Inside The Met’s Karl Lagerfeld Exhibit: A Line of Beauty

During one of his many visits, Tommy Hilfiger asked Karl Lagerfeld, “Karl, how did you become so successful with Chanel?”

Lagerfeld replied, “I went to the archives, and everything Coco Chanel had done in the past, I made it relevant for today.”

Years later, Tommy Hilfiger used that philosophy to reinvent his legendary brand. He brought out all the greatest hits and made them relevant for today. It worked.

After Coco Chanel died in 1971, Chanel lost much of its prestige. It started declining in the late Sixties as she became older, making the brand boring and bougie.

Enter Karl Lagerfeld; he completely revolutionized the brand by creating a blueprint that’s still being followed. He brought Chanel effortlessly into the 21st century with rigour and burning passion.

All designers have a cycle of creativity. For very few of them, it lasts more than 20 years. Lagerfeld kept going for 60 — that’s huge. And that’s what makes him so legendary.

He was the first designer with pioneering success, creating an unforgettable legacy for brands that didn’t carry his name, such as Chloé, Fendi, and Chanel, creating a diverse and prolific body of work unparalleled in fashion.

As a tribute to the legend, the Met Museum curated a fabulous Karl Lagerfeld Exhibition, “A Line of Beauty,” in New York. I was one of the lucky ones who got to see the exhibit on its last day.

Approximately 150 pieces were beautifully displayed, accompanied by Lagerfeld’s sketches—a fitting tribute to Karl Lagerfeld, whose prolific creations spanned two centuries.

I spent hours marvelling at his extraordinary and prolific creations that went straight from his sketches to the catwalk. It is said that Lagerfeld could draw before he could walk or talk. In many ways, it was his primary form of communication.

So, at its heart, the exhibition looked at the evolution of Karl’s sketches into garments worn on the runway. And what’s fascinating to have discovered: I always thought his drawings were spontaneous and free. But they were, in truth, extremely precise and mathematical.

We couldn’t see it because we are not trained professionals, but his premiers knew down to the inches what each line meant. It was like a secret code, a language shared between him and the heads of his ateliers.

Hats off to all the talented and skillful seamstresses who successfully manifested those designs from mere paper sketches into beautiful, precise and well-made pieces of clothing.

His passion spoke to me and opened my eyes to see that fashion, made with the right vision…is actually art!! Who knew fashion could be this beautiful?

Looking at the never-ending collection, one could get whiplash walking around the exhibition, trying to catch a glimpse at the hundreds of ensembles on display.

During the exhibition, admiring his body of art, it was evident he changed the course of fashion with his pioneering vision, extraordinary talent, and creative genius, leaving a remarkable legacy as one of our time’s greatest and most prolific designers.

I could go on and on about Karl’s extraordinary and prolific talents. I’ll let some of the pictures that I took from the exhibition do all the talking-