On 19 February Karl Lagerfeld, a master of European fashion houses, crossed over. Friends and colleagues called him Kaiser.

A famous couturier, the man-era was a mysterious and closed personality. His shocking quotations and sharp epithets are known all over the world. He once joked that if the incarnation existed, then after death he would like to turn into a shopping bag.

The Emperor is under authority. He has a right not to be nice and politically correct. Lagerfeld believed that natural defects should be corrected: "No one wants to see curvy women". He thought tatoos were horrible, he compared it to living in a Pucci dress full-time. With charming contempt he treated attacks of "green", he coined art collection haute fur for Fendi, where s fur coat from sable cost a million dollars.

Beauty is created by Italians, they are born with a sense of harmony. Karl Lagerfeld was German. Aesthetics and sense of beauty are not strongest points of German burghers. Perhaps, that is why Lagerfeld did not cling to neither national roots nor his own: "I cannot stand birthdays. I don't celebrate the past. I prefer the present and the future."

Lagerfeld was called a man-machine and a man-brand. Kaiser did not create male fashion, it seemed boring to him. He worked thoroughly on his appearance. "The body must be perfect," the designer preached, spitting on all the political correctness of 21 century. "And if it is imperfect, go on a diet." He knew what he was talking about: he managed to lose 40 kilograms.

Creative personalities often overcome external and internal barriers. They often have to reshape and create themselves. At the beginning of his professional career Lagerfeld did not have a unique charisma. He was a nice German young man — nothing special, nothing memorable.

Kaiser thoroughly worked on his own image: black glasses, hair in a bun, rhinoplasty, conscious thinness, black and white palette of colors. The Emperor is supposed to have a gegal bearing and aristocratic appearance.

For his own clothing, Kaiser Karl chose monochrome colors. It was impossible to imagine him in a badly fitting jacket. However, the basic element of the wardrobe designer considered a shirt "for me a shirt is the basis of everything. The rest is secondary," said Lagerfeld, adding snow-white shirts in almost every collection.

Lagerfeld's shirts were buttoned, and the collar posts were high, often with two buttons.

Only Lagerfeld could wear a shirt with a wing collar with a tie, not a traditional bow tie.

And when the genius of design deviated from the usual stereotypes, it turned out divinely.

Kaiser's gone forever. Something is waiting ahead...