Few people will live on in legend the way fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld will. Although he died on Feb. 19 of cancer “about” the age of 85, his presence, which loomed over the fashion industry for decades, will not soon fade away from Paris runways or from the world.

Lagerfeld is best known for his leadership of Chanel, perhaps the most iconic of the top fashion houses, but had a pretty straightforward biography on paper. He was born in Hamburg, Germany, in 1933, left home for Paris at a young age after clashing with his parents because of his unorthodox sense of style, won the International Wool Secretariat, a prestigious design competition, when he was barely 21 years old, and began his career in the House of Balmain.