Karl Lagerfeld’s Avant-Garde Paris Apartment Sells to Anonymous Bidder for $10.8 Million

“This is not a house, it’s a spaceship,” Lagerfeld said of the unique abode in 2008

Karl Lagerfeld’s Paris apartment officially has a new owner. The late fashion legend’s customized residence hit the auction block on March 26 at the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, per Mansion Global. The auction’s anonymous winner paid $10.8 million (€10 million) for the abode following a heated bidding war with another patron, according to the New York Times. Bidding on the unit, which sits on the third floor of a 17th-century building and served as Lagerfeld’s home and studio, began at $5.77 million (€5.3 million).

In 2012, seven years before his death, Lagerfeld told AD France that it took two years to transform the 2,800-square-foot aerie into a unique avant-garde spread. While in the middle of the gut renovation, the former Chanel designer said that living in the space would be “like floating in your own spaceship over a very civilized past” and it seems as if that’s what he was able to achieve. The abode is located on Quai Voltaire, a historic street bordering the Seine on the city’s Left Bank.

Per the latest images, floors throughout the apartment still shine with a mixture of polished cement and silicone resin that the Chanel director used to cover the existing parquet wood floors. Sunlight floods through several windows, bouncing off the sleek surfaces and the frosted-white glass panes that make up the wall-to-wall shelves and other partitions. During Lagerfeld’s residency in the home, the futuristic features lent an intense space-age feel to the extra long living area, which was a combination of eight rooms. “I wanted an apartment with glass and transparency everywhere, lit to death, because I live in over-lit conditions,” he told AD. “I need an exact recreation of daylight when I draw.”

In the kitchen, Lagerfeld chose stainless steel for cabinets and appliances, and stored linens and household products in two giant storage cylinders purchased from Colette, the beloved former French boutique. According to the Times, however, the designer banned cooking in the apartment and ate in a nearby property to control the smell of the space. A butler’s pantry was dedicated to storing Diet Coke in lieu of groceries.

Lagerfeld placed his bed in a small nook-like space to create a cozy bedroom and designated a large area at the end of a narrow corridor as his dressing room, which was outfitted with custom boutique-like cabinetry and black and gray furniture.

The living room of the apartment, with lots of storage along the walls.

In June, Disney+ will release a six-part biopic miniseries on the iconic designer’s life called Becoming Karl Lagerfeld, based on the book Kaiser Karl: The Life of Karl Lagerfeld by Raphaëlle Bacqué.

Source: Architectural Digest