Lou Doillon has fond memories of teasing Karl Lagerfeld about his library. The musician arranges her own sensibly, categorizing books into distinct sections in alphabetical order. The late fashion designer, on the other hand, organized the 300,000 books he allegedly amassed over the course of his lifetime in a more chaotic fashion, despite claiming to know them like the back of his hand. Could he always locate a particular paperback? “About half the time,” laughed Doillon, who loved to test his skill.
This past weekend, at the inauguration of The Karl Lagerfeld Macau—a far distance from the Saint Germain studio and library where the two spent much time together—the daughter of Jane Birkin was struck by an overwhelming sense of déjà vu. “It made me feel like being with him in Paris,” she said, scouring the horizontal stacks of precious titles in the lobby of the first—and only—hotel created by the late designer, curious to see which had made the migration.
Four thousand books had, it turns out: all hand selected by Lagerfeld for the hotel’s Book Lounge early in the property’s intense development process. The Hamburg-born creative, who helmed more maisons than any designer in history, was immediately excited to take on the project when Macau-based SJM Resorts approached him to do so in 2014. It was the chance to continue what he had done best—namely, bringing the boldest, most unthinkable corners of his imagination to life—but rather than being dismantled after the ten or so minutes of an haute couture show, the universe would be permanent.
The Karl Lagerfeld took almost nine years from conception to opening. Although Lagerfeld never had the opportunity to visit it in person, this didn’t lessen the designer’s creative commitment; he obsessively sketched, annotated, and FaceTimed-in every intricate thought he had for five years. When he suddenly passed away in 2019, construction continued on exactly as planned. And a year later, when Covid-19 closed the borders to the Chinese-Portuguese peninsula, the property was nearly completed. “He would have loved it, there’s no doubt about it,” explained Caroline Lebar on the eve of the hotel’s debut. “It’s everything he wanted.”
If anyone knows The Karl Lagerfeld—the man, and now the property—it’s Lebar, having been the designer’s confidant for nearly four decades and his eyes and ears for the entire process of its construction. As she confirmed, the hotel’s library wasn’t the only element the designer spent a significant time working through. Leafing through the clothbound journal where Lagerfeld documented much of his thinking, she offered proof: his freehand drawings of everything from armoires to door knobs, painstakingly sourced graphic prints, and cut-out images from the many auction catalogs and estate listings he devoured weekly. All of it fed into the concept that Lagerfeld himself scribbled in cursive English onto the book’s first page: “In the 18th and in the 20th century, Chinese art had a huge influence on European design. It influenced the modernity of the Art Deco period…I think the hotel should be a mix of that all.”
Coated in lacquered blacks, glossy whites, and sparkling golds, The Karl Lagerfeld is all that more. The illustrious hotel hosts over 270 guest rooms with an East-meets-West design scheme where Terzani pendants (“a favorite of Karl’s,” according to Lebar, that join onyx Baccarat chandeliers by Philippe Starck in other spaces) live beside porcelain vases from Jingdezhen, China, and furniture inspired by Ming Dynasty-era designs. Moon gate-shaped walls further nod to Chinese tradition, while powder rooms covered in golden mosaics are a direct reference to the golden lavatory at France’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs by architect Pierre Bruneau and glass artist Auguste Labouret, designed in 1938 for King George VI of England s first visit to the country.
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On the third floor of The Karl Lagerfeld, two enormous pools offer reprieve from the humid coastal climate: one more modern iteration featuring pristine turquoise tiling sits inside, designed in an Art Deco-inspired shape and bordered with scalloped stone columns; its sunny outdoor counterpart, meanwhile, sits at the center of an enormous French podium garden.
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Next door, at the spa, a near-900-pound wall relief that took two years to be carved from jade stone appears to float at the center of the space, lit from the front and back to lend it a radiant glow. The interlocking coiled design is a direct reference to a water-glass-sized dragon cameo Lagerfeld discovered during the process that dates back to the 4th century AD. Inside the wellness area’s gold-toned doors, indulgent and high-tech science-based treatments are offered in collaboration with 111Skin.
With his strong German jaw, pulled-back ponytail, crisp oxford collar, and impenetrable aviator frames, Lagerfeld himself acts as a sort of guide for visitors through each of the hotel’s spaces: his iconic silhouette pops up in art installations, covers room keys, illuminates light fixtures, and dots window screens.
“It does really feel like we’re here with him,” said Michelle Yeoh at the hotel’s restaurant Mesa during the opening events, touched by all the details (including how even the lobby attendees don Lagerfeld’s famous fingerless gloves). The actor, who wore his eponymous brand to the Met Gala this year, said the modern Portuguese eatery helmed by two Michelin starred José Avillez took her breath away. The space is perhaps the loudest statement of the property’s Art Deco-China mash-up within the property, and serves as a glamorous crescendo to the designer’s overall concept.
Fittingly, it was the hub around which Lagerfeld s friends and family gravitated on the night of the hotel’s ribbon cutting. As Yeoh gave Lebar a warm embrace in Mesa’s wine birdcage-style wine room, Doillon and model-musician Soo Joo Park swapped their favorite memories of the designer at its Gatsby-esque bar, alongside his longtime bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau. Steps away, every seat in the dining hall was occupied twice over.
“It is very emotional,” said Lebar, who commissioned the only element in the hotel that the designer did not know about: framed prints from the Palace of Versailles. Lagerfeld was passionate about 17th and 18th-century history—particularly the castle built for King Louis XIV—and often went to its royal grounds for inspiration. Lebar selected them in collaboration with Versailles president Catherine Pégard, and even printed the images into a limited-edition booklet that awaits guests in their rooms. “But it’s amazing. I’m happy to have finished what he always wanted.”
