Karl Lagerfeld is celebrated by the Costume Institute at the Metropolitan Museum, and stars flock to the most glamorous vernissage of the year: from Rihanna to Kim Kardashian, Anne Hathaway and Nicole Kidman.
Never have we seen so much black and white on the Met Gala 2023 red carpet. Never seen so many ties, so much tweed, so many fans and black satin ribbons. No so many camellias. Let’s just call it the “Karl Lagerfeld effect.”
The homage to the great master of fashion, who passed away in 2019 and was rightly celebrated by the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum with the exhibition “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”, was there, in the grandiose outfits worn by the prestigious guests invited to the most anticipated event of the year in New York and presented by Michaela Coel, Penélope Cruz, Roger Federer, Dua Lipa and Anna Wintour.
The vintage
Many of the stars who walked the red carpet made perhaps the most obvious, but in some ways also the most correct and apt choice, which was to draw on the archives of Chanel and Chloé – maisons designed by Kaiser Karl for many years – to slip into creations designed by the very hand and flair of the iconic couturier. First and foremost Kristen Stewart, unfailing muse of Lagerfeld’s last years in the business, and then Gisele, stunning in a Chanel Couture creation from 2007, and fellow couturier Naomi Campbell, in a sari from 2010, or, to go even further back in the past, Dua Lipa, marvelous in a dress worn in 1992 by Claudia Schiffer, but also Vanessa Kirby, slipping into a sensual vintage Chloé.
Dua Lipa photo Getty
The tributes
Signing the creations freely inspired by those timeless styles made eternal by Lagerfeld were many great maisons – the most popular of the evening were Michael Kors, Thom Browne, Marc Jacobs, Valentino, Prabal Gurung and Tory Burch – who made the appreciable effort to remain, in some way, faithful to the DNA of creativity by the great master paid tribute on the evening, but also to give their own personal interpretation of that very style so codified: see Rihanna, literally encapsulated in a cape of white camellias by Valentino, or Janelle Monáe, in her deconstructed and reconstructed (and then deconstructed again in a sort of red carpet undressing) reworking of a classic Chanel jacket, or Karlie Kloss, whose Loewe gown seems a sort of quintessential, concentrated concentrate of the purest Lagerfeld style.
Janelle Mone photo Getty
The portrait
The most literal tributes, however, come from Lily Collins, who’s Vera Wang train etches Lagerfeld’s first name in black on white, and especially Jeremy Pope, who, instead, on his even more dramatic Balmain signature train, draws the unmistakable profile of the designer, with his iconic black glasses and equally iconic white pigtail.
Jeremy Pope photo Getty
Choupette is in!
A sigh of relief for the escaped cosplay effect: practically zeroed out the fear of seeing so many replicas of master Karl Lagerfeld, played by stars in the mood for carnival outfits.
Jared Leto photo Getty
If the feline didn’t make an appearance, Doja Cat (well, with that name), Lil Nas X – all silver painted by make-up guru Pat McGrath- and the irresistible Jared Leto were there to remind us.