Throughout his illustrious career, the late Karl Lagerfeld amassed an impressive portfolio of distinctive properties. Recent monograph Karl Lagerfeld A Life in Houses, published by Thames & Hudson, surveys this vast collection: everything from the Memphis-ladden apartment in Monte Carlo to the high-ornate, era-appropriate eighteenth-century mansion Hôtel Pozzo di Borgo in Paris. Regardless of the address, the revered fashion designer always, unabashedly, combined old with new, shedding fresh light on various historical design movements and their most important pioneers. Most of these homes have been the subject of expansive magazine print features and the fodder of tabloid headlines but little focus has ever really been placed on his workspaces.
That all changed with the recent uncovering and reformatting of Lagerfeld’s private Saint-Germain-des-Prés office. Luxury apartment and home rental platform HIGHSTAY has deftly, yet carefully, transformed the multi-level bureau into a two bedroom Saint-Germain I accommodation replete with original architectural fit-outs and collected items. This period room of sorts is a timecapsule, preserved in exactly the same configuration as the day the legendary talent left for the last time. Away from the major couture houses he stewarded up to his death in 2019, the space was a more intimate retreat; a stylistic reflection of himself, in which he could carry out private business and entertain close friends.
Though decidedly indicative of a specific era in design history—not disclosed but easily deciphered as the late 1990s and early 2000s—the sprawling 2690 square-foot unit unfolds with sleek, space-age-like built-ins contoured in curvilinear half polished and half patinated steel surfaces. Even in this once-contemporary pared back setting—somehow timeless and au courant yet again—Laggerfeld still exerted a degree of opulence, if slightly restraint in overall scheme.
The near palatial stairwell was custom designed by him in partnership with top-billing Australian product designer Marc Newson. The “La tête dans les nuages” (Head in the Clouds) sculpture standing at its base was created by artist Laurence Perratzi.
In one of the adjoining lounges, soaring mirrored ceilings expand the visual perspective of twin steel libraries—articulated in the same formal vocabulary—described above—as a custom bedframe-cum-armoire. Normally a stark material that evokes a level of cold industrial conformity was rendered in warm, corporeal form here. Wielded in the more intimate walk-in closets and bar, dark-tone wood paneling emerges a grounding contrast.
This matrix of a hybrid complex—an urban retreat featuring a private hammam and sauna—also includes a second en-suite bedroom, separate dining room, and other annexes. There’s a visual consistency of capsule and pixelated elements—hinting at a more sophisticated interpretation of early digital motifs.
Complementing the hard product is a curated Karl Itinerary incorporation stops at the couturier’s favorite Left Bank haunts, Café de Flore and Maison du Caviar among them.
What: Saint-Germain I
Where: Paris, France
How much: price upon request
Design draws: Karl Lagerfeld’s lesser-known private office perfectly preserved as a two-bedroom rental apartment with sleek metallic capsule and pixelated pattern details throughout.
Book it: Saint-Germain I
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Photography courtesy of HIGHSTAY
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