The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced the theme for the 2023 Met Gala. Held annually on the first Monday in May, attendees spend months preparing, and their outfits are an artistic expression of the theme.
In 2023, the Met Gala, will honour late designer Karl Lagerfeld. Known for his role as creative director of Chanel, Fendi, Chloe, and his own eponymous brand, Lagerfeld was one of the most influential figures in fashion. The exhibition aims to "explore the designer's stylistic language."
“Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty” will be the Spring 2023 Costume Institute Exhibition. The exhibit will see approximately 150 of Lagerfeld’s designs - from a selection of the fashion houses he served throughout his career - on display, alongside their original sketches.
Lagerfeld was a prolific sketcher, and used it as his primary form of communication in fashion design.
"Every single design in his life was a sketch ... And when I saw the drawings, I thought, 'These are so charming, so whimsical, so impressionistic.' But what I didn't realize was that they contained really precise information — about a shoulder line or the length of a sleeve. And (his staff) knew exactly what this line meant or what that dot meant, and they could decode it," says Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s head curator.
The exhibition will also be accompanied by video interviews, helping viewers decode the designer’s iconic creative prowess.
The exhibition’s interior has been designed by the architect Tadao Ando, who once worked for the house of Lagerfeld.
This is not the first time the Met Gala theme has centered on a designer. Previous themes spotlighted the likes of Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Gianni Versace and, most recently, Comme des Garçons founder Rei Kawakubo.
Lagerfeld exhibition will be open to the public from early May until mid-July 2023.
