American Vogue Magazine celebrates the legendary Karl Lagerfeld with their May 2023 cover story lensed by fashion photographer Annie Leibovitz. In charge of styling was Alex Harrington, with set design from Mary Howard. Beauty is work of hair stylist Jawara, and makeup artist Fara Homidi. Stars of the session are supermodels Naomi Campbell, Natalia Vodianova, Shalom Harlow, Liu Wen, Amber Valletta, Adut Akech, Anok Yai, Devon Aoki, Gigi Hadid, and Kendall Jenner.
For the cover story, captured at Paris’ Grand Palais, ten designers / fashion houses reimagined Karl Lagerfeld’s work: Pierpaolo Piccioli (Valentino), Thom Browne, Donatella Versace, Jun Takahashi (Undercover), Christopher John Rogers, John Galliano (Maison Margiela), Olivier Rousteing (Balmain), Chitose Abe (Sacai), Gucci, and Simone Rocha.
I also learned from Karl not to take anything for granted. You can work with everything. You can create with everything. I was always very impressed by Karl’s research into modernity. He was obsessed with modernity – this idea of depicting what was contemporary. He was never nostalgic. – Pierpaolo Piccioli
He means a lot to designers today – especially me. We like his rebellious spirit. He would put things together that really didn’t make sense, just to show you they could make sense. He didn’t take himself so seriously, but then geniuses never do. It was like every show he did was his first. He also liked to have women around him, to give him strength. Their presence was very important – he wanted to know what women thought of what he was doing. – Donatella Versace
Photography © Annie Leibovitz for Vogue Magazine, read more at vogue.com
