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Update May 22, 2023: The Met's offering extended hours to view the exhibition every Sunday from 5-9pm until the show closes on July 16, 2023. While all other areas of the Museum will close at 5pm as usual on those Sundays, the Karl Lagerfeld exhibition will remain open.
In a dazzling tribute to couture fashion, 200 pieces by Karl Lagerfeld, from flouncy floral dresses to menswear-inspired suits, have transformed the Met's Tisch Galleries into a runway. The Costume Institute’s new exhibition, "Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty" showcases the late designer's working methods, especially his skills in sketching.
The Costume Institute Benefit (a.k.a. The Met Gala) will be held tonight, May 1, then the exhibit will open to the public from May 5 through July 16. We got a sneak peek at the exhibit today; here are five things to keep an eye out for when you visit.
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First, a quick bio of Lagerfeld: The legendary designer who lived from 1933 to 2019 shaped high fashion at Chanel, Chloé, Fendi and his eponymous label, Karl Lagerfeld. In his 65-year career, Lagerfeld's work became one of the biggest forces in fashion and culture. It's important to note, however, that Lagerfeld said things that were fatphobic, racist and misogynistic, as Time detailed.
While Lagerfeld said "fashion does not belong in a museum," The Costume Institute's Curator Andrew Bolton said the designer never declined any of the museum's requests to show his work over the years. Bolton combed through 10,000 of Lagerfeld's garments from the 1950s to 2019 to choose 200 for the show.
1. A thematic walk through fashion trends
The exhibition begins with a sleek early '80s black silk dress emblazoned with clear beads and crystals, then moves into some '70s-style outerwear, then into the more structured silhouettes Lagerfeld made famous. In the first gallery, videos feature the designer's premières d’atelier (or seamstresses) who turned two-dimensional sketches into three-dimensional clothing. Instead of sticking to a traditional retrospective timeline, however, the show focuses on themes in Lagerfeld's work offering a capsule collection in each room.
The exhibit explores key dualities in Lagerfeld's designs through nine "sublines" — feminine and masculine, romantic and military, rococo and classical, historical and futuristic, ornamental and structural, canonical and countercultural, artisanal and mechanical, floral and geometric, and figurative and abstract. Each gallery shows garments that represent each of these dichotomies, along with moments of convergence in styles.
For example, in the floral line/geometric line, you'll see ruffled dresses bedecked in pastel pink flowers, alongside black-and-white frocks with sharper lines.
In each room, clothing takes the spotlight, with perfectly dressed mannequins in alcoves, at eye level and suspended in the air.
2. Videos of Lagerfeld's sketches
“To the untrained eye, Karl’s sketches seem impulsive and spontaneous,” Bolton said during the media preview today. “But to the skilled eyes of his premières, they conveyed precise details and almost mathematical instructions. … The sketches existed as a kind of secret language between Karl and his collaborators who knew exactly how to decipher every line, every mark, every notation.”
Presented on a giant screen, a video shows Lagerfeld, in his signature fingerless gloves, sketching several of his most iconic designs, including a red-and-pink Fendi dress and a Chanel suit with gold accents.
3. Designs coming to life
Throughout the show, sketching continues as a major throughline. Sketches of Lagerfeld’s designs accompany many of the finished garments, so visitors can see how the idea evolved from his mind, to paper, to the runway.
For example, a black-and-white sketch accompanies a 2002 haute couture gown, showing how Lagerfeld's team turned his drawing into a complex web of cashmere, silk and sequins.
And Lagerfeld sketched just about everywhere, explained Carla Bruni, a friend of Lagerfeld's (and a fashion model, singer and the former first lady of France).
"He was constantly working, sketching and photographing even during dinners. He was passionate about sharing his creativity with others by sharing his sketches and little personal notes," she said. "He was a universally curious man. He was interested in everyone. Everything interested him, except mediocrity."
4. A re-creation of Lagerfeld's desk
A 2018 photograph by Annie Leibovitz shows Lagerfeld working at his desk in Paris. The designer, wearing a white collared robe with his hair pulled back into a low ponytail, sits surrounded by a mess of books, papers and pens. True to its inspiration, the re-creation includes piles of books, strewn about with markers and pens.
“In many ways, Lagerfeld is the definite designer of the late 20th and early 21st century. He brings to fashion outstanding universality and expertise that bridges the gap between art and commerce, and he did that with sophistication, with wit and with passion,” The Met’s Director Max Hollein said.
5. Lagerfeld's personal look
While the exhibition focuses mostly on Lagerfeld's output rather than on his life, the exhibit concludes with a glimpse into the designer's personal style, his black-and-white "cloak of invisibility," as the museum described it. Chanel loaned the museum his signature black leather gloves decorated with metal studs and Chanel chains.
Bolton described Lagerfeld as "a modern incarnation of Mercury," the god of commerce and communication.
"Speaking of his creative directorship at Chanel, he once said, 'In the end, I'm just a mercenary paid to perpetuate a label.' But Karl was much more than that," Bolton said. "With the expertise he brought to fashion as an art and as a business, he created the identity of the fashion designer empresario that has become the blueprint of contemporary fashion, a blueprint that many designers aspire to but very few will achieve and even fewer, if any, will surpass."
Bonus: Special Lagerfeld events
- June 13: Needle felting station exploring how to work with wool. This demo will be part of the Museum Mile Festival.
- June 15 and June 22, 2 pm: Picture This! will present in-person and virtual exhibition tours designed for visually impaired audiences.
- July 15, 6-8pm: Drop-in Drawing Session inspired by themes in the show.
- July 31-August 4: Teen Studio—Fashion Design, a weeklong fashion workshop for teens, concludes the programming. The workshop culminates with a fashion show on the final day for participants to showcase their creations.