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Rolexes, diamond bracelets and private jets: Inside the world of Karl Lagerfeld's 'Boys' (including his six-year-old catwalk godson who he lavishes with gifts)
- Chanel designer, 83, has an entourage of male models called 'Karl's Boys'
- Eccentric fashion legend hates selfies and drinks chilled Diet Coke
- Puts six-year-old godson on the catwalk and covers him in diamonds
- Until recently, he only communicated via fax machine
He's as famous for his extravagant lifestyle as he is his signature designs.
With London Fashion Week in full swing, Karl Lagerfeld's favourite muse has lifted the lid on what life is really like with the head designer of fashion houses Chanel and Fendi.
Model Brad Kroenig is the most senior member of an elite group of male models known as 'Karl's boys' and with his six-year-old son Hudson he travels the world in Lagerfeld's private jet attending fashion shows and exclusive parties.
In an interview in The Times's Saturday magazine, Kroenig reveals how the designer likes to lavish gifts on his 'boys', with a rose-gold Rolex and a diamond bracelet by Chrome Hearts, Lagerfeld's favourite jewellery brand, among his latest presents. Kroenig, whom Lagerfeld once shot as the Greek god Zeus and compiled the photos in a four-volume book devoted entirely to his muse, said: 'Karl is really generous. He likes his friends to look chic.'
Kroenig's son Hudson is Lagerfeld's godson and has been appearing in Chanel shows since he was two.
It is reported Karl walks around with a portable Polaroid printer and he has gifted Hudson with one too.
But he tells the little boy off when he tries to use the camera to take selfies saying: 'I hate selfies. Don't use your film for ugly purpose.'
And even when they're not together it's been reported that Karl lavishes the little boy with gifts. It's been said he gave him a toy version of himself and fills Hudson's wardrobe with Chanel and Fendi clothes.
Lagerfeld, who designs 17 collections a year and until recently only communicated with friends by fax, stunned onlookers when he draped the youngster in layers of diamonds worth $1.5million on Chanel's 2015 resort collection runway in Dubai in May 2014.
Much has been made of Lagerfeld's relationship with Kroenig and Hudson. The profile of Lagerfeld detailed how the designer would fly the pair around on his private jet. In the piece Lagerfeld, who is famous for his acerbic put-downs, said he prefers the company of models because: 'I hate ugly people. Very depressing.'
Indeed, Kroenig and his son not only accompany Karl around the world to various shows and parties but also on his holidays to St Tropez.
It's a relationship that doesn't seem to bother Kroenig's wife, Nicole, who stays at home in New York as her husband flies around the world with the designer.
He told The Times of his relationship with the models: 'I see the boys like family. I have no family at all, so it's good to have, like, sons, but without the unpleasant problems sons can create.'
As well as covering his models in diamonds, Lagerfeld once had a cast of the model Baptiste Giabiconi made out of chocolate.
Indeed, when Lagerfeld takes to someone, they can rely on his endless support. From Cara Delevingne to Kendall Jenner, he has had many a muse.
He tends to like strong women, from Rita Ora for whom he created a dress named, The Ora, to Kristen Stewart who starred in his Chanel Dallas campaign.
Singer Lily Allen has also long been a close confident of the designer. It is rumoured that they met at a party where she drunkenly asked him to draw her a diagram of how to make shoes.
She landed a Chanel campaign and when she married in 2011 she wore a custom Chanel gown for part of the day.
Lagerfeld's own life is as gilded as it is regimented. He has a butler who wears a white coat and tie and travels ahead of him, greeting him with a chilled wine glass of Diet Coke.
In an interview with Harper's Bazaar he once revealed that he has to sleep for seven hours a day, every day.
He follows a strict diet which starts with two protein shakes and steamed apples and he refuses to drink hot drinks.
Lagerfeld famously lost six and a half stone saying that he did so so that he could, 'be a good clothes horse.'
His hair, which he has pulled back into a pony-tail every day, is not actually the white hue it seems, in fact he has previously admitted that he sprays it every day with masses of dry shampoo to achieve the colour.
But while the fashion designer, whose black trousers feature a microprint of his own likeness, is undoubtedly one of the most famous in the world, he is in danger of being usurped by his cat Choupette.
The Siamese cat has her own Twitter account and a range of accessories in her image including shopping bags and wallets.
Choupette has her own wikipeadia page and was originally owned by Baptiste. In an interview with CNN in 2011 Karl revealed he wished he could marry the cat.
He said: 'There is no marriage, yet, for human beings and animals… I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat.'
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