Since the dawn of the supermodel, The Met Gala theme has inspired outrageous concoctions of sequins, body paint and silk, but this Monday’s event has designs on controversy by requesting guests dress “in honour of Karl”.
Vogue magazine’s annual celebration of fashion and celebrity, which raises money for New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is paying tribute to the extensive work of Karl Lagerfeld at Chanel, Chloe and Fendi but the German designer’s legacy of little black dresses threatens to be unravelled by offensive comments he made against refugees, overweight women and LGBTQIA+ people.
Karl Lagerfeld (L) and Anna Wintour attend the Museum of Modern Art’s fourth annual Film Benefit. in 2011.Credit: Getty
It’s been four years since Lagerfeld died at the age of 85 but zingers, such as “if you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model”; “these are fat mummies sitting with their bags of crisps in front of the television, saying that thin models are ugly”; “I’m against it (gay marriage) for a very simple reason: In the ’60s, they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life”, still reverberate. In 2017, he made comments on a talk show against Germany welcoming refugees: “One cannot — even if there are decades between them — kill millions of Jews so you can bring millions of their worst enemies in their place.”
Online activists, including actor Jameela Jamil, raised the alarm when the Met Gala theme was announced in September, with an Instagram post highlighting Lagerfeld’s lack of remorse for his comments.
Despite the thrusting of fingers on the cancel button, the party and accompanying exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, is marching ahead with the relentless determination of Naomi Campbell on the runway. “You can’t cancel Karl Lagerfeld,” says former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements, who collaborated with the designer on the magazine’s December issue in 2003, currently available on Ebay for $470. “He is one of the greats.
“You have to separate the work from the person. He represents that jet set era of Dior, Valentino and Saint Laurent that we won’t see again.”
Clements adds: “I am not an apologist for his comments. But you can’t apply the present attitudes onto how the fashion industry used to be. When it came to weight, he was just saying the quiet part out loud. That’s how the fashion industry, at large, thinks.”
Lagerfeld started work at Chanel in 1983, just 10 years after the death of its founder, Coco Chanel, who survived attempts at cultural cancellation, despite her relationship with Nazi officer Hans Günther von Dincklage during World War II and accusations of being a Nazi informant and antisemite.
The National Gallery of Victoria paid tribute to Coco Chanel’s artistic legacy with the exhibition, Gabrielle Chanel. Fashion Manifesto, in 2022, which attempted to shift focus to the designer’s creative output.
“I would personally rather know who the bigot in the room is,” says Alison Kubler, editor of art magazine Vault, who opposes any move to cancel Chanel and Lagerfeld. “I’d rather know what people’s real ideas are.
“Posthumous cancelling just seems redundant. It’s more powerful to put structures around it to discuss how far we have come. When talking about Chanel and her links to Nazi Germany, there seems to be a more informed debate than what’s happening here with Karl.”
“Picasso is routinely cancelled and many artists still cite him as a major influence. You can love Picasso and accept he was a misogynist and treated women appallingly.”
While Lagerfeld’s dry-clean-only reputation is put through the tumble dryer, it hasn’t stopped demand for his work at Chanel on the vintage market.
“Chanel is consistently our top seller,” says Jane Thompson, co-founder of pre-loved designer fashion business Blue Spinach. “Hermes, Louis Vuitton and Dior are constantly in the mix but Chanel is always the most sought-after on every level.
“The brand itself has an unwavering nostalgia, which Karl managed to drive so well. Overall, it comes down to his innate love of fashion and wanting people to look remarkable.
“Customers can separate the designer from the clothes.”
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