The Gold Florin made by Paolo Penko for Karl Lagerfeld

World-famous designer presented with award by Mayor Dario Nardella at Pitti Uomo

The City of Florence’s Gold Florin has been awarded to Karl Lagerfeld, the world-famous designer who has put his genius to work for the biggest names in fashion. The award, created by Master Goldsmith Paolo Penko, was presented to the stylist by Mayor Dario Nardella in the Clement VII Hall of Palazzo Vecchio, during the Pitti Uomo fashion fair currently being held at the Fortezza da Basso.

“He is a free and rational spirit”, reads the motivation, “who never stops questioning the world and even himself, an extraordinary eclectic talent that fashion shares with many other cultural and artistic disciplines: stylist, photographer, editor, designer, illustrator, director, costume designer. His unmistakable style was formed in the heart of Europe, between Germany, where he was born, France and Italy, and corresponds to his figure as a cultured, cosmopolitan, multilingual man. Lagerfeld’s fashion, precise and experimental, interested in the contamination of genres and dedicated to the care of every detail, has opened up new and fertile prospects for the prestigious fashion houses for which he still works after decades of success. Her activity has always had a very important point of reference in Italy – including Florence and Tuscany – due to the presence of high quality artisan companies and manufacturing know-how and great artistic institutions. Florence,” continues the note, “which baptized Made in Italy and is now one of the capitals of international fashion, offers him its highest recognition and invites him to consider it his home for elective affinities. In fact, it is no coincidence that he is doing so on the occasion of a major exhibition of fashion photographs in one of the city’s symbolic museums and art history, showing the world Karl Lagerfeld’s ability to represent the simple complexity of human nature”.