Karl Lagerfeld’s best looks for Chanel, and how they influenced the Met Gala 2023

On the first Monday in May, fashion commentators and casual pyjama-clad observers alike come together to lament Met Gala attendees’ failure to “stick to the theme”, year on year. So much so, that even the most hideous of Met Gala outfits can salvage themselves a little slack if they remained “on theme” - one of the ultimate Met Gala compliments, tiers above our usual outfit qualifiers of “looking good” or “trendy”.

Well, luckily or not-so-luckily for us, we have slightly less to bitch about today, because yesterday’s Met Gala guests were as on theme as they’ve been since the holy Met Ball of 2018, when every A-lister came out of the fashion woodworks to serve a look for the Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination theme.

This year’s theme was in memoriam of one of the fashion industry's most decorated designers and Chanel’s long-serving former creative director, Karl Lagerfeld. While Lagerfeld also served at four other fashion houses during his lifetime, Chanel, which he joined in 1983 and remained as creative director until his death, was his defining legacy.

A handful of Met Gala guests were lucky enough to wear real Karl Lagerfeld designs for Chanel, hoisted out of the archives - Dua Lipa wore Claudia Schiffer’s bridal look from Chanel’s 1993 show, Margot Robbie donned a replica of another 1993 Chanel gown once worn on the runway by Cindy Crawford, and Nicole Kidman rewore the gown from her very own Chanel commerical back in 2004, which was quite a flex.

Even excluding the direct looks, Lagerfeld’s influence at Chanel was all over the Met red carpet, unsurprising given the theme was ‘Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty.’ There were many other fashion houses Karl worked for which they could have chosen from, yet Chanel prevailed.

Take Rihanna’s massive white floral cocoon, made from over 500 fake petals by Valentino, which had echoes of Lagerfeld’s 2010 creation for Chanel which shrouded a model in intricate silk blossoms like a chrysalis. Or Emma Chamberlain’s cropped suiting by MiuMiu, which was the spitting image of a 2008 Lagerfeld suit for Chanel.

Florence Pugh’s headpiece, too, was reminiscent of an old Chanel look worn by Naomi Campbell in 1995, where a hat was affixed to her head via a series of spikes tied in a bow.

Attendeeds accessories nodded to Karl’s love of excessive necklaces and use of pearls, especially Kim Kardashian, whose whole dress was made up of 50,000 individual pearls.

Brooklyn Beckham and Nicola Peltz also sported matching stacked necklaces and director Taika Waititi’s suit was adorned with long strings of pearl crossed over his lapels. Monochrome - Karl’s uniform - reigned supreme, with only occasional splashes of colour from guests like Pedro Pascal, Kylie Jenner and Barry Keoghan.

There were plenty of iconic Karl calling-cards left out, though: sadly no one wore a teeny tiny bikini, and all this talk of anti-logo mania and stealth wealth may be behind the suprising lack of Chanel’s trademark interlocking C’s. High starched collars, a Karl classic, also weren’t as common as one may have expected.

This was more than made up for by the presence of the Chanel bouclé material though, as well as nods to Karl’s beloved cat and Chanel model Choupette, both of which dominated multiple looks. All in all, it was very Karl, very Chanel, and as on theme as you could hope for. Everyone pray for 2024.