“You see that’s all I did in the last 20 years… Chanel and myself. A camera for all the photos I took. A palette for all the sketches I made“.

That’s sincere enough, and perfectly underlined. The October anniversary issue of Dazed&Confused features a “time capsule”, a gallery of iconic characters, designers, objects and artefacts of the last 20 years of dazed fashion. Together with their personal statements and their contributions to the fashion world. After Coco Chanel, Karl Lagerfeld is probably the most iconic fashion character. He’s not just a fashion designer, he’s already a brand and a fashion myth. You may wonder why, or how did he make it. I don’t know, maybe he just kept it simple, he preserved the Chanel heritage and shifted it into a masculine version, he added some details:  a hard white collar, a black tie, dark glasses, etc. And let the others do the rest.

There are certain benefits of being famous and iconic. Lagerfeld is now prepared to launch a personal line of mass market fashions: “Karl”. Affordable – genuine – design sounds pretty cool. The line, with 100 pieces priced around $95 to $450, will debut exclusively on Net-a-porter.com on January 25 and add sales on karllagerfeld.com on February 28. He will be the first designer to do it, as he was the first designer that joined H&M for a commercial collection.

See, that’s what I appreciate, mostly, to Karl. Not his black&white suits, neither his white hair and leather driving gloves, nor his designs for Chanel (these are only the details of a bigger picture ). But his ability to constantly push the boundaries, to look forward to the new fashion perspectives. I’m sure that for Mr. Lagerfeld, the new “Karl” line it’s not a financial challenge as it’ s an intellectual one. It’s all about the prestige of being the first to do it, leaving room for all “the others”, those designers who will follow. He’s not following anyone, but all the others are following him. Just check Lagerfeld’s profile on Twitter–  followers: 774,222  , following: 0.