Chanel designer Karl Lagerfield has made his directorial debut with a 10-minute silent film celebrating Coco Chanel. Mr Lagerfield was inspired to make the movie to set the record straight about the style pioneer.
“It’s a funny movie, unpretentious,” said Mr Lagerfeld. “Chanel was a charming woman, at liberty to seduce men. Everybody this year has decided to make a movie about Chanel, and you know their historical worth is not always too exact.”
The film tells the story of Coco’s love affair with Duke Dimitri Pavlovich. The decision to shoot in black and white is sure to add an air of authenticity to the work, which is set between 1913 and 1923.
Karl chose people closest to him to fulfill his creative vision, casting models Edita Vilkeviciute and Brad Koenig to play Coco and The Duke, his own bodyguard as a nightclub owner, and workers in his atelier to fill the minor parts.
“I cannot take extras,” Mr Lagerfeld stressed. “They don’t know how to touch the clothes.”
The short film will make its world premiere at Paris’ Ranelagh Theatre tonight to coincide with the launch of the Chanel Paris-Moscow pre-fall collection.
