Met Gala focus on Lagerfeld legacy sparks controversy
Some industry critics have denounced the late designer for his bigoted public proclamations
Karl Lagerfeld, the subject of this year’s Met Gala in New York, transformed Chanel from frumpy to modern. He revolutionised the merger of hip-hop culture and high fashion. He dressed and befriended celebrities and transformed once-staid catwalk shows into theatrical displays.
He was also a self-proclaimed “big mouth”. A fatphobic, he also spoke against gay men who wanted to adopt children, migrants, sexual assault survivors, the #MeToo movement and “ugly” people, without apology.
Lagerfeld died in 2019 after dominating fashion into his eighties. Come May 1, his legacy will be on display at the starry fundraising party and its companion exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute
The choice of Lagerfeld for fashion’s biggest night is not without critics, though gala visionary and close friend Anna Wintour is, clearly, not among them.
When 400 or so celebrities and elite from fashion, tech, politics, music, social media, film, TV and sports ascend the Met’s Grand Staircase for the gala, Jameela Jamil won’t be there.
The actor and activist was a rare public figure to condemn the theme, taking to Instagram to acknowledge his genius but denounce his “distinctly hateful” remarks, often towards women.
In 2020, a group of internet friends decided to democratise the A-list, invitation-only gala with a Twitter companion that’s open to creators who submit digital fashion in line with the real thing’s annual theme. But don’t look for the High Fashion Twitter Met Gala this year.
“As we approach the first Monday of May, the hf twitter met gala team would like to announce that we will not be celebrating this year’s met gala as our values don’t align with the selection of Karl Lagerfeld as the theme,” the coordinators tweeted.
Called the “living soul of fashion” by Wintour, Lagerfeld and his gifts were outsized. So were his words.
In the international fashion magazine Numéro in 2018, Lagerfeld said he was “fed up” with the effort to reveal sexual harassment, assault, misconduct and rape. “If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery, there will always be a place for you in the convent. They’re recruiting even!” he told Numéro, when asked about accusations against stylist and former Interview creative director Karl Templer.
To German news magazine Focus in 2009, Lagerfeld declared of plus-size models: “No one wants to see curvy women.”
But in 2010, to Vice, when asked if he loved both the emaciated and voluptuous in fashion, Lagerfeld said: “Yes, totally.”
The man who co-authored a diet book after losing 42kg in 13 months was vocally critical throughout his career of women larger than size 0 or 2. That includes his defence of fashion designers exclusively hiring railthin catwalk models.
Lagerfeld sent two brides in identical wedding dresses down the catwalk for the finale of his spring 2013 Chanel haute couture show in Paris, telling The Guardian it was a show of support for the French same-sex marriage law.
But in the 2010 Vice interview, he spoke against same-sex marriage, particularly as it pertains to two men.
“For me it’s difficult to imagine – one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby,” he was quoted as saying.
“How would that be, for the baby? I don’t know.”
If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model!
KARL LAGERFELD SPEAKING TO NUMÉRO MAGAZINE IN 2018