Rebooting 7L, Karl Lagerfeld’s Beloved Bookstore
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If the walls of Karl Lagerfeld’s photo studio on the Rue de Lille in Paris could talk, it would be in multiple languages — and the discourse would be fascinating enough to write multiple books to add to the 33,000 volumes already stacked around the perimeter, from floor to rafters.
Tucked behind his beloved 7L bookstore, it’s where the late German designer happily worked late into the night two or three times a week, lensing numerous Chanel campaigns and press kits and, for a famous coffee-table tome, making portraits of some of the most famous people in the world wearing little black jackets.
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When he wasn’t behind the camera shooting editorials, advertising or artistic experiments — via Polaroid transfers, daguerreotypes, platinotypes, resinotypes or digital prints — he would dart to an adjoining meeting room to conduct media interviews or to plan projects with architects, filmmakers, playwrights, authors, publishers, musicians and actors.
The shutter clicks and conversations stopped when Lagerfeld passed away in February 2019, casting a solemn pall over this iconic place.
But 7L is roaring back to life in a way Lagerfeld would have relished: It’s now brimming with cultural events, dance and musical performances, exhibitions, book signings, readings, lectures, bespoke services and cool merch.
“It is not a museum,” stresses Laurence Delamare in her first interview since being named director of 7L in 2021, shortly after Chanel acquired the venue, where a huge part of the French fashion house’s visual history was recorded. “My idea from the beginning was to bring creativity back to this place. It won’t be a fashion photo studio anymore, but a place for contemporary artists.
“To continue a project that Karl created is an honor, it’s exceptional and it’s such an exhilarating mission,” she enthuses.
Over the past two years, Delamare and her team — which coincidentally numbers seven, Lagerfeld’s favorite number — have been working behind the scenes on multiple fronts: conceiving a rich cultural program now available by subscription; sparking up an Instagram account; revamping 7L’s website and resuming online sales, and restarting 7L’s activity as publisher, too.
Guiding their work is the template forged by Lagerfeld, who established 7L in 1999, specializing in photo books displayed flat on high tables or on picture rails like artworks, a nod to the venue’s former life as an art gallery.
“I love this place so much that it’s part of me,” the designer once declared.
After vacating his house in Biarritz and a vast apartment on the nearby Rue de l’Université in Paris, those 33,000 books were carefully arranged in the large atrium space that became Lagerfeld’s photo studio. The dominant subject matter in those millions of pages — photography, visual arts, literature, music and dance — provide the framework for all of 7L’s activities. Even in situ performances take their cues from books.
“The idea is really to be inspired by the library, or the bookstore,” Delamare explains, mentioning that one of the first dance performances at 7L took its cues from a book about Tadao Ando, one of Lagerfeld’s favorite architects. (“Atlas Tadao Ando,” by Philippe Séclier, published by Atelier EXB.)
Delamare worked at Lagerfeld’s elbow for 15 years as Chanel’s global head of fashion public relations, sharing his passions for movies and literature — and for elegant events and communications. She continues to wear a second hat as the head of Chanel fashion’s editorial narrative department.
Lagerfeld, who helmed Chanel for more than 30 years, set the bar extremely high with his formidable creative output, so it’s not surprising to hear Delamare declare about all of 7L’s cultural happenings: “It has to be live, and it has to be exceptional.”
(In that vein, Delamare even commissioned a poet, Claire Marin, to pen the press release detailing this “new chapter” for 7L.)
Delamare made clear that she’s running the bookstore, publishing house and cultural space as businesses, not philanthropy, and she has a development plan for each.
Lagerfeld was famously a ravenous client of Paris bookstores including Galignani, and 7L has built an important clientele of artists, architects, designers and collectors, who treasure the curated and up-to-the-minute selection of books about photography, architecture, design, interiors and gardens.
During the interview, 7L staff lined up on a table a selection of current bestsellers — and what they call “long sellers.” They include books about artist Christian Berard, aesthete Charles de Beistegui, architect Carlo Scarpa, chessboard design, modernism in Beirut, the anatomy of color and psychoanalytic interiors.
“The bookstore itself is like a living projection of Karl’s mind. And the book selection is also a reflection of the books in the library,” Delamare says. “We continue to advocate Karl’s eclecticism, Karl’s taste, the things he loved. And I think our clients, our audience is very emotionally attached to our curation of books. The editorial line has not changed.”
In addition to revamping the website and recently resuming e-commerce, 7L introduced a bespoke library service for clients’ homes or offices, assembled by its bookstore staff according to their interests — or decor. Delamare notes one of its first commissions involved sourcing books in the color yellow. “They can do whatever the clients want them to do and personalize the curation,” she says.
Launching for holiday gifting are “book boxes” containing a trio of books on a specific subject, stationery goodies and a previously unpublished, numbered artwork. New 7L merch includes a range of sturdy tote bags, sketch pads, pencils and also co-branded items, like a Smythson slogan notebook emblazoned with the Karl-ism: “Books Should Be an Everyday Affair.”
Regular book signings animate the space, with 7L hosting about 50 since April 2022, including with the industrial designer Ronan Bouroullec, and artist Sophie Calle, whose session welcomed an unexpected drop-in: Madonna. (Delamare notes that Lagerfeld wasn’t fond of signings, as all visitors to 7L, even those headed to his photo studio, had to pass through the bookstore.)
Among upcoming guests for signing sessions are fashion illustrator Jean-Philippe Delhomme and fashion editor and entrepreneur Carine Roitfeld.
Cultural events are the newest element and a Friends of 7L membership, subject to the approval of an internal committee, offers admission for two for an entire season — from September to June — of live, contemporary creation under the banner Correspondances and a monthly Reading Room program, starting in January.
Furnished with the gargantuan sofas and long leather benches Lagerfeld commissioned from Studio Putman and Christian Liaigre for his various homes, the photo studio can accommodate between 90 and 120 people for seated events.
Full-fledged members get a courtesy discount on books, preorder offers, preferential rates to rent 7L spaces, as well as access to the 20 events of the Correspondances program, plus monthly encounters in the library space with contemporary figures like architect Aline Asmar d’Amman and opera director Robert Carsen. (The Friends “entrance” fee is 3,480 euros plus an annual subscription fee of 7,164 euros.)
An exhibition space tucked behind the big salon hosts an exhibition by Cristina de Middel, president of Magnum Photos, who was given carte blanche to shoot the library.
During his lifetime Lagerfeld published a host of books under the 7L imprint, most with Gerhard Steidl, including the complete writings of Friedrich Nietzsche; the artworks of Roni Horn, and reissues of Fran Lebowitz’s “Metropolitan Life/Social Studies.”
The new Éditions 7L will operate differently, teaming with a variety of like-minded publishers. Its first book — unveiled at the International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories—Hyères last October, was a reedition with Editions Seghers and Villa Noailles of the novel written by art patron Marie-Laure de Noailles, titled “La Chambre des Écureuils.” The limited-edition volume with an artwork by Bouroullec is exclusively available at 7L and at the Villa Noailles, and, according to Delamare, it’s selling well.
She says half a dozen books are in the works for release in 2024 and 2025.
“My aim is that this space remains a source of inspiration for artists and very creative minds and remains friendly and joyful for authors and publishing houses — the most friendly, coolest, relevant space for book lovers and friends,” she says. “It shouldn’t be nostalgic and the only way is to be avant-garde and to host creative events with artists of today and tomorrow.”
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