The 2023 Met Gala pays homage to Karl Lagerfeld
The Met Gala dress code was ‘in honour of Karl’ Lagerfeld, but fashion and Hollywood’s biggest names did not forget the designer’s loyal companion, 12-year-old cat Choupette.
While the Oscars were once fashion’s night of nights, the Met Gala – the annual fundraising ball for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City – has taken over top billing for its simply unparalleled sartorial splendour.
This year’s blockbuster exhibition, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, brought no exception as fashion and Hollywood’s biggest names climbed the museum steps “in honour of Karl” – which was also the dress code.
“It’s like the fashion Super Bowl,” says Vogue Australia editorial director Edwina McCann, who attended last year’s Gilded Glamour-themed event. “It’s the moment that all fashion fans, and those who perhaps aren’t, stop and pay attention.” It is also the global Vogue brand’s biggest traffic day of the year, with Vogue.com.au experiencing a 3000 per cent traffic increase on Met Monday (Tuesday AEST).
Despite calls to cancel Lagerfeld posthumously for outdated and controversial comments ranging from a less than inclusive ideal of a woman’s weight to the plight of refugees, the style and entertainment industry turned out in droves to honour the polymath and his fashion genius.
“It’s all about dichotomy tonight,” said designer and TV commentator Michael Kors, who attended with a camellia and lace-clad Emily Blunt. “Karl loved the romantic, but he also liked something a little edgy and nasty. He had such a great wit and charm, he was singular.”
“Karl is a hero of mine and was a great supporter of mine,” designer Marc Jacobs echoed.
“I owe him so much and it’s an amazing way to remember him,” said model and actor Cara Delevingne, wearing a crisp Karl Lagerfeld white shirt, complete with his signature gloves, Chrome Hearts jewellery and a new silvery hair rinse. “He lives on and influences so much, and not only in fashion,” she added, reminiscing about his notorious Chanel supermarket sweep show: “I stole so much from that show,” she said, smiling. “I have a Chanel chainsaw!”
Designer Stella McCartney, in her own white crystal jacket and chain-mail leggings, shared her own anecdote: “My favourite moment was when Karl found out that I would take over from him at Chloe. He said, ‘I knew they would take a big name when I left the brand but I thought it would be a big name in fashion, not music.’ I loved it. ‘I was like, ‘Oh, Karl Lagerfeld knows who I am!’ ”
Interpretations of Lagerfeld’s image were among the biggest style salutes: actor Kristen Stewart donned a vintage Chanel tuxedo and plenty of swagger, while designer Tommy Hilfiger was buttoned up (from the back no less) in Lagerfeld’s signature starched high-collar shirt, which the German designer had given him when Hilfiger bought the Karl Lagerfeld brand in 2004.
As in real life, Lagerfeld shared the spotlight with his most loyal companion: his 12-year-old white Birman cat Choupette. Jared Leto, who has a film about the fashion legend in the works, took Choupette chic to the next level, turning up as a life-size kitty: “Jared Leto came as a furby!” Nick Jonas noted midway into his Vogue interview. There were early whispers that Leto would attend as Lagerfeld. However, Met co-chair Anna Wintour, who approves every guest’s look, allegedly nixed the tribute as too soon after to her close friend’s death on February 19, 2019, aged 85.
Further fuelling the feline frenzy was Doja Cat, who always fully commits to a look. For her first Met Gala she went all the way in a hooded cat-eared Oscar de la Renta look complete with feline face prosthetics. Lil Nas X also embraced the cat cause in full silver body paint, kitty mask and jewels.
Less intent on breaking the internet after her Marilyn Monroe “Happy Birthday Mr President” fiasco was a pearl-adorned Kim Kardashian, who was initially accompanied by daughter North West in a tweed jacket and jeans. “Pearl-fect,” fashion commentator Derek Blasberg said of Kardashian’s Schiaparelli string-of-pearl look, which combined 50,000 freshwater beads and 16,000 crystals. “What is more Karl than the iconic Chanel pearls? So I wanted to be dripping,” Kardashian said, adding: “Some dropped on the way and I told my daughter to put them in her purse.”
As for Kardashian’s recent social media close encounter with Choupette: It was “a little scary” but transitioned into “a love feast”, she gushed, before throwing to her sister: “Kendall started her fashion career with Karl.”
“It’s a little emotional, I owe a lot to him,” said Jenner, wearing a sequined Marc Jacobs bodysuit.
While the gala often eclipses the Costume Institute exhibition, this year’s blockbuster display is not to be missed. The show, which runs until July 16, chronicles King Karl’s prolific 65-year back catalogue through 150 original looks and accompanying sketches from the 1950s until his final autumn-winter 2019 collection for Chanel.
“When you see the exhibition inside you will understand the genius of the man,” said Baz Luhrmann, wearing Thom Brown and Paspaley pearls. Luhrmann collaborated with Lagerfeld on the 2004 Chanel No. 5 commercial starring Nicole Kidman, who wore the original pink feathered confection from the iconic ad. “It’s hard to believe a single man made that much beauty.”
“He always wanted to look forward and keep his finger on the zeitgeist,” said curator Andrew Bolton, who noted the irony of one of Lagerfeld’s famous quips: “Fashion does not belong in a museum.”
Lagerfeld was creative director at Chanel from 1982 until his death. He started out at Balmain, where he was Pierre Balmain’s assistant in the ’50s, before Patou and Chloe, where he had two stints from 1963 to 1983 and from 1992 to 1997. From there he signed on at Fendi and, of course, Chanel alongside his eponymous brand founded in 1984, which has since been entrusted to two of his closest collaborators Hun Kim (as design director) and magazine editor Carine Roitfeld.
The Karl Lagerfeld brand is now owned by US fashion firm G-III Apparel Group, and chief executive Pier Paolo Righi told Vogue Business this week he believed the brand could reach €1bn ($1.6bn) in annual sales in the next three years, building on the brand recognition of the exhibition. That also includes the opening of the Karl Lagerfeld Macau hotel in China, which was designed by the fashion mogul and is set to open in July after many Covid delays.
But back to the gowns. Given another of Lagerfeld’s cautionary quips, “Trendy is the last stage before tacky”, most of the starlets made their grand entrance in monochrome, leading to the event being touted as a reincarnation of Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball. “It’s an evening of wearable art,” noted actor Rachel Brosnahan, who wore a sheer Sergio Hudson gown with nipple pasties that walked the tightrope of taste.
More successful was Florence Pugh’s elegant Valentino with a feathered headpiece that topped her new buzzcut; Anne Hathaway’s revamp of Gianni Versace’s safety-pin dress Chanel-ified by hair stylist Orlando Pita’s camellia hair swirl; and Gigi Hadid’s draped Givenchy dress.
Vintage was another big trend: co-chairwoman Dua Lipa chose a corsetted Chanel dress from 1992 that originally was worn by Claudia Schiffer, while her co-chair Penelope Cruz wore a spring-summer 1988 Chanel gown.
Margot Robbie wore a remake of a 1993 Chanel look first worn by Cindy Crawford, while Gisele Bündchen wore the finale dress from Chanel spring 2007 couture that she’d last worn in a magazine editorial with Lagerfeld.
There was also plenty of train game. It was go big or go home for Lily Collins and Rita Ora in Vera Wang and Prabal Gurung, respectively, alongside Glenn Close’s trailing Erdem and Daisy Jones & the Six star Camila Morrone in Rodarte. Not to forget Rihanna in voluminous Valentino and Jeremy Pope’s Balmain look, its oversized train featuring Kaiser Karl’s famous profile.
Then came the Chanel brides, including Elle Fanning and Alton Mason – the first black male model to walk for Chanel.
If there was one fashion faux pas it was Olivia Wilde and Margaret Zhang twinning in reinterpretations of Lagerfeld’s spring 1983 robe dress for Chloe.
And in other double-up news, Serena Williams (in Gucci) and Karlie Kloss (in Loewe) used the media spectacle to announce they were each expecting a second child. “I can’t imagine a more special moment,” Kloss said to YouTube sensation Emma Chamberlain, who promptly offered free babysitting.
But the final word went to good friend and former French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy: “Karl didn’t really believe in death, he just said the person goes on to another place.” No doubt a fabulous one.
