A statement from the French fashion house said that the show was inspired by Karl Lagerfeld, current creative director, and founder Gabrielle Chanel’s relationship with New York City.
“In 1931, Gabrielle Chanel first visited New York – a place where her revolutionary style had long been celebrated, as demonstrated by the support she received from the US department stores that carried her earliest hat creations starting in 1912. Karl Lagerfeld is also very attached to the American megacity whose energy and light he has always loved to capture.”
The Met has a strong connection with fashion, most notably with its annual Costume Institute Gala and exhibition. This year’s “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” exhibition has been one of the museum’s most popular exhibitions ever. In 2005, Chanel and The Met collaborated on a retrospective of Coco Chanel’s legendary designs alongside Lagerfeld’s.
The last fashion show held at the museum was Valentino’s 1982 Fall collection. Chanel’s upcoming December show also suggests that designers are returning to New York City. In May, Prada showed its Resort 2019 collection at a space designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Previous locations for the Métiers d’Art show have been the Elbphilharmonie in Lagerfeld’s hometown of Hamburg, a rodeo hall in Dallas, and a castle in Salzburg.