The Met Gala wasn’t cancelled because of Karl Lagerfeld and he would’ve hated it

Jeremy Pope attends The 2023 Met Gala Celebrating "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line Of Beauty" at The Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 1 in New York City.

It’s not usually the place where fashion trends emerge but irony was in vogue at this year’s Met Gala.

The 2023 event’s theme of Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty featured a guest list that included stars like Nicole Kidman, in a dress the designer made for her 2004 Chanel No. 5 TV commercial, and Margot Robbie in 1993 Chanel haute couture, in honour of the man who helmed fashion houses including Chanel, Chloe and Balmain and Fendi for decades.

Lagerfeld died in 2019, aged 85.

The late designer Karl Lagerfeld.

The German-born designer was famous for his diet of Diet Coke and his own unique look – a white ponytail, fingerless leather gloves and sunglasses at all times.

Lagerfeld was also infamous for his controversially candid opinions on everything from gay marriage, #MeToo, refugees, obesity and even Michelle Obama’s fringe (which he didn’t “understand”).

He was also revered for what he hated.

“There is nothing worse than bringing up ‘the good old days’. To me that’s the ultimate acknowledgment of failure,” Lagerfeld once said.

He would have loathed the multiple displays of affection dedicated to his legacy on Tuesday.

The internet, incorrectly, assumed these homages to Lagerfeld were protests.

Gigi Hadid and Jordan Roth react as Lizzo performs onstage during the 2023 Met Gala.

Olivier Rousteing and Jeremy Pope.

Balmain creative director Olivier Rousteing dressed lauded actor Jeremy Pope in a 10-metre cape bearing Lagerfeld’s face and carried a bag emblazoned with “Karl Who?” — a bag Lagerfeld himself carried to fashion shows.

Online commentators suggested it was Rousteing being critical, but it was the opposite. “You made me dream of this world that you owned. The world where you created your own rules and didn’t follow any other rules,” he said.

Singer and body positivity advocate Lizzo performed and posted an image of her backstage eating hot chips. Her fans thought she was being subversive. However Lagerfeld himself loved fast food.

Well, he did at least before he decided to lose “200lbs (90kgs) to wear suits by Hedi Slimane” in the 1990s.

There were calls to boycott this year’s event from online activists and notable celebrities like actor Jameela Jamil.

Instagram cared. For a moment, but the movement failed to transition from the keyboard into reality.

Even the most outspoken celebrities, like model/author/podcaster Emily Ratajkowski attended.

@emrata

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She posed on the white carpet alongside similarly progressive singer Phoebe Bridgers, who, on her recent Australian tour led a Melbourne crowd in chanting “F. k Margaret Court” while performing in the arena named after the tennis great.

“I can feel his soul around us here. Karl didn’t really believe in death. He would always say death doesn’t exist, the person just goes in another room and a person could come back at any minute,” former supermodel and France’s First Lady Carla Bruni said.

Many guests dressed in likeness of Lagerfeld’s famous cat, Choupette.

Singer Doja Cat arrived looking like an extra from Cats and answered every question with the word “Meow”.

LMAOO wtf is going on at the met gala pic.twitter.com/0hkHZ09NtW

— kira 👾 (@kirawontmiss) May 2, 2023

She was also vaping as she arrived — something that will see you struck from future guest lists according to the Met’s head curator Andrew Bolton and Ms Wintour.