Karl Lagerfeld, designer who defined luxury fashion, dies at 85
Karl Lagerfeld, the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of th e modern luxury fashion industry, died Tuesday in Paris.
prolific a.(艺术家，作家)多产的，作品丰富的
Creative director of Chanel since 1983 and Fendi since 1965, and founder of his own line, Mr.Lagerfeld was the definition of a fashion polyglot. In his 80s, when most of his peers were retiring to their yachts or country estates, he was designing an average of 14 new collections a year ranging from couture to the high street, and not counting collaborations and special projects.
polyglot, n.多元的人；掌握多种语言的人 (词根poly- 多)
yacht, n.游艇
couture, n.高级时装
His greatest calling was as the orchestrator of his own myth. A self-identified "caricature," with his dark glasses, powdered ponytail, black jeans, finerless gloves, starched collars, Chrome Hearts jewelry and obsessive Diet Coke consumption, he achieved such a level of global fame --- and controversy --- that a $200 Karl Barbie doll, created in collaboration with the toymaker Mattel, sold out in less than an hour in 2014.
calling n.专业；职业 | My father considered engineering the highest possible calling.
orchestrator, n.策划人，操纵者
caricature, n.漫画；夸张的表现风格；可笑样式
ponytail, n.马尾辫
startch, v.上浆（用淀粉浆硬衣服）
Those who wanted to dismiss Lagerfeld referred to him as a "styliste": a designer who creates his looks by repurposing what already exists, as opposed to inventing anything new. But he rejected the idea of fashion-as-art, and the designer-as-tortured-genius. His goal was more opportunistic.
refer to... as ... 把...称为...
as opposed to, 而不是
opportunistic, a.投机的，机会主义的
"I would like to be a one-man multinational fashion phenomenon," he once said.