Collared: Jared Leto to play Chanel supremo Karl Lagerfeld in biopic | Fashion

Jared Letos foray into fashion continues. After playing Paolo Gucci in Ridley Scotts sprawling House of Gucci last year and Gucci designer Alessandro Micheles twin at this years Met Gala, he will now star as Karl Lagerfeld in a new biopic of the designer.

Lagerfeld, who died in 2019 at the age of 85, was one of fashions larger than life characters, so he undoubtedly has a theatrical dimension that would appeal to an actor. According to an interview with Women’s Wear Daily, when Leto first met Lagerfeld, he said to him: You know, one day I have to play you in a movie. Lagerfeld answered appropriately in fashion speak: Only you, darling, only you.

The film project is being managed by Paradox, the production company that Leto owns with his partner, Emma Ludbrook. Pier Paolo Righi, Caroline Lebar, and Sbastien Jondeau, who all worked with Lagerfeld, will be executive producers of the film. It follows the announcement last week that the Metropolitan Museum of Art will stage an exhibition of Lagerfelds work as its fashion exhibition in May next year. The Met Gala which takes its theme from this exhibition will probably be a sea of ​​monochrome.

Lagerfeld was known for his signature outfit of sharp suit, high-collared white shirts, black leather gloves and sunglasses accessorised, in different decades, with a Diet Coke, a fan or an iPod (he reportedly had 310). But he was also famous for his outspoken and sometimes problematic pronouncements. These included calling Adele a little too fat and dubbing sweatpants as a sign of defeat. He said he was fed up of the Me Too movement, and described Angela Merkels policy of accepting Muslim refugees as a huge error.

The designer is credited with revitalizing Chanel, after the founder Coco died. He was creative director of the brand from 1983 until his death, and created moments ranging from Claudia Schiffer in a Chanel bikini in the nineties to launching a rocket on the catwalk in 2017. Famously a workaholic, Lagerfeld was also creative director of Italian fur brand Fendi, and had his own brand.

Since the film is a collaboration with Lagerfelds camp, the story is likely to be tightly controlled but Zoolanderish moments from Lagerfelds personal life could provide fertile ground for Letos film project. Famously, Lagerfeld lost 93lbs in 13 months in 2001, in order to fit into clothes made by designer Hedi Slimane. Quitting bread, he was said to sniff a perfume that smelled like it whenever he was hungry. In 2011, he adopted Choupette, a white fluffy cat that has custom-made Louis Vuitton luggage and eats out of silver bowls.

The films plot remains unknown but, according to a press release, it will cover the key relationships in Lagerfelds life, told through an unpredictable lens. The designers youth will no doubt appeal to film-makers. Arriving in Paris from Hamburg in the 1950s, he and fellow young designer Yves Saint Laurent became friends and rivals. By the 70s, he was a jet-set scenester, and the duo were part of a glamorous international circle that also included illustrator Antonio Lopez and model Jerry Hall. Lagerfeld even had a small role in Andy Warhols 1973 film, LAmour. The designer had a long term, although non-physical, relationship with French aristocrat Jacques de Bascher. When de Bascher died of Aids-related complications in 1989, Lagerfeld was by his side.