What to know about becoming Karl Lagerfeld and his YSL love triangle

Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, a limited series premiering on Hulu today (June 7), examines the life and career of the controversial German designer before he became a household name as creative director of Chanel, a role he held for 36 years. One of the show’s overarching tensions is Lagerfeld’s professional rivalry with his friend-turned-enemy, the French couturier Yves Saint Laurent, which turns intensely personal after Saint Laurent begins a brief but passionate affair with Lagerfeld’s romantic partner, the French dandy Jacques de Bascher.

See more information: How Karl Lagerfeld Redefined Modern Fashion as We Know It

In real life, this juicy love triangle has tongues wagging throughout the industry and high society during the 1970s and turned a seemingly friendly competition between Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent, who emerged together as young designers on the Parisian fashion scene, into a bitter rivalry, effectively ending their friendship.

Here’s what you need to know about the scandalous real-life love triangle that inspired Becoming Karl Lagerfeld.

Were Karl Lagerfeld and Yves Saint Laurent friends?

For most of their careers, Lagerfeld and Saint Laurent, both titans of French fashion, were polar opposites of each other. These two vastly different talents and their competition with each other helped define not just fashion, but what it meant to be a fashion designer in the 20th century. Their parallel journeys began in 1954, when the two designers, Lagerfeld, then 21, and Saint Laurent, then 18, entered the prestigious International Wool Secretariat design competition (now known as the International Woolmark Prize) in Paris. While Lagerfeld won first prize in the coats category, Saint Laurent achieved the highest distinction, taking home top honors in the evening gowns category.

After their respective victories, their fashion journeys took drastically different paths. Saint Laurent was catapulted to almost immediate prominence as a design prodigy when he was hired by Christian Dior and, shortly thereafter, appointed as his replacement at the fashion house following Dior’s unexpected death in 1957. Saint Laurent left this position to serve in the French army after he was called up in 1960 during the Algerian War, during which time he was fired from Dior. After his release from the army, he successfully sued Dior for breach of contract and founded his eponymous design house in 1961, achieving immense success in the 70s and 80s, where his sexy and glamorous designs, such as the iconic women’s tuxedo jacket ” Le Smoking”, they helped. capture the opulence and cultural changes of the time. The glittering allure of Saint Laurent’s designs was heightened by his aura as a public figure; he was known for his entourage of cosmopolitan muses and friends and for his affinity with partying, decadence, and debauchery.

During this period, Lagerfeld cut a much more discreet figure. After his Woolmark victory he designed for France fashion designers Balmain and Jean Patou, then freelancers for fashion houses such as Charles Jourdan, Valentino, Chloé and Fendi. Both Chloé and Fendi were influential in the development of her career. Lagerfeld began designing for Fendi in 1965, when he was recruited to work on the fur line; He would later design its signature double-F logo, help launch its ready-to-wear line, and creatively direct the brand until his death in 2019. His career at Fendi coincided with his more prominent work for Chanel and other houses.

Lagerfeld also began freelancing for Chloé in 1964, where he became a designer in 1966, later assuming the role of sole designer in 1974, a position he held until 1983 (although he returned for another stint at Chloé from 1992-1997). His first departure from Chloé came after he was named artistic director of Chanel in 1982, his most high-profile work to date and the position that would earn him worldwide recognition in the fashion world and beyond. Although Lagerfeld launched his eponymous brand in 1984, it never took priority when it came to his design. And unlike Saint Laurent, whose indulgences personified the vices of the time, Lagerfeld was known for his avoidance of drugs and alcohol, his rigorous discipline regarding his work ethic, as well as his emotional reticence and sharp tongue.

Although the two designers were ostensibly competing with each other, at one point they were friends — or, at least, enemies. In The beautiful fall: Lagerfeld, Saint Laurent and glorious excess in 1970s Paris, author Alicia Drake relays a hard-hitting interview that Lagerfeld gave to a French magazine where he compares the Saint Laurent of the 1980s with the one he knew.

“I don’t like this particular Yves because I know another one. He is one of the funniest people in the world, with an incredible sense of humor, who can make unbelievable impressions… who loved to use swear words and loved anything scatological… who was really very funny,” he said. “It’s an absurd idea when he says he didn’t have a youth. I met him when he had one, but he only had one desire at the time…to be rich and famous. .”

Who was Jacques de Bascher?

Jacques de Bascher was an Air France flight attendant from an aristocratic family who became one of France’s most notorious playboys after meeting Lagerfeld at a club in Paris in 1971, soon becoming his romantic partner. Although he is portrayed in Becoming Karl Lagerfeld As an aspiring writer, in real life de Bascher was best known for being a member of the jet set, for his many lascivious affairs, and for his addiction-fueled parties. Known for his taste for champagne and unlimited appetite, de Bascher supposedly kept his silk ties in a ribbon box that once belonged to Marie Antoinette and lived a life of luxury financed by Lagerfeld.

In Marie Ottavi’s biography of de Bascher, Jacques de Bascher, Dandy de l’ombre (“Jacques de Bascher, Shadow Dandy”) Lagerfeld was candid about his deep affection for de Bascher, despite their starkly different lifestyles and interests.

“He was the person who gave me more fun than anyone else,” Lagerfeld said. “He was also impossible, despicable – he was perfect… I’m a total prude, but I found Jacques’ adventures amusing. further away, I am a Calvinist towards myself and totally indulgent towards others.”

Lagerfeld’s deep care for de Bascher was evident in his acceptance of Bascher’s complicated 1974 affair with Saint Laurent. In Lagerfeld’s biography Paradise nowauthor William Middleton reveals that the affair, although passionate, lasted only six months and was interrupted by Saint Laurent’s business partner and former romantic partner, Pierre Bergé, who blamed de Bascher and Lagerfeld for Saint Laurent’s growing interest in hard drugs and sadomasochism, as well as her struggle with mental health.

For Lagerfeld, de Bascher was a rare exception to the severity that governed the rest of his life. Despite de Bascher’s many affairs, Lagerfeld, who was notoriously ruthless, cared deeply for him as a partner, remaining a constant in his life until de Bascher’s death at age 35 in 1989 from AIDS. For context, consider what the late André Leon Talley wrote in his 2019 obituary of Lagerfeld in Vogue: “Karl was extravagant, generous and very, very kind to his friends, until he suffered a break-up; so he would simply exclude one from his life, cutting off all lines of communication without any explanation.” When de Bascher tested positive for HIV in 1984, Lagerfeld provided the best doctors and medical care, going so far as to sleep on a bed in his room. . room after Bascher was hospitalized indefinitely.

“He was the only thing that gave any sense to things,” Lagerfeld said in a 1992 interview with Vanity Fair, three years after de Bascher’s death. “He brought a kind of shine to my life that no one else will. Maybe there’s one person in life for you and that’s all.”

What does Lagerfeld have to say about the affair with Saint Laurent?

In Ottavi’s book, Lagerfeld addresses his partner’s affair with Saint Laurent with surprising candor and blamed Bergé, Saint Laurent’s business partner, for any animosity that ensued between him and Saint Laurent.

“Of course I knew about the affair with Saint Laurent,” he said. “I had been close friends with Yves for over 20 years. In the beginning, we used to hang out with Anne-Marie Munoz and Victoire Doutreleau. Laurento.”

In a 2024 interview with El PaísOttavi elaborated on the disagreement between Lagerfeld and Bergé.

“Lagerfeld and Bergé started out as friends,” she said. “They shared Bergé’s love of books, but their relationship deteriorated over time. Bergé saw Yves Saint Laurent as an artist and a genius, but not Lagerfeld. And he made him feel that way. He also despised his German roots, in contrast to Yves’s roots. French taste told me that he felt that his friendship with Yves had been destroyed by Bergé and that it probably played a role in his estrangement from him. For Bergé, there was only one place at the top of the pyramid. .. and. went to Yves.”

In Ottavi’s book, Lagerfeld also showed an uncharacteristic kindness when talking about de Bascher’s many romantic complications.

“I didn’t hold him responsible,” Lagerfeld said. “I just wanted to see the good side of Jacques. I didn’t know what he kept in the shadows. He told me what he did when I wasn’t around, but I didn’t ask questions.”