Karl Lagerfeld is honored at the Met Gala three years after his death, sparking controversy.
Vogue recently announced that the theme of their highly anticipated Met Gala would be in honor of German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld who died in 2019.
This decision was met with outrage, largely due to Lagerfeld’s controversial opinions on marginalized groups and women. He’s largely recognized for his work with Fendi and Chloé but is most commonly credited for the modern revival of Chanel during his 36-year reign as creative director.
“Karl was just this force. There was no one, there is no one like Karl; he was a completely exceptional person,” Anna Wintour, Vogue editor and Condé Nast creative director said at 2019’s Women in the World Summit.
Alongside his fashion industry success, Lagerfeld’s controversial comments brought him success when it came to staying in the news. His first scandal came when he used a verse from the Qu’ran in his 1994 spring collection, saying he thought it was from a love poem on the Taj Mahal.
In an interview with Numero magazine, he claimed he was “fed up” with #MeToo, a social movement against sexual harassment and rape culture, sparking women publicly share their stories online and calling for a societal change. When referring to Karl Templar, the creative director of “Interview” magazine, he went so far as to say “It’s simply too much, from now on, as a designer, you can't do anything. If you don't want your pants pulled about, don't become a model!”
This comment landed poorly, downplaying the severity of the sexual assault that the models endured. Lagerfeld’s hyper-fixation on body image, including his own, is constantly discussed in his portrayal of women. In 2011, Lagerfeld lost nearly 100 pounds to fit into more designer clothes – something that’s been speculated to be a part of his projection onto female models.
“No one wants to see curvy women on the runway,” Lagerfeld said in 2013 on the French broadcast Le Grand 8. Princess Diana was labeled “stupid,” Adele was “too fat,” and Heidi Klum was “simply too heavy.”
He also criticized German Chancellor Angela Merkel for opening the borders to Syrian refugees, calling Muslims the “worst enemies” of Jewish citizens in Germany, though he was not Jewish himself.
When asked by a Vice reporter if he was against the idea of gay marriage, he agreed, declaring that he thought same-sex couples shouldn’t be able to adopt.
Lagerfeld’s fashion industry seniority and tenure mean he is often able to get away with these discriminatory statements. People everywhere mourned his death, which is also why Vogue is choosing to honor him this year. The decision, however, was not without criticism: many shared their unhappiness with the theme of Lagerfeld’s honoring on social media, claiming the theme was disregarding the hurtful statements Lagerfeld made during his lifetime. Notably, actress Jameela Jabil called him a “ruthless fat-phobic misogynist” – with model Cara Delevingne attempting to justify his comments by saying he was born in 1933.
Like many celebrities of Lagerfeld’s stature, he was somewhat of a myth to the rest of the world, and, in 2007, he claimed that his controversial persona was “an act.” Regardless of the persona, Lagerfeld consistently profited off of the female models criticized and had a lack of discretion when it came to his comments.
“Forgiveness is too easy. I can forget by indifference, but not forgive,” Lagerfeld once said, something his critics have taken to heart.