Could it really be that Karl "the Kaiser" Lagerfeld is celebrating his 75th birthday today? The eccentric designer is notoriously discreet about his age but it seems likely that he was born on 10th September 1933 (according to Alicia Drake's The Beautiful Fall).

Lagerfeld began his career in fashion in 1955 when he had recently moved to Paris and began working for Pierre Balmain. Since then he has worked for Chloe, Jean Patou, Fendi and Repetto. In 1983 he also successfully relaunched Chanel. Today he is the creative director at both Fendi and Chloe as well as designing his own line K Karl Lagerfeld.

Karl is certainly one of my favourite designers and he was the first to relaunch a classic design house. Despite initially being in the shadow of Yves Saint Laurent, Karl has found his niche with Chanel and Fendi and become one of the biggest names in fashion.

See below for images of Karl through the years and join me in wishing the design genius a very Happy Birthday!