Karl Lagerfeld Black Ikonik T-Shirt

Karl Lagerfeld launched his own label in 1984, a year into the Chanel job that would define his public life. He kept the eponymous house as the place where his personal point of view lived: Parisian classics run through a rock attitude, black on black, sharp rather than pretty. The Ikonik motif came later and is the most direct thing the brand has ever made. It is Karl himself reduced to a cartoon: white ponytail, black sunglasses, high starched collar, fingerless gloves, the uniform he wore every single day without variation. When he was gone the silhouette became the house signature, a way of keeping the founder on the clothes rather than only on the label. A black Ikonik T-shirt is not really a logo tee, it is a portrait.