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A show fit for the greatest showman
The world of fashion gathered last week to celebrate the life of its leading man, Karl Lagerfeld. Grazia’s fashion director Rebecca Lowthorpe reports…
It was never going to be a quiet affair. Too many people loved him and, besides, he was the greatest showman the fashion world has ever seen. Remembering Karl Lagerfeld, who died in February this year aged 85, without fanfare would have been unthinkable – even if the man himself would have probably loathed it, all the fuss, pomp and ceremony. As the late godfather of fashion put it in one of the many video clips shown at his memorial last Friday in Paris: ‘When people show their ass it doesn’t bother me. When people show their feelings, it bothers me.’
The blockbuster event, titled ‘Karl For Ever’, was held at the Grand Palais, venue of his countless Chanel extravaganzas, the ancient palace he once transformed into a supermarket, a space centre with a rocket launch pad, a mainframe computer, or filled it with icebergs, sea and snow. Celebrating a life as large as Karl Lagerfeld’s requires monumental ingredients. So, the venue was wallpapered with 56 towering portraits of the man, the floor was carpeted with vast custom-made rugs, a Steinway Grand piano that Lagerfeld designed had its own platform while the main stage saw a rotating cast of movie, music and dance stars, including Tilda Swinton, Helen Mirren, Cara Delevingne, Pharrell Williams, dancer Lil Buck, violinist Charlie Siem, pianist Lang Lang and a troupe of tango dancers. Karl, it turns out, was an exceptional tango dancer. Two thousand guests were treated to the 90-minute spectacle, organised by the houses of Chanel, Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld (his three chief freelance posts) and orchestrated by the Canadian theatre and opera director Robert Carsen.
Sixty friends of Lagerfeld’s had been pre-interviewed on camera and spoke from giant screens, kicking off with Anna Wintour: ‘Karl Lagerfeld often said when he died he wanted to disappear. Well, that cannot happen…’ Certainly not. Alongside those who worked closely with him, the industry’s power brokers also recalled their fondest memories of Karl. This included
Alain Wertheimer, the secretive, rarelyseen-in-public owner of Chanel: ‘I first met him in London and I was won over by the fact we could talk together. It was far from a working relationship, it was a friendship.’ And Bernard Arnault, France’s richest man and chairman of the LVMH group, who opened with, ‘Karl was like Picasso’.
Meanwhile, Cara Delevingne appeared in pink marabou and declared: ‘I am a cat.’ She was playing the role of Choupette, Karl’s beloved puss. Even Choupette’s governess appeared, cuddling the Birman fluffball: ‘She likes to tear up paper, eh cherie?’ In fact, the story was revealed as to how Karl came to possess the now famous feline (with 292k Insta followers) when Baptiste Giabiconi, model and menswear muse, appeared on-screen. He had asked Karl to look after Choupette and when he returned from holiday, went to collect her, only to be told: ‘Non. Choupette reste ici!’
Designers including Valentino Garavani, Nicolas Ghesquière and Clare Waight Keller also spoke affectionately of the great man who inspired them, but none more movingly than his successor at Chanel, Virginie Viard: ‘Karl is probably the person I’ve spent the most time with in my life. To me, he was accessible. My opinion counted. Above all, he loved my energy and my ideas, and he showed it. Together, we created the most beautiful collections that we could and, today, I’m trying to continue so that everything is perfect for him,’ she said.
But it was Silvia Venturini Fendi – who first met Karl in 1965, when she was just five years old – who summed up his insurmountable absence when she recounted the story of the day he signed his Fendi contract – turning up three hours late to do so. ‘It is difficult to think that he’s not here. Because he was always late, I always think that he will arrive. Maybe this time he’s a little bit more late than before, but he will show up,’ she said.