Kate Moss & Cara Delevingne Have Reimagined Karl Lagerfeld's Signature White Shirts In His Honour

To celebrate Karl Lagerfeld’s legacy, a collective of the designer’s friends and fellow creatives has come together to reimagine his signature shirting. Inspired by his admission that he would most like to have invented the white shirt – “For me, the white shirt is the basis of everything. Everything else comes after” – Kate Moss, Cara Delevingne, Carine Roitfeld, Tommy Hilfiger, Sébastien Jondeau, Diane Kruger and Takashi Murakami have interpreted Lagerfeld’s uniform, which he purchased from Hilditch & Key, owing to the Jermyn Street shirt-maker’s crisp high collars and pristine finish.

Each of the seven designs will be replicated 77 times and sold for €777 (£700) on Karl.com and Farfetch.com from 26 September, in accordance with Lagerfeld’s favourite number, seven. All proceeds will go to Sauver la Vie’s medical research at Paris Descartes University, which the designer supported for a number of years and drew its logo by hand.

The shirts will be displayed in Karl Lagerfeld’s headquarters on the Rue Saint-Guillaume on 25 September, during Paris Fashion Week, alongside additional custom pieces from Kaia Gerber, Gigi Hadid, Helen Mirren, Olivia Palermo, Amber Valletta and Alessandro Michele, to name a few. The work will then move to select Karl Lagerfeld stores worldwide, where customers will be able to experience the tribute.

“It’s such an honour to be involved in something so close to Karl and to honour his memory,” Delevingne told Vogue. “Karl let me explore myself and opened me up to something I had not seen in a while, and for that I will be forever grateful. I miss him so much.” The model’s shirt features sketches of her tattoos – from the lion’s head to the word “happy” and her mother, Pandora’s name. “Karl was always fascinated by the story of my tattoos,” she explained. “It was a way of linking our artistic expression while honouring his memory.”

Moss, meanwhile, found inspiration in Sonny Hall, a poet and model represented by the Kate Moss Agency. “I believe Karl would have loved him,” she said. The words written on the left hand side of her shirt are from a verse in Hall’s Clutching Pens. “It’s about laughter and happiness,” Moss continued. “As Karl was always holding a pen and laughing, I think it is the perfect tribute to him. Karl was always looking to the future.”

The sharing of memories and anecdotes, entitled “A Tribute to Karl: The White Shirt Project”, follows “Karl For Ever”, a memorial for Lagerfeld staged by Chanel and Fendi, both of which he helmed creatively for decades. Staged at the Grand Palais – the iconic Paris venue that was transformed for the fantastical settings of his Chanel shows since 2005 – during Paris Men’s Fashion Week, it was an evening of lively, nuanced and varied interviews and performances. “Karl is his own greatest legacy,” Delevingne added of playing a part in commemorating her friend. “Everything he did will be remembered and seen as an inspiration for future generations.”