Amidst the craziness of Paris Fashion Week, some of the most relevant figures in fashion, music, film, sports, society and culture gathered yesterday to pay homage to Karl Lagerfeld. The late fashion designer, who’d been at the helm of Chanel for more than thirty years in addition to working at his eponymous brand as well as at Fendi, passed away in February, and has since been remembered on different occasions. One of them is the project A Tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, led by his long-time friend Carine Roitfeld. To celebrate Karl’s legacy, a global community of creative talents – including Alessandro Michele, Kate Moss and Takashi Murakami, among others – has come together to reimagine his most iconic design: the white shirt.
“It’s difficult for Karl to have just one legacy. We have a lot from his past that we can look at and recreate for today”, says Carine in an official statement. The multiple ways of interpreting his irreplaceable talent have turned into several reinterpretations of a white shirt, a statement piece of Lagerfeld’s look – “For me, the white shirt is the basis of everything. Everything else comes after”, he once said. And how do they look like? Just like their creators, naturally.
For example, Cara Delevigne’s features her tattoos – “Karl was always fascinated by their stories”, she says; Kate Moss decided to handwrite a fragment of Sonny Hall’s poem Clutching Pens, honouring Lagerfeld’s passion for work and personality; on another hand, designer Tommy Hilfiger merges Karl’s aesthetic with his own – blue, red and white together with some stars and a tricolour pair of gloves, also a statement piece of Lagerfeld’s look. Other personalities invited to reinterpret the white shirt include models like Soo Joo Park, Kaia Gerber, Xu Jing and Baptiste Giabiconi, artists like Endless, singers like Lil Buck and Steve Wilson, or actresses like Helen Mirren and Diane Kruger.
Together with the collection of shirts, which are on sale starting today on Karl’s website, Carine has also curated a private exhibition now on view to the public. Until September 30, you can visit it at Karl Lagerfeld’s shop in Paris’ Saint-German district; from October 2 to 6, it will travel to London, and from October 8 to 12, to Munich. In all, a beautiful tribute to one of the most remarkable figures in recent fashion history; a powerhouse on his own, the unique and inimitable Karl Lagerfeld.
For example, Cara Delevigne’s features her tattoos – “Karl was always fascinated by their stories”, she says; Kate Moss decided to handwrite a fragment of Sonny Hall’s poem Clutching Pens, honouring Lagerfeld’s passion for work and personality; on another hand, designer Tommy Hilfiger merges Karl’s aesthetic with his own – blue, red and white together with some stars and a tricolour pair of gloves, also a statement piece of Lagerfeld’s look. Other personalities invited to reinterpret the white shirt include models like Soo Joo Park, Kaia Gerber, Xu Jing and Baptiste Giabiconi, artists like Endless, singers like Lil Buck and Steve Wilson, or actresses like Helen Mirren and Diane Kruger.
Together with the collection of shirts, which are on sale starting today on Karl’s website, Carine has also curated a private exhibition now on view to the public. Until September 30, you can visit it at Karl Lagerfeld’s shop in Paris’ Saint-German district; from October 2 to 6, it will travel to London, and from October 8 to 12, to Munich. In all, a beautiful tribute to one of the most remarkable figures in recent fashion history; a powerhouse on his own, the unique and inimitable Karl Lagerfeld.
Anna Wintour
Alton Mason
Amber Valletta
Carine Roitfeld
Lucky Blue Smith
Hyunji Shin
Gigi Hadid
Soo Joo
Takashi Murakami
Kaia Gerber