The Karl Lagerfeld Photographic Archive Will Be Authenticated on the LUKSO Network
It is our great honor to announce that the Karl Lagerfeld photographic archive will be authenticated on the LUKSO Blockchain, as Marjorie Hernández and Eric Pfrunder revealed during a beautiful interview with Alfons Kaiser at FAZ Magazin. We are excited to bring the LUKSO network into the service of preserving Karl Lagerfeld’s incomparable photographic work. It is a great pleasure to share with you memorable selections from this article, translated from the original German, in which Mr. Éric Pfrunder shared bits of his work with Mr. Lagerfeld, their approach, and appreciation for emerging technologies, as well as the roles these technologies can play in creative fields, including fashion.
He was always there. Whenever Karl Lagerfeld took photos in his studio on Rue de Lille, Paris, Éric Pfrunder prepared everything in advance. Whenever the head designer for Chanel had fashion shoots in Monaco, on the isle of Rügen, in Vermont, or Vienna — Pfrunder took care of every arrangement as image director for the fashion house. He was der Vorarbeiter (“the fore-man”), as Lagerfeld jokingly dubbed the Frenchman in his own native German. The fashion designer styled himself Heimarbeiter (“homeworker”), as he mostly worked from home, and for Gerhard Steidl, who published multiple collections of Lagerfeld’s photography through his publishing house in Göttingen, the Ausarbeiter (“promoter”).
Since Lagerfeld began working at Chanel in 1983, Éric Pfrunder stood by his side, for 36 years. As the fashion designer died on 19. February 2019, Pfrunder was there beside him at the hospital: he stayed in the room next door with Lagerfeld’s assistant at Chanel, Virginie Viard, while Sébastien Jondeau sat by Lagerfeld’s deathbed.
“There are still so many stories to tell,” said Pfrunder over a video call. These were good decades: the luxury brand grew inexorably, Chanel multiplied its sales, and Lagerfeld stepped up to be the greatest of fashion designers. …Along with his children Candice, Tess, and Jasper, Éric Pfrunder is preserving this photographic inheritance.
Fashion and art do not attribute value to the copy, only the original. How does one present originals, drawn from a multitude of archived images, such that they could curate, present, loan, or sell them? And how can someone simultaneously link those individual images with the stories that Pfrunder has to tell? That can be done with blockchain.
One can think of this technology as a chain of data. These [links of] data tacked onto a digital good or photographs are similar to the brands inside your clothing. This data-label preserves a wide range of desirable information. For example, the owner of a photograph; or where, when, who, or by whom it was photographed; as well as the value of the photograph or its technical details. Every original retains a digital blockchain identity, containing its unambiguous point of origin, and so becomes a unique object in and of itself. [The original] receives “a singular, non-replicable identity,” as Marjorie Hernández says.
We like to think that photos are forever, but they are ephemeral. How do you prevent their deterioration? Now LUKSO are digitizing the Lagerfeld inheritance in its entirety — and authenticating it with blockchain technology.
Blockchain technologies are of fundamental interest to luxury houses like Chanel. For example: to produce one-of-a-kind digital clothes. The shift from haptic experiences to digital ones still remains a challenge. But digital harbors unimaginable potentials even for those who do not fully understand them. “I am learning more every day” — that’s how Pfrunder puts it. The most important to him is that the photos will be safeguarded.
He asked himself from the start: “What would Karl do now?” That is because Lagerfeld took interest in new technologies even early on, assured Pfrunder. Meanwhile, his close association with the company in Berlin led to his appointment to their advisory board
As Hernández puts it, “Data is also storytelling, and Éric is the master of just that — telling beautiful stories.”
