{"id":65470,"date":"2022-09-30T16:09:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-30T16:09:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=65470"},"modified":"2022-09-30T16:11:27","modified_gmt":"2022-09-30T16:11:27","slug":"2023-met-gala-theme-karl-lagerfeld","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/2023-met-gala-theme-karl-lagerfeld\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2023 Met Gala Theme Will Celebrate Karl Lagerfeld\u2019s Career"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Karl Lagerfeld, portraits In Paris, France In January 1983. (Photo by Pierre PERRIN\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next year\u2019s annual Met Gala<\/a> theme has been announced and you’re going to want to listen up because it’s a very good one. On the first Monday of May, the Metropolitan Museum of Art<\/a>\u2019s Costume Institute will honor the life and work of the late iconic fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld.<\/p>\n

The upcoming exhibition is titled \u201cKarl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,\u201d and was announced Friday morning in Paris by co-chair Anna Wintour and the institute\u2019s head curator Andrew Bolton at Lagerfeld\u2019s former studio and library, the 7L bookshop.<\/p>\n

They were joined by Lagerfeld\u2019s former colleagues, including senior executives from Chanel, Fendi, and the Karl Lagerfeld label, current Chanel creative director Virginie Viard, and Silvia Fendi. Chanel muse Pharrell Williams was also in attendance.<\/p>\n

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Pharrell Williams, Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton attend the The Met Costume Institute Press Presentation as part of Paris Fashion Week on September 30, 2022 in Paris, France. (Photo by Julien M. Hekimian\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to an official statement acquired by CNN<\/em><\/a>, the presentation will consist of 150 designs that \u201cexplore the designer\u2019s stylistic language.\u201d The exhibition will include sketches and designs from Lagerfeld\u2019s tenure as creative director of Fendi, Chlo\u00e9 and Chanel, along with creations from his time at Balmain, Patou, and pieces from his namesake label, encompassing his six-decade career which lasted until his death at the age of 85 in 2019.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Lagerfeld may not have liked that his clothes would be shown in a museum. According to Vogue<\/em><\/a>, Bolton said, \u201cWhen we worked on the Chanel show together he was incredibly generous in what he lent, but he was completely disinterested in the exhibition itself! He would say \u2018fashion is not art\u2014fashion belongs on the street, on women\u2019s bodies, on men’s bodies.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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Fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld (C) poses backstage with models (L-R) Karen Mulder, Carla Bruni, Nadja Auermann, Naomi Campbell, Linda Evangelista, Claudia Schiffer and Helena Christensen during the Chloe Ready to Wear Spring\/Summer 1995 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on October 10, 1994 in Paris, France.(Photo by Stephane Cardinale\/Sygma via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The chief costume curator, who is also penning an accompanying book on the designer, told CNN<\/em><\/a> that Lagerfeld \u201cwould have hated a retrospective,\u201d but that the showcase will be laid out like an \u201cessay\u201d on his inimitable career.<\/p>\n

Bolton will also receive a helping hand from Amanda Harlech, who previously worked alongside the couturier, as she comes on board as the exhibit\u2019s creative consultant.<\/p>\n

In 1954, the wunderkind kicked off his career, winning the esteemed Woolmark Prize in a tie with fellow up-and-comer Yves Saint Laurent. Lagerfeld went on to become Pierre Balmain\u2019s assistant just a year later, before taking the reins as art director at Parisian fashion house Jean Patou. Later, Lagerfeld would go on to helm Chlo\u00e9, take on a life-long partnership at Italian fashion house Fendi in 1965, before eventually becoming the chief artistic director at Chanel.<\/p>\n

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German Creative Director for Fur and Women Ready-to-Wear Karl Lagerfeld, surrounded by the five Fendi sisters, heads of the Fendi Italian luxury fashion house. From left to right: Carla and Alda, in the second row Franca, Anna and Paola. (Photo by Vittoriano Rastelli\/Corbis via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The highly anticipated exhibit will be on display beginning May 5, following the Met Gala on May 1, 2023.<\/p>\n

Every year since 1948, the Metropolitan Museum of Art\u2019s Costume Institute<\/a> hosts fashion\u2019s biggest night. The exclusive guest list gathers Hollywood\u2019s brightest stars with fashion\u2019s most legendary figures to celebrate the latest Costume Institute exhibit and raise museum funds, as they dress to nines in theme-appropriate looks or in rule book-defying ensembles.<\/p>\n

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In 1983 Karl Lagerfeld joined Chanel as its chief artistic director fashion designer. A year later March 5, 1984 he finishes his new Haute Couture collection in the Chanel studio on rue Cambon in Paris. This Autumn Winter collection will be shown three weeks later. Chanel was on the brink of total financial loss, but Lagerfeld succeeded to bring the company back to life. An atmosphere of creative work prevails in the studio as his team puts the final touches for the coming runway show. Karl Lagerfeld in front of his sketches. (Photo by John van Hasselt\/Sygma via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This year, the exhibit In America: An Anthology of Fashion<\/em><\/a> was accompanied by a “gilded glamour” Gala theme. While the theme is typically more ambiguous and open to interpretation, individual designers have been honored in the past, including Rei Kawakubo\/ <\/em>Comme des <\/em>Gar\u00e7ons: Art of the In-Between<\/em> in 2017, Charles James: Beyond Fashion<\/em>, 2012\u2019s Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations <\/em>in 2014, and Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty<\/em>, 2007\u2019s Poiret: King of Fashion <\/em>in 2011, to name a few.<\/p>\n

Check out GRAZIA USA\u2019s Fall issue featuring cover star Nicola Peltz Beckham:<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

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