Becoming Karl Lagerfeld

While most fashion designers live in relative anonymity to anyone unfamiliar with the industry, Karl Lagerfeld managed to become a household name, equally known for his creations and as a controversial public figure.

The French series Becoming Karl Lagerfeld seems more interested in the story behind the latter than in what made the German multi-talent so outstanding in his work. Set in the 1970s, when he had already established himself as the creative director for Parisian luxury house Chloé, the show offers speculations on the conception of the persona “Karl Lagerfeld”. What underlying insecurities led to the signature high collar and sunglasses, the refusal to reveal his true age and the reluctance to be associated with his native country? Was it self-hatred behind his own struggles with weight gain and a daily lacing himself into corsets, that festered into an open disdain for plus-size women?

Despite tackling a multitude of facets to the man, the series fortunately never makes the mistake of claiming to ever fully grasp Lagerfeld. At the premiere in Berlin, star Daniel Brühl likened Karl Lagerfeld to a 10,000-piece jigsaw puzzle, some of the pieces deliberately misshaped by the icon’s beautification of his own story, making it entirely impossible to ever get a complete picture. Brühl, however, manages to take some of the parts and infuse them with his own brand of humanity, without compromising the mystery. The audience can relate to his yearning for love, his fear of rejection and understand how his sense of pride may have turned into a form of self-sabotage, without coming any closer to understanding who Karl Lagerfeld was.

Initially somewhat reminiscent of Ryan Murphy’s The Assassination of Gianni Versace (minus the murder spree), the plot of the six episodes focuses on Lagerfeld’s interpersonal relationship with his longtime companion Jacques de Bascher (Théodore Pellerin) and rivalry with Yves Saint Laurent (Arnaud Valois). Despite tallying noteworthy events in their biographies and offering more or less fictitious embellishments, the true nature of this complex love triangle is still never fully unveiled. While laudable that the show operates without the customary hubris of biopics claiming to lay out an entire life in the duration of their screen time, this lack of specificity can also cause viewers to feel frustration at not being given any tangible answers.

Where Becoming Karl Lagerfeld truly disappoints is in the fact that it doesn’t reflect the environment it is set in: the clothes look cheap, the fabrics are too reminiscent of current trends, and make-up brands are used which have only been in existence for the past ten years. Further, the parties never come across as lavish as the textual components suggest, and too many of the locations look alike and are easily identified as sets. This artificiality gnaws away at the necessary suspension of disbelief and never allows for full immersion into its world.

Perhaps somewhat unexpectedly, Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is thus less likely to win the hearts of the fashion-conscious, but may find an avid audience in those interested in catching a glimpse of the man behind the curtain.

Selina Sondermann

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld is released on Disney+ on 7^th June 2024.

Watch the trailer for Becoming Karl Lagerfeld here: