Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, 1983–2019 The benchmark for how long a reinvention can hold. When Lagerfeld took over in 1983, Chanel was regarded as a near-dead brand more than a decade after its founder's death. He treated Coco Chanel's codes as material to play with rather than relics: the interlocking CC became a pattern, shoulders were padded, skirts shortened, heels raised, and the jewellery and bags scaled up. The revamped ready-to-wear is what made the house a huge commercial success again. He stayed until his death in February 2019, running Fendi's fur and fashion in parallel for the whole time.