karl lagerfeld: environmentalist? possibly

photograph: francois more, AP One rarely considers lagerfeld in terms of environmental activism however his a/w 2010/2011 Swedish iceberg presentation and his accompanying statements ("Global warming is the issue of our times. Fashion has to address it.") were surprising given the excesses of luxury fashion including his work with furs for Fendi.

Chanel's Karl Lagerfeld was endlessly inventive although always including his obsessions such as hand mitts, but wan an endless variation of theses among other obsessions, there were, just as his brilliant reimagining of tweed and tartans. When he discovered Julian McDonald, who was working on his MA at the Royal College of Art in London, they produced some of the most sumptuous knits ever, including McDonald's witty parody of a black and white Chanel tweed during his brief tenure there

photograph: courtesy chanel karl lagerfeld

photograph: courtesy chanel karl lagerfeld