Content Warning: This post contains references to sexual assault, xenophobia, eating disorders, child abuse, Nazism, anti-Semitism, white supremacist violence, fatphobia, and fascist policy.
On the first Monday in May, I mixed myself a gin and tonic, curled up in front of my laptop, and joined millions of viewers watching celebrities strut down an oddly beige carpet. It was this year’s installment of the Met Gala, widely considered the year’s biggest night in fashion. Each year’s massive, Vogue-sponsored event— a fundraiser for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Fashion Institute— is defined by a theme, with past examples ranging from 2018’s dazzling Heavenly Bodies to 2019’s perplexing Notes on Camp.
This year’s theme, “In Honor of Karl,” raised eyebrows before the show even began. Attendees were expected to pay tribute to the “iconic” Karl Lagerfeld, who, before his death in 2019, was the head designer of fashion houses Chanel, Chloé, Fendi, as well as his own label, Karl Lagerfeld.
via Wikimedia Commons
In the days leading up to the gala, a slew of articles recounting Lagerfeld’s legacy set a darker than usual backdrop for the star-studded event. For many, Lagerfeld is inseparable from his Islamophobia (he claimed Muslim migrants taking refuge in Germany were the “worst enemies” of the Jewish people), sexism and excuses for abuse (“If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model!”), and above all, his hatred of fat people, especially women. “No one wants to see curvy women,” he whined in one interview. “You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly.” For him, they didn’t deserve nice things to wear: “The world of beautiful clothing is about ‘dreams and illusions.’” But what was that “dream,” exactly?
When I learned that the 1930s-born…
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