases by Jean Fouquet and Raymond Templier, lacquered screens, and other objects. The then “young designer,” as he described himself at the time, saw “the roots of modernity” in the culture of the 1920s and ‘30s. In this way he was a pioneer, along with Yves Saint Laurent, Hélène Rochas, and Andy Warhol. The legendary sale of Jacques Doucet's former collection of Art Deco furniture in 1972, which revived collectors’ interest in this period, had not yet taken place. Although Lagerfeld parted with this first collection, he went on to build others of furniture and objects from the interwar period in his homes in Biarritz and Monaco—which were then sold by Sotheby’s in 2003.
Le Mée-sur-Seine, Seine-et-Marne, France
Lagerfeld already owned a château in Grand-Champ, Brittany, and a villa on the Côte d'Azur, in La Vigie, when, in the 1980s, he decided he wanted a country house closer to France’s capital. He was seduced by the graceful proportions of this manor house near Fontainebleau built in 1749 and previously owned by the actor Renée Saint-Cyr.
There was nothing opulent about the house, with its light furniture in cane and white wood, soothing shades, and decorator pieces from the 1940s, many were inspired by the 18th century but all had a touch of fantasy. In short, it was an inviting place to relax. After the death of his companion, Jacques de Bascher, Lagerfeld stop using the house and his friend Caroline de Monaco later purchased it.
Hôtel Pozzo Di Borgo, Paris
“Le siècle des lumières est aussi celui des couleurs lumineuses.” (“The Age of Enlightenment is also the age of luminous colors.”) This phrase by Karl Lagerfeld ran across the boxset containing the three catalogs from his sale at Christie’s in 2000. At the time, he was letting go of 150 paintings and nearly 400 pieces of furniture, tapestries, porcelains, and gilded bronzes from the Louis XV and Louis XVI periods. These treasures were all from the Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo, the grand house in Paris’s Faubourg Saint-Germain neighborhood where he lived for three decades. His love affair with the 18th century began at the age of seven, when he discovered a painting by Adolph von Menzel in a Hamburg antiques shop, depicting Frederick the Great receiving his friends, including Voltaire, at the Palais de Sanssouci. For Voltaire, this scene represented the ideal of refinement, and for Lagerfeld, it ignited his dream of becoming an aristocrat.
Pavillon de Voisins, Louveciennes, France
When he was 81, Lagerfeld decided to buy this bucolic residence on the edge of the Marly-le-Roi forest, not far from Paris. To transform it to his liking and equip it with every creature comfort, he undertook a gigantic renovation project that lasted four years. In the end, he only slept there one night. Nevertheless, he would often visit Louveciennes, sit in the music room, contemplate his collections, and then leave satisfied.
The house was filled with everything from Art Deco furniture and German posters from the early 20th century to creations by contemporary designers, a sort of compendium of all of Lagerfeld’s passions. The entire collection of 4,000 lots was sold by Sotheby’s in 2021 to pay off the debts of the designer’s estate, mostly back taxes.
Place Saint-Sulpice, Paris
Lagerfeld was always on the move, but when it came to Paris, he remained faithful to the Left Bank his entire life. When he left his home on the rue de l'Université his next stop was the place Saint-Sulpice. White walls, moldings, and friezes were paired with eggplant carpets—a color made to order for Lagerfeld. The color scheme provided a freshness to the décor that would almost make you forget that you’re in an 18th-century building by the Franco-Italian architect Giovanni Servandoni. The shell-shaped armchairs and sofas come from a house decorated by Elsie de Wolfe in the 1930s—the decorator’s style provided a source of inspiration for Lagerfeld on a number of occasions. Here, the effect created a room that is evocative of Hollywood’s golden age.
Piazza Di San Lorenzo, Rome
Lagerfeld, who worked with Fendi for almost six decades, was a regular visitor to Rome. Rather than stay in a hotel, he wanted his own home in Italy’s capital. So he scooped up a pied-à-terre with a living room and two bedrooms. To liven it up, the designer decided to build a new collection. This one would consist of Viennese Secession items. The rigorous, minimalist atmosphere is arguably a surprising choice for an interior in the Eternal City. Designer Andrée Putman, a close friend of Lagerfeld’s who shared his taste for clean lines, helped decorate the house. “This apartment creates a break with the city,” she said. “It’s like a series of black-and-white pages slipped into an art book in color.”
Le Roccabella, Monaco
In 1981, François Mitterrand was elected president of France and Lagerfeld, fleeing the taxes he expected the French government would soon impose, moved to Monaco—specifically a luxury residence designed by Gio Ponti and Michel Ravarino. He chose the revolutionary designs of the Memphis group as the inspiration for its decor. Ten years later, the collector sold it at auction, with no regrets. As he explained in the catalog for the sale, held by Sotheby's in October 1991: “I fell in love with Memphis at first sight. In September 1981, I had moved into a large apartment in Monte Carlo. I had never lived in a modern house. Memphis was the ideal solution. I loved living surrounded by so many new colors and shapes. But the Memphis style wasn’t right for my second home in Monaco and I had to move on.”
Rue des Saints-Pères, Paris
Despite his many years in Paris, Lagerfeld never lived in a home north of the Seine. His last Parisian residence was an apartment at 8, rue des Saints-Pères, where he received his clients and dined on dishes prepared by his personal chef. The approximately 3,770-square-foot home was just a stone’s throw from the Quai Voltaire. In a room that had been converted into an office, a bookcase was designed by Lagerfeld himself and custom-made by an iron worker. Innumerable, beautiful books were a common feature of many Lagerfeld interiors. Illustrated volumes were not only a source of inspiration for this inquisitive and cultured spirit, they became part of the decor.
This story was first published by AD France. It was translated by John Newton.
