Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld cremated: report

The German designer who had quipped "I'd rather die" than be buried was cremated in Nanterre, west of Paris, in the presence of Virginie Viard, who succeeds him as creative director at Chanel, Princess Caroline of Monaco and Bernard Arnault, head of the luxury group LVMH, Closer said on its internet site.

A spokeswoman for the Lagerfeld fashion house had told AFP only that "his wishes will be respected".

Lagerfeld's ashes are to join some from Jacques de Basher, his great love who died of AIDS in 1989.

Lagerfeld had told de Bascher's biographer Marie Ottavi that some of his ashes were being stored "somewhere secret. One day they will be added to mine."