“There could be 10, 20 different shows on Karl. “He was Karl,” the curator said, noting that Lagerfeld himself referred to not always meaning what he said. He examined 10,000 items before slowly winnowing the show down to about 200. What was more interesting to Bolton, he says, was to focus on the work, and that was daunting enough. Many of Lagerfeld’s best-known quotes have shocked people over the years as he opined on subjects from #MeToo (skeptically), curvy bodies (dismissively), and political issues like immigration (offensively, to many). What the exhibit does not do, purposely, is focus on Lagerfeld’s words - despite that quote on the doorway. The show, titled “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” is large in scope but intricately detailed, and clear in its message: Lagerfeld’s creative tentacles spread far beyond fashion into culture, and constantly adapted with the times. Set in 14 galleries, the show’s very walls have been constructed to embody the essential contradiction, or duality, in Lagerfeld’s style and persona - a series of curved and straight lines. “All this” is a lavish, loving tribute to the hugely prolific career of German-born Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at 85 after more than a half-century of designing that left a deep mark on luxury fashion, especially at Chanel, but also at Fendi, at his own eponymous label, and elsewhere. So, I really don’t know what he would think of all this! I’m not sure he would come.”

“He believed fashion was not art - it belonged on the street. “That’s what Karl said to me when I met him,” the star curator said. NEW YORK (AP) - Seven words from Karl Lagerfeld adorn a doorway at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s sumptuous new exhibit honoring the late, legendary designer: “Fashion does not belong in a museum.”Īndrew Bolton, who masterminds the New York museum’s blockbuster Costume Institute shows each year, chuckled as he led a visitor through that doorway this weekend, a few days before opening, with crews nearby bustling to prepare for Monday’s splashy Met Gala.

Love Means... Renewal by Andrew Grey