Karl Lagerfeld did not think he would die at the young age of 85. The fashion designer and Chanel creative director passed away less than one year after he said in an interview that age had no hold over him.
Lagerfeld passed away in Paris on February 19, as previously shared by the Inquisitr . The news of the fashion icon’s sudden death comes 10 months after he told an interviewer that he was completely healthy after undergoing every medical test imaginable.
In an interview with Numéro in April 2018, Karl Lagerfeld spoke about aging, predicting that he would live to be at least 95-years-old.
“I’ve had every test under the sun and they can’t find anything wrong,” Lagerfeld said last spring. “Call me back in 10 years and we’ll talk about it again.”
Lagerfeld, who was the creative director of Chanel, Fendi, and his eponymous Karl Lagerfeld line, also described himself as a “machine” when asked if he worked too much. The famed designer added that aging has everything to do with “the conditions in which you age.”
“If you do it by avoiding excess, and in great luxury, it is effectively quite bearable,” Lagerfeld explained of getting old.
While he never expected that he would die at age 85, Karl Lagerfeld was proactive regarding his funeral plans. The designer laid out exactly how he wanted his funeral to be.
“There will be no burial… I’ve asked to be cremated and for my ashes to dispersed with those of my mother … and those of Choupette [Lagerfeld’s white-haired cat], if she dies before me.”
After Karl Lagerfeld skipped two Chanel couture shows last month, fashion fans began speculating about his health. It was the first time that Lagerfeld, who has designed for the Parisian fashion line since 1983, was not present for the show-ending bow. Still, it seems no one outside of Lagerfeld’s inner circle knew the extent of his medical woes, which reportedly landed him in the hospital one day before he died.
As for his legacy, Karl Lagerfeld believed in no such thing, despite his long tenure at two of the world’s leading design houses. According to Entertainment Weekly , in a 2017 interview with WWD , Karl Lagerfeld shut down talk of his future “legacy.”
“What a horrid word. It sounds like a funeral.”
Karl Lagerfeld’s official cause of death has not yet been revealed, and his funeral arrangements have not been announced.
