时尚界「老佛爷」去世，外媒如何评价他一生的成就？,美国研究生留学微信公众号文章

本文转载自英语学习笔记（ID：erczenglish），作者张海露Eric。

香奈儿艺术总监“老佛爷” Karl Lagerfeld 于 2 月 19 日去世，享年 85 岁。

我从众多外媒报道中，精选了 4 份主流报纸的讣告选段。和你一起从不同风格、不同角度读读这位传奇设计师的一生，看看他有哪些主要成就。

《纽约时报》

The New York Times

来自：https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/19/obituaries/karl-lagerfeld-dead.html

《纽约时报》讣告，标题是 Karl Lagerfeld Dies at 85; Prolific Designer Defined Luxury Fashion。后面 5 个词就表明了 Karl Lagerfeld 的身份、特点和影响力。

讣告是这样开头的：

Karl Lagerfeld，the most prolific designer of the 20th and 21st centuries and a man whose career formed the prototype of the modern luxury fashion industry, died on Tuesday in Paris. He was 85.

人活这一辈子，去世后别人会如何介绍你的成就？其实到头来一个插入语就够了。

上面标红的插入语就是对标题的具体解释，再次强调 prolific——这几乎是所有 Lagerfeld 中都会用到的词。他 80 高龄还坚持在一线工作，还能一年平均设计 14 个系列的服装，确实够 prolific。

后面用 form the prototype of 替换了标题里的 define，还是强调他在时尚界的地位。

文中还有一处很有意思：

...his output as a designer was rivaled only by his outpourings as a master of the telling aphorism — so much so that his quotations were collected in a book, “The World According to Karl,” in 2013.

唯一能和他设计成就相媲美的就是他那源源不断的金句了。

Lagerfeld 的金句中有他的审美哲学、幽默，也有毒舌，数量多到可以集结成书，英文叫 The World According to Karl，中文叫《卡尔的说话之道》。

这段话写得很巧妙、工整。一边是 his output as a designer，一边是 his outpourings as a master，中间用 rival 连接自然过渡。一副才华横溢、对工作一丝不苟，同时有很特立独行、口无遮拦的人物形象跃然纸上。

BBC

来自：https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-47293637

BBC 的语言风格是简单、口语化，说话方式贴近年轻人：

There is a reason why Karl Lagerfeld, who has died at the age of 85, was called the emperor—or "Kaiser" in his native German—by fashion insiders.

After all, he was one of the world's most iconic fashion designers, at the heart of not one, not two, but three fashion houses.

The man who steered Chanel for more than 30 years combined artistic flair with business acumen which would see the Parisian label's sales reach $10bn (£7.7bn) in 2017.

BBC 的讣告主打 Lagerfeld 最知名、最有特色的标签“皇帝”，Kaiser，在国内一般称为“老佛爷”。后面紧接着就解释了他的过人之处，有艺术天赋（flair）也有商业才华（acumen）。这里的 steer 可以理解为“执掌”，其它报道中常出现 helm，表示“掌舵”。

Lagerfeld 1965 年开始为 Fendi 设计，Fendi 经典的 F 标就是出自他之手。1983 年成为 Chanel 的艺术总监，带领 Chanel 起死回生成为最赚钱的品牌之一，1984 年创立个人同名品牌。因此说他 at the heart of not one, not two, but three fashion houses，这里的 not...not...but 比较口语话，起到了强调作用。

《卫报》

The Guardian

来自：https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2019/feb/19/karl-lagerfeld-obituary

《卫报》的讣告一如既往的精彩。它的语言很讲究，和上面的 BBC 风格截然不同：

The designer Karl Lagerfeld, who has died aged 85, explored and exploited couture, ready-to-wear and even mass-market fashion for more than 60 years. He had a genius for visual quotation and allusion, impersonation and pastiche, especially at Chanel, the fashion house he headed for more than three decades, and it made him the first postmodern fashionmeister.

第一句话介绍了他的设计范围之广，高中低端都有涉猎。第二句话用一个“had a genius for“（有些报道还用到了 have a knack for）写出了他的艺术才华、博学和主要成就。

这里 couture（高级时装）和 pastiche（集大成之作）是法语词汇，准确、带有贵族气息，简直是单词里的香奈儿。顺便说《华盛顿邮报》就称 Lagerfeld 是“a German-born couturier”。

最后的 fashionmeister 是“时尚达人”的意思，常与名词搭配表示”xx专家/高手“。meister 来自德语——Lagerfeld 就是在德国出生的，选用这个词可能和称他 Kaiser 一样是考虑到了这一点。

《泰晤士报》

The Times

来自：https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/karl-lagerfeld-obituary-3wdlw96zg

《泰晤士报》为他选的标签是才华和古怪。和前面几份讣告不同的是，它在第一段中把重点放在了“怪”上，引用了一段往事表现了 Lagerfeld 的狂傲和毒舌：

Karl Lagerfeld was a man renowned as much for his successful career as a fashion designer, most notably at Chanel, as for being one of the industry’s most prolific eccentrics. He was acerbic about his contemporaries. “They should have taken a big name. They did, but in music, not fashion,” he said, remarking on Stella McCartney’s appointment at Chloé.

网上也有一些声音是声讨 Lagerfeld，说他是种族主义者、歧视女性，不该为这样的人哀悼。