“Karl,” a new documentary about fashion legend Karl Lagerfeld, is set to bring audiences closer to the man behind one of the most recognizable personas in modern fashion. Directed by Nick Hooker, the film arrives on Paramount Plus on October 6, offering an intimate look at Lagerfeld’s seven-decade career and the personality he worked tirelessly to keep hidden.
Lagerfeld once admitted that he had spent so much time playing a role that it had become nearly impossible for anyone to know who he really was. That carefully constructed persona, defined by a white ponytail, dark sunglasses, fingerless gloves, and an often cutting wit, became inseparable from his work at Chanel, Fendi, and Chloé.
Yet behind the image was a designer who remained deeply invested in the people and processes that made his vision possible. Hooker’s film sets out to explore that lesser-seen side of Lagerfeld while examining the career that turned him into one of fashion’s most influential figures.
Nick Hooker’s Long Road To Karl Lagerfeld
Hooker’s connection to Lagerfeld began with an unexpected television encounter in the early 2000s. While watching a political interview, the filmmaker changed the channel and came across footage of a black limousine traveling through Paris to collect a ribbon from a seamstress outside the city.
The ribbon would later be sewn onto Chanel sleeves at Rue Cambon before appearing on the runway just three days later. After the show, Lagerfeld reportedly sought out the seamstress to thank her personally.
“He went right up to her and said, ‘Thank you so much, we’re so lucky to have you, you’re such a genius,'” Hooker recalled.
The moment challenged the image of Lagerfeld as a distant and imposing fashion figure. Hooker became interested in the contrast between the public character and the person who existed behind it, eventually spending years developing the documentary.
Hooker’s previous documentary work includes “AKA Mr. Chow” for HBO and “Agnelli,” giving him experience with larger-than-life cultural figures whose public identities often overshadow their private lives.
What To Expect in The Karl Lagerfeld Documentary
“Karl” runs for one hour and 50 minutes and follows Lagerfeld’s life and career across seven decades. The film begins with his early years in Hamburg before moving through his formative period in Paris and his transformative tenure at Chanel.
The documentary also draws from the biography “Paradise Now” and makes extensive use of archival footage. Chanel’s runway shows are central to the visual storytelling, allowing the film to revisit the collections and spectacles that helped establish Lagerfeld’s influence on contemporary luxury fashion.
The film’s animated sequences add another layer to the presentation. Created by Rohan McDonald in collaboration with Hooker, the sequences bring Lagerfeld’s fashion illustrations to life through atmospheric lighting, shadows, and movement.
Rather than relying solely on traditional talking-head interviews, the visual approach gives “Karl” a distinct aesthetic that reflects the designer’s own relationship with image and fantasy.
The Designers And Stars Remember Lagerfeld
The documentary features interviews with several figures who knew Lagerfeld personally or worked closely with him throughout his career. Tilda Swinton, Penélope Cruz, Vanessa Paradis, and Tom Ford are among those featured, alongside collaborators and creative peers from different periods of his life.
For Hooker, these relationships were essential to understanding Lagerfeld beyond the character he presented to the public. The film focuses on the working version of Lagerfeld, the designer, collaborator, employer, and creative force, rather than attempting to separate the man entirely from the mythology surrounding him.
That approach gives the documentary an affectionate quality while still acknowledging the complexities surrounding its subject.
The Childhood That Shaped Lagerfeld’s Vision
One of the film’s more revealing threads examines Lagerfeld’s childhood in Hamburg and his experience of Operation Gomorrah, the Allied bombing campaign that devastated the city during World War II.
Although Lagerfeld rarely discussed the experience openly, Hooker sees a connection between that early exposure to destruction and the designer’s lifelong fascination with beauty, history, and grandeur.
“He was a boy who discovered the 18th century, who discovered beauty, discovered fashion, discovered a way of living at Versailles, at a moment in his life that was as dark, violent, and traumatic as one can imagine,” Hooker said of Lagerfeld.
That relationship with the past became an important part of Lagerfeld’s creative identity. His fascination with the Princess Palatine, an 18th-century German noblewoman who married into the French royal family, influenced the imagery and historical references that appeared throughout his life and work.
The documentary uses those details to look beyond the familiar sunglasses and ponytail, examining the motivations and obsessions that helped shape Lagerfeld’s creative world.
A New Look At Lagerfeld’s Legacy
Lagerfeld died in February 2019, but discussion around his legacy has continued. The 2023 Met Gala, which celebrated his work and career, reignited debates about how the fashion industry should approach his achievements alongside the more controversial aspects of his public persona.
“Karl” does not attempt to settle those debates. Instead, the documentary places much of its attention on the work itself and the extraordinary scale of Lagerfeld’s creative output across seven decades.
Graydon Carter, co-editor of Air Mail, serves as an executive producer on the project. The film also screened at the Telluride Film Festival in 2025 ahead of its wider release.
Now, with its Paramount Plus debut, “Karl” brings Lagerfeld’s story to a much broader audience. The documentary ultimately offers another opportunity to look at the designer beyond the character he created, and to revisit the fashion, ambition, and visual language that made him such a defining figure of his era.
“Karl” begins streaming on Paramount Plus on October 6.
Featured image: IC Photos/Deposit Photos
