Coordinates: 55°58′45″N 3°36′38″W / 55.97905°N 3.61054°W / 55.97905; -3.61054

Linlithgow
Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Iucha
Scots: Lithgae
Linlithgow from Linlithgow Palace
Linlithgow  Linlithgow shown within West Lothian
Population	14,000
OS grid reference	NS996774
Council area	West Lothian
Lieutenancy area	West Lothian
Country	Scotland
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Post town	LINLITHGOW
Postcode district	EH49
Dialling code	01506
Police	Lothian and Borders
Fire	Lothian and Borders
Ambulance	Scottish
EU Parliament	Scotland
UK Parliament	Linlithgow and East Falkirk
Scottish Parliament	Linlithgow Lothians
List of places: UK • Scotland •

Linlithgow ( /lɪnˈlɪθɡoʊ/; Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Iucha, Scots Lithgae) is a Royal Burgh in West Lothian, Scotland. An ancient town, it lies south of its two most prominent landmarks: Linlithgow Palace and Linlithgow Loch, and north of the Union Canal.

The town's coat of arms shows a black dog, chained to an oak tree, which grows on an island. Linlithgow's patron saint is Saint Michael and its motto is St. Michael is kinde to straingers.

Location[link]

Formerly the principal town of West Lothian, which was also known as Linithgowshire, the town lies some 20 miles (32 km) west of Edinburgh along the main railway route to Glasgow. Before the construction of the M8 & M9 motorways and the opening of the Forth Road Bridge, the town lay on the main road from Edinburgh to Stirling, Perth and Inverness while the canal system linked the burgh to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The nearby village of Blackness once served as the burgh's port.

History[link]

The chief historic attraction of Linlithgow is the remains of Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, and probably Scotland's finest surviving late medieval secular building. The present Palace was started (on an older site) in 1424 by James I of Scotland. It was burnt in 1746, and, whilst unroofed, it is still largely complete in terms of its apartments (though very few of the original furnishings survived).

Linlithgow Palace from the public park surrounding it, known as The Peel

Linlithgow was also the site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge at the western edge of the town. The bridge no longer stands today. The roadway to Linlithgow over the River Avon is described by scholars as a lifted road.

Apart from the Palace, a second attraction, standing adjacent, is 15th century St. Michael's Church, the most complete surviving example of a large late medieval 'burgh kirk' in Scotland^{[citation needed]}. Its western tower originally had a distinctive stone crown spire, of the type seen also on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, or Newcastle Cathedral, which was removed in the early 19th century. In 1964 a replacement, and at the time controversial, spire in aluminium in a modern style by the prominent Scots architect Sir Basil Spence, representing Christ's crown of thorns, was added.

Many historic buildings line the High Street. On the south side ground levels rise and several historic "wynds" and "closes" as found in Edinburgh still exist. The most prominent space is on axis with the road to the Palace. This contains the Cross Well of 1807 which proclaims itself to be a replica of its 1628 predecessor. To its north stands the Town House of 1668 by the master mason John Smith. This replaced a previous hall demolished by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1650. Much of its original interior was removed in a modernisation project of 1962.^[1] The High Street is particularly noted for its high number of ancient taverns.

James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh carried out the first assassination with a firearm, when he shot James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, the Regent of Scotland, on 11 January 1570 in Linlithgow^{[citation needed]}.

Coat of Arms[link]

Linlithgow's Black Bitch

The town's coat of arms features a black bitch against an oak tree, and townsfolk are known as "black bitches".^[2] In his account of a tour of Scotland, published in 1679, an English gentleman, Thomas Kirk, described the arms of the town as "a black bitch tied to a tree, in a floating island. We enquired for a story about it, but could meet with none: their schoolmaster told us it proceeded from the name of the place. Linlithgow, in Erst [ Scottish Gaelic ], is thus explained: Lin signifies Lough; Lith, black; and Gow, a hound."^[3]

A more recently recorded legend relates that the bitch was a black greyhound whose master was sentenced to starve to death on an island in Linlithgow loch. She used to swim from the town every day with food for him. When this was discovered she was chained to a tree on a different island to suffer the same fate as her master. The townspeople took the animal's loyalty and bravery as symbolic of their own. The local pub named "The Black Bitch" is reputed to be one of Scotland's oldest pubs.^[4]

Development[link]

The south side of the High Street was spared the demolition inflicted upon the north side in the 1960s.

Two large tracts of the northern side of the High Street were demolished in the 1960s and replaced by flats and public buildings in a modernist style. Although these buildings were no doubt welcomed at the time as being a vast improvement on what must have been cramped and dilapidated traditional accommodation, they were poorly conceived and constructed and have required extensive maintenance and renovation over the years.^{[citation needed]} Many locals^[who?] lament the brutal effect these buildings have had on the character and appearance of the town's main thoroughfare, and indeed such a dramatic remodelling of buildings forming such a central part of the town would be unthinkable nowadays.

Today the town is especially popular with middle classes and commuters, not only because of its excellent transport links with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, but also because of the perceived quality of its schooling. Its size grew considerably during the 1990s with the completion of several housing developments on the east side of the town. Though there is little scope for the town to grow further (as it is now bounded by green belt to the south and east, the M9 to the north, the river Avon and county boundary to the West and with the east side of the town having limited access to the M9) a planning application by Wallace Land for its proposals for a residential and retail development at Burghmuir was submitted in early February 2012 . The town also now suffers from parking problems with the local schools running to full capacity due to the massive increase in population over the last ten years.

Linlithgow is also home to a major computing centre owned by Oracle. Former industries include the St. Magdalene's distillery, the Nobel explosives works, paper mills and many tanneries.

Geography[link]

Linlithgow Canal Basin

The town has a generally east-west orientation and is centred on what used to be the main Edinburgh-Stirling road; this now forms the main thoroughfare called the High Street. Plots of farmed land, known as rigs, ran perpendicular to the High Street and comprised much of the town's development until the 19th century. Growth was restricted to the north by Linlithgow Loch, and by the steep hill to the south, but, in the late 19th & early 20th centuries, development began to take place much further south of the High Street. In the late 20th century, demand for housing saw many residential developments take place much further south, as well as spreading into new areas. This southward development was bisected by the Union Canal and latterly the main Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line, and today the limited crossings of both cause problems with modern traffic as there are only three places where each can be crossed in the town.

To the west, Linlithgow Bridge used to be a somewhat distinct village with its own identity, but in the latter half of the 20th century it was enveloped in the expansion of the main town and today the distinction between them is hard to make out.

Politics[link]

In Westminster, Linlithgow has long been a Labour stronghold, with the SNP regularly finishing in second place. The town of Linlithgow is currently represented by Michael Connarty, who has been an MP since 1992, but has only represented Linlithgow since 2005 when major boundary changes redrew the constituency of the long-serving member Tam Dalyell, who retired on that occasion after over 40 years in parliament.

In Holyrood, Linlithgow is a Labour-SNP marginal as of the 2011 elections. The town is currently represented by the SNP's Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish Culture Secretary, who defeated the Labour incumbent Mary Mulligan by 12 percentage points. It is part of the Lothian electoral region, which in 2011 elected 3 Labour, 2 Conservative, 1 Green and 1 Independent MSP.

Facilities and leisure[link]

Linlithgow's rich history and central location make it a popular tourist destination, while a significant proportion of the local population make the daily commute to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Stirling, made relatively easy by the town's railway station and proximity to both the M8 & M9 motorways.

The town is served by three supermarkets and a retail park situated in Linlithgow Bridge hosting a Homebase and an Argos Extra among its five units. However, the town continues to support a diverse range of local retailers in the High Street. There are controversial proposals for a new retail development to the east of the town. These are being opposed by a local lobby group.^[5]

Linlithgow is of sufficient size that facilities for most common participitation sports can be found in or around the town. BFC Linlithgow (now under the name of Linlithgow Rose Football Club) was formed in 1992 and is a youth football team with over 200 players in the community club. Linlithgow is also host to Linlithgow Rose Football Club and Linlithgow Rugby Football Club, as well as West Lothian County Cricket Association and Amateur league winners Linlithgow Thistle AFC. Linlithgow also hosts two main Scotland Supporters Clubs for the Scottish National football team, they are named Linlithgow & District Tartan Army and (LADTA) and the Young Linlithgow Tartan Army (YLTA). Both of which are registered Scotland Supporters Clubs.

A number of local parks, including play areas for children, are spread throughout the burgh, with the tract of land surrounding the palace known as The Peel being particularly popular in summer. Low Port Outdoor Education Centre^[6] is situated next to the loch and provides facilities for many outdoor activities, many based on the adjacent loch. Nearby country parks include Beecraigs and Muiravonside.

Educational establishments within the town include Linlithgow Academy, which regularly appears close to the top of the school league tables in Scotland and is one of the main reasons for the demand for housing in Linlithgow, and five primary schools; Linlithgow Primary School, St Josephs Primary School, Linlithgow Bridge Primary School, Low Port Primary School and Springfield Primary School.

Donaldson's College - Scotland's national school for the deaf - relocated from Edinburgh to a new building in Linlithgow in 2008.

The Riding of the Marches, held in one form or another since the mid-16th century and nowadays celebrated on the first Tuesday after the second Thursday in June, involve young and old in the tradition of checking the burgh's perimeter, including the town's historic port of Blackness. Although today's activities are centered more on the colourful parades through the town that involve bands and floats decorated by local groups, the more ceremonial duties of the Marches are still adhered to and a variety of local groups ensure that the traditions, old and new, are maintained.

There are many other events during the year such as the Children's Gala Day,^[7] the Linlithgow Folk Festival and a pre-Christmas Victorian Street Fayre, and the sense of community is enhanced by many active local groups such as Linlithgow Amateur Musical Productions (LAMP) [1], Lithca Lore, The Linlithgow Players [2] and The 41 Club. The town also has its own weekly local newspaper, the Linlithgow Gazette.

The Linlithgow Union Canal Society run a canal museum and operate narrowboat tours from Manse Road basin.^[8]

The town has two Church of Scotland parish churches - St Michael's and the smaller St. Ninian's Craigmailen. There are also churches of other denominations, including a Methodist chapel (now an evangelical church, St. Johns, which meets in Linlithgow Academy on a Sunday morning), an architecturally distinctive Scottish Episcopal church, and a Roman Catholic church, also called St Michael's, which was used as an ambulance depot by Polish servicemen during the second world war.^[9]

Notable people[link]

King James V was born in Linlithgow Palace.

Mary, Queen of Scots, was born and christened in Linlithgow.

James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray was assassinated in the town in 1570.

A monument on the ridge 2 km north of the town commemorates the Hon. Adrian Hope, killed in the Indian Mutiny in 1858, ancestor of the current Adrian Hope, 4th Marquess of Linlithgow

Linlithgow was the childhood home of the current First Minister of Scotland, Alex Salmond.

In September 2007, a plaque and exhibition commemorating the fictional Star Trek character Scotty, the Enterprise's chief engineer, who will be born in Linlithgow in 2222.^[10]

Twin towns[link]

Linlithgow is twinned with the French town Guyancourt and, as part of West Lothian, with Grapevine, Texas in the USA.

See also[link]

• Forth to Firth Canal Pathway

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1920 Encyclopedia Americana article Linlithgow.

• Linlithgow town portal
• About Scotland, Linlithgow Palace
• Gazetteer for Scotland
• Economic History of Linlithgow
• Annet House Museum
• St John's Church
• Linlithgow Amateur Musical Productions, LAMP
• St Michael's Roman Catholic Church, Linlithgow
• Linlithgow Taxi
• Linlithgow Athletic Club

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2009)

Karl Lagerfeld
Lagerfeld at the Red Cross Ball in Monaco, August 2005
Born	(1933-09-10) 10 September 1933 (age 78) Hamburg, Germany
Residence	France
Nationality	German
Occupation	Fashion designer
Labels	Karl Lagerfeld (since 1974,various brands)[1] Chanel (since 1983)[2] Fendi (since 1965),[3] Chloe (1963–1978, 1992–1997),[4] Jean Patou (1958–1963),[1] H&M (2004), Hogan (2011)

Karl Lagerfeld (born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt on 10 September 1933 in Hamburg) is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld has his own label fashion house, as well as the Italian house Fendi.

Early life[link]

Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg. He has claimed he was born in 1938, by Elisabeth (born Bahlman) and his Swedish father Otto Lagerfeldt.^[5] He is known to insist that no-one knows his real birth date: Interviewed on French television in February 2009, Lagerfeld said that he was "born neither in 1933 nor 1938."^[6] His older sister, Martha Christiane (a.k.a. Christel), was born in 1931. Lagerfeld also has an older half-sister, Thea, from his father's first marriage. His original name was Lagerfeldt (with a "t"), but he later changed it to Lagerfeld as "it sounds more commercial."^[7]

Lagerfeld grew up as the son of a wealthy businessman from Hamburg who was introducing condensed milk (Glücksklee-Milch GmbH) to Germany;^[8][9] his mother is from Berlin.^[10] According to Alicia Drake,^[vague] Lagerfeld's mother, Elisabeth Bahlmann, was a lingerie saleswoman in Berlin when she met her husband and married him in 1930.

After attending a private school, Lagerfield finished his secondary education at the Lycée Montaigne in Paris, where he majored in drawing and history.^[11]

Early career (Balmain and Patou)[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

In 1955, at the age of 22, Lagerfeld was awarded a position as an apprentice at Pierre Balmain after winning second place, behind Yves Saint-Laurent, in a competition for a coat sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat. He told a reporter a few years later, "I won on coats, but actually I like designing coats least of all. What I really love are little black dresses." Yves Saint Laurent also won the contest for a dress award. "Yves was working for Dior. Other young people I knew were working for Balenciaga (Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house), whom they thought was God, but I wasn't so impressed," he recalled in 1976.^{[citation needed]}

In 1958, after three years at Balmain, he moved to Jean Patou where he designed two haute couture collections a year for five years. His first collection was shown in a two-hour presentation in July 1958, but he used the name Roland Karl, rather than Karl Lagerfeld (although in 1962, reporters began referring to him as Karl Lagerfelt or Karl Logerfeld). The first collection was poorly received. Carrie Donovan wrote that "the press booed the collection"^{[citation needed]}. The UPI noted: "The firm's brand new designer, 25-year old Roland Karl, showed a collection which stressed shape and had no trace of last year's sack." The reporter went on to say that "A couple of short black cocktail dresses were cut so wide open at the front that even some of the women reporters gasped. Other cocktail and evening dresses feature low, low-cut backs." Most interestingly, Karl said that his design silhouette for the season was called by the letter "K" (for Karl), which was translated into a straight line in front, curved in at the waist in the back, with a low fullness to the skirt.

His skirts for the spring 1960 season were the shortest in Paris, and the collection was not well received. Carrie Donovan said it "looked like clever and immensely salable ready-to-wear, not couture." In his late 1960 collection he designed special little hats, pancake shaped circles of satin, which hung on the cheek. He called them "slaps in the face." Karl's collection were said to be well received, but not groundbreaking. "I became bored there, too, and I quit and tried to go back to school, but that didn't work, so I spent two years mostly on beaches – I guess I studied life."

Freelance career (1962–1982)[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (January 2012)

After launching himself as a freelance designer, working with brands such as Mario Valentino, Repetto, and the supermarket chain Monoprix and with financial backing from his family, he set up a small shop in Paris. At this time, he would often consult with Madame Zereakian, Christian Dior's Armenian fortune teller. Lagerfeld later said, "She told me I'd succeed in fashion and perfume."

In 1963, he began designing for Tiziani, a Roman couture house founded that year by Evan Richards (b. 1924) of Jacksboro, Texas. It began as couture and then branched out into ready-to-wear, bearing the label "Tiziani-Roma – Made in England." Lagerfeld and Richards sketched the first collection in 1963 together. "When they wound up with 90 outfits, Tiziani threw caution and invitations to the winds, borrowed Catherine the Great's jewels from Harry Winston, and opened his salon with a three-night wingding," according to one report in 1969. Lagerfeld designed for the company until 1969. Elizabeth Taylor was a fan of the label (she referred to Evan as "Evan Tiziani") and began wearing it in August 1966. Gina Lollobrigida, Doris Duke and Principessa Borghese were also customers while Lagerfeld was designing the line. He was replaced in 1969 with Guy Douvier.

Lagerfeld had begun to freelance for French fashion house Chloe in 1964, at first designing a few pieces a season. As more and more pieces were incorporated, he would soon design the entire collection. In 1970, he also began a brief design collaboration with Roman Haute Couture house Curiel (the designer, a woman named Gigliola Curiel, died in November 1969.) His first collection was described as having a "drippy drapey elegance" designed for a "1930s cinema queen." The Curiel mannequins all wore identical, short-cropped blonde wigs. He also showed black velvet shorts, to be worn under a black velvet ankle-length cape.

His Chloe collection for Spring 1973 (shown in October 1972) garnered headlines for offering something both "high fashion and high camp." He showed loose Spencer jackets and printed silk shirt jackets. He designed something he called a "surprise" skirt, which was ankle-length, pleated silk, so loose that it hid the fact it was actually pants. "It seems that wearing these skirts is an extraordinary sensation," he told a reporter at the time. He also designed a look inspired by Carmen Miranda, which consisted of mini bra dresses with very short skirts, and long dresses with bra tops and scarf shawls.

In 1972, he began to collaborate with Italian fashion house Fendi, designing furs, clothing and accessories.

Starting in the 1970s, Lagerfeld has occasionally worked as a costume designer for theatrical productions. He collaborated with stage directors such as Luca Ronconi and Jürgen Flimm, and designed for theatres like La Scala in Milan (Les Troyens by Hector Berlioz, 1980; directed by Ronconi), the Burgtheater in Vienna (Komödie der Verführung by Arthur Schnitzler, 1980; directed by Horst Zankl), and the Salzburg Festival (Der Schwierige by Hugo von Hofmannsthal, 1990; directed by Flimm).

International fame (1982–present)[link]

Lagerfeld at the 2007 Cannes Film Festival

At the time, he had also been maintaining a design contract with the Japanese firm Isetan, to create collections for both men and women through 30 licenses; had a lingerie line in the US, produced by Eve Stillmann; was designing shoes for Charles Jourdan, sweaters for Ballantyne, and worked with Trevira as a fashion adviser.

In 2002, Karl Lagerfeld asked Renzo Rosso, the founder of Diesel, to collaborate with him on a special denim collection for the Lagerfeld Gallery.^[12] The collection, which was titled Lagerfeld Gallery by Diesel, was co-designed by Lagerfeld and then developed by Diesel's Creative Team, under the supervision of Rosso. It consisted of five pieces that were presented during the designer's catwalk shows during Paris Fashion Week^[13] and then sold in very strict limited editions at the Lagerfeld Galleries in Paris and Monaco, and at the Diesel Denim Galleries in New York and Tokyo. During the first week of sales in New York, more than 90% of the trousers had already been sold out, even though prices ranged from as high as $240 to $1,840.^[14] In a statement after the show in Paris, Rosso said "I am honored to have met this fashion icon of our time. Karl represents creativity, tradition and challenge, and the fact that he thought of Diesel for this collaboration is a great gift and acknowledgement of our reputation as the prêt-à-porter of casual wear."^[13]

Lagerfeld designed the costumes for the Carmen sequences in the 2002 film Callas Forever. In 2004, he designed some outfits for the international music artist Madonna, for her Re-Invention tour, and recently designed outfits for Kylie Minogue's Showgirl tour.

Lagerfeld collaborated with the international Swedish fashion brand H&M. On 12 November 2004, H&M offered a limited range of different Lagerfeld clothes in chosen outlets for both women and men. Only two days after having supplied its outlets, H&M announced that almost all the clothes were sold out. Lagerfeld has expressed some fear that working with lower-end brands will taint his image,^{[citation needed]} although in the past he has worked closely with the hosiery designer Wolford.

Lagerfeld is also a photographer. He produced Visionaire 23: The Emperor's New Clothes, a series of nude pictures of models and celebrities. He also personally photographed Mariah Carey for the cover of V magazine in 2005. In addition to his editorial work for Harper's Bazaar, Numéro and the Russian and German editions of Vogue, Lagerfeld photographs advertising campaigns for the houses under his direction (Chanel, Fendi and his eponymous line) every season.

In the 1980s, the Hans Christian Andersen tale "The Emperor's New Clothes" was published with drawings by Lagerfeld.

The designer was also the subject of a French reality series called Signé Chanel in 2005. The show covered the creation of his Fall/Winter 2004–2005 Chanel couture collection. It aired on Sundance Channel in the United States during the fall of 2006.

He has also supported and encouraged the work of up and coming designers including Philip Colbert of Rodnik.^{[citation needed]}

On 18 December 2006, Lagerfeld announced the launch of a new collection for men and women dubbed K Karl Lagerfeld. The collection includes fitted T-shirts and a wide range of jeans.^[15]

Lagerfeld has signed a deal with Dubai Infinity Holdings (DIH); an investments enterprise that will focus on first of its kind projects in non conventional growth sectors, in line with their mandate^[vague] to fulfil unmet market needs. Lagerfeld is to design limited edition homes^[vague] on Isla Moda, the world’s first dedicated fashion island,^[vague] set in the iconic^[vague] development, The World. This will be a collaboration between Dubai Infinity Holdings and Lagerfeld across the GCC and India.^{[citation needed]}

Lagerfeld is the host of fictional radio station "K109 – The Studio" in the videogame Grand Theft Auto IV.^[16]

In 2008, Lagerfeld created a teddy bear in his likeness produced by Steiff in a limited-edition of 2,500 that sold for $1,500.^[17] Lagerfeld has been immortalized in many forms: pins, shirts, dolls, and more. In 2009, Tra Tutti began selling Karl Lagermouse and Karl Lagerfelt, mini Lagerfelds in the form of mice and finger puppets respectively.^[18]

Lagerfeld with the Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene of Monaco, 2011

On 10 September 2010, the Couture Council of The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology presented Lagerfeld with an award created for him, "The Couture Council Fashion Visionary Award", at a benefit luncheon at Avery Fisher Hall, New York.^[19]

On 10 November 2010, Lagerfeld and Swedish crystal manufacturer Orrefors announced a collaboration for designing a crystal art collection.^[20] The first collection was launched in spring 2011 under the name "Orrefors by Karl Lagerfeld".^[21]

Controversies[link]

In 1993, he caused US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to walk out of his Milan Fashion Week runway show when he employed strippers and adult film star Moana Pozzi to model his black-and-white collection for Fendi.^[22]

There was much controversy from Lagerfeld's use of a verse from the Qur'an in his spring 1994 couture collection for Chanel, despite apologies from the designer and the fashion house. The controversy erupted after the 1994 couture show in Paris, when the Indonesian Muslim Scholars Council in Jakarta called for a boycott of Chanel and threatened to file formal protests with the government of Mr. Lagerfeld's homeland, Germany. The designer apologized, explaining that he had taken the design from a book about the Taj Mahal, thinking the words came from a love poem.^[23]

Lagerfeld was the target of a pieing by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in 2001 at a fashion premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City. The tofu pies hurled by animal rights activists in protest of his use of fur within his collections, however went astray and hit Calvin Klein. A PETA spokesperson described the hit on Klein as "friendly fire", calling Klein, who doesn't use fur, "a great friend to the animals", while he called Lagerfeld a "designer dinosaur" who continues to use fur in his collections.^[24]

Lagerfeld defends the fur industry and the use of fur in fashion, although he himself doesn't wear fur and hardly eats meat. In a BBC interview in 2009 he claimed that hunters "make a living having learnt nothing else than hunting, killing those beasts who would kill us if they could", and maintained that "in a meat-eating world, wearing leather for shoes and clothes and even handbags, the discussion of fur is childish." Spokespersons for PETA called Lagerfeld "a fashion dinosaur who is as out of step as his furs are out of style",^[25] and "particularly delusional with his kill-or-be-killed mentality. When was the last time a person's life was threatened by a mink or rabbit?"^[26]

In 2010, PETA quotes Lagerfeld, who used fake fur in his 2010 Chanel collection, on their website as saying: "It's the triumph of fake fur … because fake fur changed so much and became so great now that you can hardly see a difference."^[27]

Lagerfeld in 2009 joined critics of supermodel Heidi Klum. After German designer Wolfgang Joop called Klum, who had posed naked on the cover of the German edition of GQ magazine,^[28] "no runway model. She is simply too heavy and has too big a bust",^[29] Lagerfeld followed suit by saying that neither he nor Claudia Schiffer knew Klum as she has never worked in Paris and is insignificant in the world of high fashion, being "more bling bling and glamorous than current fashion."^[30]

Lagerfeld created an international furore on 9 February 2012, when he called the singer Adele" A little too fat". This caused instant fury throughout the United Kingdom and Lagerfeld responded with a statement of apology. Adele hit back by saying she is like the majority of women, and she is very proud of that fact.^[31][32]

Weight loss[link]

When Lagerfeld lost 42 kg (roughly 92.6 pounds) in 13 months in 2001, his explanation was "...I suddenly wanted to dress differently, to wear clothes designed by Hedi Slimane," he said anxiously. "But these fashions, modeled by very, very slim boys—and not men my age—required me to lose at least 40 kg. It took me exactly thirteen months." The diet was created specially for Lagerfeld by Dr. Jean-Claude Houdret, which led to a book called The Karl Lagerfeld Diet, which he promoted on Larry King Live and other shows.^[7]

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Karl Lagerfeld

• Karl Lagerfeld Official Website
• Karl Lagerfeld designer profile at Fashion Model Directory
• New Yorker: John Colapinto: In The Now. Where Karl Lagerfeld Lives Extensive profile (ca. 10,000 words)
• The Independent: Susannah Frankel: Being Karl Lagerfeld: What's it like being the most powerful man in fashion? 5 November 2011
• "Interactive timeline of couture houses and couturier biographies". Victoria and Albert Museum. http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1486_couture/explore.php. 
• Karl Lagerfeld’s twitter
• Karl Lagerfeld on Fashion Net

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