He was the man who took Chanel to the top and who sowed hundreds of controversies with pithy phrases. He created a character that hid behind dark glasses, a high ponytail and a serious pose and turned him into a popular culture icon. After he died in 2019, the fashion industry wanted to give him one last gift by dedicating the most important event of the year to him, as well as the Costume Institute’s most important exhibition at the Metropolitan in New York. Under the title Karl Lagerfeld: an aesthetic trajectory, the creativity and his works as a designer have been thoroughly examined by experts and his closest environment. And despite the fact that the theme of the exhibition and the dress code of the inaugural gala do not necessarily always have to be the same, this year it coincided under the premise of “in honor of Karl”.
As expected, the most repeated resource of the guests was to rummage through the historical archives of the Chanel firm to find a vintage piece that recalled the work of the German Kaiser from its beginnings. Penélope Cruz – official co-host of the gala with Anna Wintour, Dua Lipa, Roger Federer and Michaela Coel – wore an archival piece from Chanel’s spring-summer 1988 haute couture collection. A wedding dress full of very special details, with a very voluminous skirt, tulle at the bottom and a spectacular amount of rhinestones and embroidery in silver tones. Dua Lipa also wanted to wear a vintage design from Chanel’s fall-winter 1992 haute couture collection for her wedding. A period dress that she accompanied with an impressive diamond necklace from the high jewelry firm Tiffany
The tributes to Choupette, the cat and heir to part of Lagerfeld’s fortune, were also very present and gave the touch of humor that was perhaps missing in many other styles. The cat was one of the guests of honor at the gala and, although it did not parade down the steps of the museum – as some pointed out – it did parade a giant replica guarded by the singer and actor Jared Leto. Doja Cat was another of the guests who was characterized as a cat, in a shiny and silver dress by Oscar de la Renta, with whom she worked for six months. The rapper completed the styling with a prosthesis that recreated the animal’s nose.
Another of the great tributes of the night was the camellia, symbol of the Chanel house and one of the German’s favourites, as a flag. Cardi B wore a black dress with large, three-dimensional stuffed flowers on the skirt. A dress by the Chinese designer Chen Peng that collected more than 300 hours of work and with which to also pay tribute to Lagerfeld with the tie, shirt collar, gloves and white hair.
Bad Bunny also turned to the camellia and transferred it in the form of an eight-meter tail-cut stole to match an immaculate white backless Americana dress, the work of designer Simon Porte Jacquemus. Kim Kardashian, protagonist of the last edition due to the scandal of the archive dress of Marilyn Monroe that ended up spreading, ran away from all controversy with a Schiaparelli dress made up of 50,000 pearls. A recommendation that probably has the seal of Anna Wintour, one of the first to arrive at the gala, in the company of British actor Bill Nighy. Dressed in a two-piece Chanel ensemble, the editor of Vogue USA paid tribute to her friend Karl with an original rhinestone in the shape of a cat.
