KARL LAGERFELD: A LINE OF BEAUTY
The controversy around the latest exhibition at the Met’s Costume Institute, Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty, erupted as soon as the exhibition was announced in October 2022. Lagerfeld, once fashion’s undisputed emperor, was now seen by many as a relic of an industry dominated by Euro-centric ideals in dire need of diversifying. Online, fashion historians and critics expressed concerns about the celebratory stage the Costume Institute was likely to provide Lagerfeld’s legacy, without much attention to the views he publicly expressed, considered by many to be anti-fat, xenophobic, Islamophobic, and misogynistic.
Image: Rachmaninoff Dress, Chloe, Spring 2019. Image above: detail of Composite image, Julia Hetta, 2023.
Perhaps anticipating such criticism, Andrew Bolton, Melissa Huber, and Amanda Harlech, the exhibition’s curatorial team, focused on “Lagerfeld the designer” rather than Lagerfeld the man. To achieve this goal, they turned to a seventh-century concept termed a “line of beauty.”
Image: Rachmaninoff Dress, Chloe, Spring 2019. Image above: detail of Composite image, Julia Hetta, 2023.
Perhaps anticipating such criticism, Andrew Bolton, Melissa Huber, and Amanda Harlech, the exhibition’s curatorial team, focused on “Lagerfeld the designer” rather than Lagerfeld the man. To achieve this goal, they turned to a seventh-century concept termed a “line of beauty.”
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