180 drawings by Karl Lagerfeld to be auctioned

One hundred and eighty unpublished drawings by the fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld will be auctioned at Sotheby's on Wednesday 6 July. These are hand-drawn sketches by the designer from the late 1960s to 2018, the year before his death in February 2019. The drawings express the German designer's incredible creative energy and vision, which was always enriched by new inspirations. The fashion sketches are mostly done in ink, coloured markers, watercolour and sometimes with unusual materials such as eye shadow. Among these drawings, several represent the origin of fashion collections that have become mythical. The most sought-after lots are certainly those with handwritten notes by the designer, annotations that sometimes evoke the theme that inspired him, such as this "The age of destruction" inscribed next to a model sketched in ink, with a precise and striking line.

This one is estimated at 1200-1800 euros, other estimates reach 18,000 euros, such as this series of twenty-four sketches drawn in 1969 and arranged in a binder, which movingly retrace the history of fashion and styles of the time.

The handwritten annotations also often refer to details of the clothes, or to accessories. The vast majority of the drawings come from Karl Lagerfeld's Parisian flats on rue des Saints-Pères and quai Voltaire.

The drawings made by the legendary artistic director of Chloé, Fendi and Chanel, will be sold during the Haute Couture week in Paris.Compulsive draughtsman with boundless energy, Karl Lagerfeld liked to repeat "It is good to do, it is not interesting to have done". The drawings thus become his personal encyclopaedia of styles, the expression of his boundless creativity and a poignant testimony to fifty years of haute couture history.

Sotheby's thus pays tribute for the umpteenth time to one of the major protagonists of the fashion world. The auction house has already held several sales dedicated to the designer's possessions.

Last December, auctions organised in Monaco and Paris on a selection of objects and works of art that belonged to the designer brought in a record figure of 18.2 million euros, four times the initial estimate.

Sotheby's headquarters in Cologne, Germany, also auctioned off other Lagerfeld memorabilia from his magnificent residence in Louveciennes, near Versailles. The auction took place last May in the sumptuous setting of the Oppenheim Palace.