Anyone seeing the resemblance between paper and Karl Lagerfeld? I am. Karl is just as versatile and adaptable, as classic but innovative, as apparently sterile but inspiring as a paper. As such, his collaboration (well, sort of) with Japanese artist Shin Tanaka, is the perfect fashion/life metaphor.
Last week (Oct. 17th), a paper installation signed by Shin Tanaka was unveiled at Lagerfeld’s Paris boutique and it will continue to be exhibited in the Left Bank store’s windows until October 27 when it will move to Berlin from November 24, as reported by wwd. The initiative, suggestively named KarlxShin Paper Mania counts several paper models inspired by the designer (and his cat, biensur). Shin Tanaka is notorious for making just one piece of each design, so don’t expect these ‘toys’ to go out on a large scale any time soon (perhaps for charity/auction purposes?) but you’ll always have the Steiff bears or the stuffed puppet also made in Karl’s likeness.
Shin has previously worked with sneakers labels such as Adidas, Nike and he exhibited his work around the world, pushing his trademark shapes (Chibby, T-Boy, Ws, br. and others) to a level of stardomness unusually contrasting with the idea of paper toys. His latest works include a series of prints for Emily the Strange and now, the fancy fashion project with Karl Lagerfeld.
Conveniently launching the Chanel Prestige Eyewear campaign less than a week later the above mentioned exhibition, models Nadja Bender and Ashleigh Good showcase the new designs (who are we kidding? what’s new about these shades?) in a minimalist fashion, photographed by der Kaiser. It seems to be all about black and white, timeless yet fashion-unsynchronized yet avant-garde and retro at the same time. Should there have been less clothes and rounder frames involved, I would’ve thought Uncle Terry had a his lenses in this campaign as well. But no. It’s all Karl, baby, all Karl!
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