Life Itself
KARL LAGERFELD WAS MANY THINGS: a friend, a consummate artist, a paradox. He was a designer who thrived on attention but also led an intensely private life. He was a well-read intellectual who adored the heady lights of popular culture. His desk heaved with books and paper, but he always had the latest technology at his fingertips. And he, of course, declared that fashion didn’t belong in a museum—it should look ahead, not be consigned to history. But here he is with a retrospective at The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute. I’m at peace with the small role I’ve played in this last contradiction because I know he would have loved being recognized—and there’s simply no one more deserving. All credit goes to Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s brilliant curator…