Karl Lagerfeld Remembered by Sofia Coppola, Giorgio Armani, Willow Smith, and More

“Karl was very fun and witty and brilliant, but what I was most amazed by was his faithfulness. That’s really rare nowadays. Chanel is famous for it too, it keeps its people forever.

I first met Karl when I was 20. I did a casting for the show, and his team asked me to stay for a whole month, so he could create the collection on me. It was very impressive to me, because I’m French, and the house is super iconic. And with Karl…I always felt like I had to be at his level—which is unreachable! But spending time with him, I realized that he also was always making jokes all day. In the 1990s, it was all about the supermodels and star designers, and Karl was even more of a superstar.

We met again when I was about 35. I was doing a radio show, and he came into my radio truck, and he was meant to stay for five minutes and he ended up staying for 20 talking about his relationship with music and fashion. When he was a kid, his mother played the violin, and he would turn the pages of the music. I hadn’t seen him in many years, and a week later, his team asked me to walk in the cruise show later on that month. That’s how I started to work in fashion again, and with Chanel again. I was extremely flattered to be asked—and surprised. I was 35 at the time, and age was different then. I wasn’t ready to go back to fashion. I had a life: I was a mother, an entrepreneur.

But going back was way more fun cause I had things to tell, things to share with Karl. It was a mature relationship, where you could talk about life and literature and the arts, which I couldn’t do when I was 20. Karl was very generous—to me, to his team, to his friends. His faithfulness was part of that generosity, and in turn, you never wanted to let him down; you wanted to keep bringing things to the table for him. But it was easier to make him laugh than to impress him with your knowledge.”