Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld has died, according to reports from France.

According to magazine Closer, Lagerfeld died on Tuesday morning at the age of 85 following a period of ill health.

French magazine Paris Match also shared the same report.

The acclaimed German fashion designer was the creative designer of French luxury brand Chanel, where he had been since 1983.

His death comes after he missed the Chanel haute couture show in Paris in January for the first time.

Lagerfeld was also the creative director of Italian fur and leather goods fashion house Fendi, as well as his eponymous fashion label, which he opened in 1984.

Lagerfeld had worked for Chloe and H&M, and was also an acclaimed photographer, having gone behind the lens for a number of high fashion magazines and for his own fashion campaigns.

Regarded as one of the most important fashion visionaries of the 20th and 21st centuries, he was known for regularly wearing sunglasses and a black suit with a white shirt, with his grey hair pulled back into a ponytail.