The death of Karl Lagerfeld, the German fashion industry icon who crafted some of the world’s most iconic catwalk creations, plunged the entire world into mourning. The enigmatic designer, whose love of all things avant-garde was the stuff of legend, almost single-handedly drove fashion houses like Chanel, Fendi and his own eponymous brand to the very pinnacle of success with his amazing artistic vision and creativity. To celebrate the fascinating life of this fashion guru, here are five interesting facts you never knew about Karl Lagerfeld.

Diet? Coke.

Karl Lagerfeld had a passion for Diet Coke. In fact, he was so enamoured with the fizzy beverage that he reportedly consumed up to 10 cans per day. When asked it, he famously responded: “I drink Diet Coke from the minute I get up to the minute I go to bed. I can even drink it in the middle of the night, and I can sleep. I don’t drink coffee, I don’t drink tea, I drink nothing else.”

How many iPods is too many?

Books weren’t the only thing that the iconic German designer collected. He was also the proud owner of not one, not two but 300 Apple iPods, each pre-loaded with a different category of music. Where did he store this surfeit of devices, you ask? Why, in a custom-built, limited-edition Louis Vuitton trunk of course.

Books, books and more books

An avid book lover, Karl Lagerfeld not only owned a small art and architecture bookstore in Paris, he also boasted an immense personal collection of over 300,000 books. In a typically out-of-the-box organisational move, every item in the Lagerfeld Library is stacked on its side so that he wouldn’t have to turn his head to read their titles.

Dye job

While his iconic white locks are pretty much synonymous with the designer, many might be surprised to learn that it actually wasn’t his actual hair colour. In fact, if it weren’t for a rigid regimen of Klorane dry shampoo, he even admitted that his hair was actually “kind of grayish”.

The cat has it

The luxurious lifestyle of Choupette, the designer’s famously pampered pet cat, is already a matter of public knowledge, being well-documented in her popular Instagram account (which has 215,000 followers). Now, though, she may have a million more reasons to purr – several millions, in fact – because if the latest news reports are to believed, she stands to inherit a significant chunk of Karl Lagerfeld’s US$195 million estate.