Inside Karl Lagerfeld’s extraordinary Paris library and bookshop, a haven for the bibliophile

Step through the sliding glass door at 7 Rue de Lille in Paris and you’ll find yourself inside the sumptuous psyche of one of fashion’s most prodigious figures. Karl Lagerfeld, the designer who left an indelible mark on visual culture during his 36-year tenure at Chanel, founded Librairie 7L in 1999, converting a former art gallery into a photographic studio, bookshop and library. Its cavernous atrium is lined with printed matter spanning Balthus to David Bailey, Goethe to Andreas Gursky, slow diets to fast food. Speaking to the curator Hans Ulrich Obrist in 2014 in his direct and unsentimental style, Lagerfeld said: ‘My paradise is a library ... I am a paper freak. I was born a paper freak … I was not interested in anything else but books, books, books and drawing paper.’ Librairie 7L is sublime proof of that.

An exclusive tour of 7L, Karl Lagerfeld’s Paris bookshop and library

Since Lagerfeld’s death in 2019, 7L has maintained the designer’s prolific eclecticism and scholarship through its three activities: the public-facing bookshop (where titles are presented at eye level on high tables or displayed on picture rails like paintings), the publishing house Éditions 7L, and the library, which has also now become a space for cultural events, exhibitions, music performances, dance recitals and poetry readings.

Under the erudite stewardship of Laurence Delamare, who has been director since 2021, 7L is a ‘living projection of Karl Lagerfeld’s mind’. Here, some 33,000 titles are organised without hierarchy or pomposity. ‘Karl used to tell me that reading the catalogue of an exhibition is often more beneficial than visiting it. “Books are sufficient to themselves,” he would say. “They ask for nothing and they are silently patient, but they are always there for you”.’

During the 15 years that she was global head of fashion PR for Chanel, Delamare would regularly attend any number of editorial and campaign shoots at the address with the hope of squeezing in short interviews with Lagerfeld between frames. He was usually two or three hours late, which left her with a good opportunity to browse. ‘Each and every time, I was impressed by the magic of the place, and I couldn’t help buying something in the bookshop while waiting. He would say that books make us look at everything with renewed pleasure and a wiser eye.’

The capacious library is accessible upon invitation. Guests can nestle into deep Christian Liaigre sofas or perch on Andrée Putman leather stools, which sit among graphic, hand-knotted rugs by Christopher Farr. ‘Entering the library is like entering a book cathedral,’ says Delamare. ‘With Karl’s curiosity being so huge and intense, spanning all areas of life, culture and history, it could have been overwhelming, but I’m exhilarated by his complete absence of snobbery.’

From the start, she wanted the building to remain a hub of creation. It was, she says, ‘the only way to keep it alive without nostalgia’. A small technical room once dedicated to photographic retouching is today a gallery – recent exhibitions have featured works by Agnes Varda, Mary Ellen Bartley and Magnum’s Cristina de Middel and Rafał Milach, as well as a series of screenings in collaboration with the Centre National des Arts Plastiques.

Later this month, historian Chantal Thomas will be in conversation with Delamare as part of 7L’s monthly Reading Room event, and the salon will host performances by artistic and social initiative, Paris Dance Project. Meanwhile, this autumn, Éditions 7L will publish books on Ronan Bouroullec, and Xavier Veilhan’s scenography for Chanel, among others.

Lagerfeld’s legacy, beyond his myriad contributions to fashion and pop culture, lies in his unrelenting commitment to learning. His books are witness to a world in constant flux. ‘We invite all the artists to find and share their path into the library,’ says Delamare. ‘It is the rule of the 7L game! Each performance expresses its singular connection to the spirit of the place. The ultimate aim is to gather a family of authors, artists and publishing houses, and an audience that share their curiosity.’ Drawing from its previous life as a dynamic photo studio, Librairie 7L is really only whatever is happening inside of it. It is an inviting bookshop, a salon for creative contemplation, a room eager to be filled.

This article appears in the September 2024 issue of Wallpaper*, available in print on newsstands, on the Wallpaper* app on Apple iOS, and to subscribers of Apple News +. Subscribe to Wallpaper*

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