Opinion: Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy is more complicated than you think

But are these comments, egregious as they may be, just part of the Karl Lagerfeld myth? He called himself a “caricature” in an interview with the Observer, likening it to a “mask” that he wears “all year long”. His most ardent supporters acknowledge these stains on his reputation, but call on you to look past it and instead celebrate his achievements. In a way, they are right—Lagerfeld was an intensely talented designer with a golden touch wherever he worked. His work at Chanel inspired a whole host of legacy houses scouting young designers to bring their brands to the new age—see Tom Ford for Gucci, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, or Alexander McQueen for Givenchy. His landmark collaboration with fast fashion brand H&M flew off the racks and influenced a previously unfounded and highly popular convergence of high and low. 

How do you cancel genius? How can you ignore the contributions of a person who left behind an industry made in his image? Can you separate the artist from the art? It’s a loaded question that has a lot to do with our perception of morality, personal and global politics, cancel culture (a buzzword that has been oversaturated to the point of meaninglessness) and the search for purity where there is none. 

The idea of ‘separation’ is perhaps a crude one, suggesting a binary of whole-hearted acceptance of art—vile as the artist’s politics or behaviour may be—or a complete deplatforming of the work and its creator. We are quick to find out that binaries are rarely helpful, and neither are spectrums. We are becoming more acquainted with the fact that things in life are more multifaceted than we think, which is why the concept of intersectionality, of identifying how issues cross multiple identity markers such as gender, race, class and sexuality, has become a staple in today’s cultural climate. And as actress Jameela Jamil has put it, Lagerfeld gatekept who graces the venerated halls of fashion with his “hateful”, “public disdain for marginalised people”. 

In case you missed it: Remembering Karl Lagerfeld: A Look Back At The Fashion Icon's Most Memorable Collaborations

There’s more space for contradictions to coexist than people think. Is it true that Lagerfeld was a truly talented designer with the rare ability to turn abstract sketches on paper to show-stopping creations? Yes. Did his off-hand comments harken back to the “golden” days of fashion, where he held (and continued to hold) supreme power over models, designers, editors, and journalists? Also yes. Did they celebrate a time when the face of fashion was thin, rich and usually white, who were nevertheless subject to the whims of institutionalised misogyny and abuse of power in the industry, fabulously out of step with the priorities of diversity and inclusion today? One hundred percent. When one allows space for seemingly disparate elements to coalesce, a more complex picture of a man emerges—one that still remains beyond the purview of mainstream understanding.

We will never know the difference between Lagerfeld, the flammable designer in the very public eye who stunned with his brilliant dresses and nonchalant comments, and Karl, the private figure who was said to be extremely generous, affable, and kind. We will never know if his demeanour was truly a façade or if his comments were Freudian slips. They all nonetheless converge to form a complicated legacy defined by beauty and flecked by the unsavoury. Karl Lagerfeld was, and is, never one thing or another. He resisted pigeonholes and was not easily labelled. He was both an arbiter of originality and a champion of the old guard, for better or for worse. And if you find yourself wandering through his creations at the Met, it's important to keep those conversations going on at the same time, even as you marvel at his creations. 

One of the aphorisms so closely associated with Lagerfeld goes, “embrace the present and innovate the future”. Innovate the future, yes—but look closely at the old world he represented too, and look forward to a future where the promise of fashion is no longer reserved for a select echelon, where the safety of models is paramount, and where power is, dare I say it, democratised. There is a way to celebrate the roads he paved in fashion and to acknowledge the horrible things he said about other people, and it would be reductive to mention only one or the other. The question is now, what do we keep?

NOW READ

The Best Looks at Met Gala 2022

5 famous Chanel brides, from Sofia Richie to Keira Knightley

Karl Lagerfeld’s Former Personal Assistant Sébastien Jondeau Releases New Memoir