Whether it was Warhol and Basquiat, Dalí and Disney, or KFC and Crocs, when cultural stars align and the synergy of creativity shines, there is little more intoxicating than the paths of two visionaries crossed. In the early 1980s, a fashion force of nature and a product design provocateur came together under a cloud of nonconformity, as one Karl Lagerfeld — in his debut season with Chanel — settled into a new apartment in Monaco’s Roccabella building.
Already somewhat of a force in the fashion world, Lagerfeld had worked with the likes of Balmain and Valentino, before helping Fendi, and later Chloé, along their way to becoming dominant names in haute couture. But it was his move to the iconic brand founded by Coco Chanel that would seal his place in fashion’s hall of fame.
Photo © Jacques Schumacher: Suvretta by Ettore Sottsass (1981), © Memphis;
Riviera by Michele de Lucchi (1981), © Memphis; Pierre by George J. Sowden (1981), © Memphis;
Hilton by Javier Mariscal (1981), © Memphis; Treetops by Ettore Sottsass (1981), © Memphis.
On a smaller scale but on no less of a creative note, Italian product designer Ettore Sottsass had been making a name for himself since setting up his own studio in Milan, 1947. A radical designer with an eye for the outré, Sottsass would collaborate with prominent designers in the Radical movement from the late 1960s into the ‘70s, but it was his founding of the Memphis Group in December 1980 that would see his name written into design’s history books.
An amalgam of design and art, creativity and experimentalism, the Memphis design movement was lapped up by those with their finger on the cultural pulse at the time. Mr Lagerfeld, for one, was enamoured, and his Monaco apartment was the perfect blank canvas for him to indulge in this inspired new creative crusade.
“It was love at first sight,” the German designer went on press as saying. “When I saw the Memphis show in September ’81 in Milan. I had just got a big apartment in Monte Carlo. And had no idea how to furnish it. I had never lived in a modern building. I wanted it all modern and instantly thought that Memphis would be the Art Deco of the ’80s. I was right. The influence was enormous. Memphis tried to breathe fresh air into the word ‘design.’ And what I like about all the Memphis stuff is its humour.”
Michael Graves, ‘Important Plaza’ Dressing Table. Studio Memphis Brionvega Television. Photo © Jacques Schumacher.
Michele De Lucchi, ‘Pacific’ Wardrobe. Michele De Lucchi, ‘Oceanic’ Table Lamp. Peter Shire, ‘Brazil’ Table. Photo © Jacques Schumacher.
It was ten years ago that I happened upon some grainy online images of Lagerfeld’s Memphis apartment, Sottsass’s movement having somewhat of a renaissance at the time. As taken by the aesthetic as ‘The Kaiser’ was in 1981, I tracked down the photographer, Jacques Schumacher, and ended up in communication with his wife, Regina Spelman.
The editor of little-known German fashion and design magazine, Mode und Wohnen, Spelman, Schumacher, and his assistant Uwe Düttmann, would spend three days in Monte Carlo with Karl and his boyfriend Jacques de Bascher; those iconic images of that famous Monaco apartment committed to time forever. Granted permission to publish the images in full, Lagerfeld’s Memphis apartment became famous again, more than 30 years later. The design, however, not a day more dated.
Opening today, 20 March, and running until 24 May, Francesco Vezzoli presents: KARL GOES TO MEMPHIS. Tribute to a historic encounter in Monte Carlo sees the Italian artist celebrate this momentous creative coming together, with the exhibition seeking to faithfully recreate the apartment within art gallery Almine Rech Monaco.
Francesco Vezzoli, KARL GOES TO MEMPHIS (I FEEL JUST LIKE A CHILD), 2025. Inkjet print on canvas, metallic embroidery, artist’s frame / © Francesco Vezzoli. Courtesy of the Artist and Almine Rech.
Francesco Vezzoli, FRANCESCO BY FRANCESCO: THE MIRROR HAS TWO FACES, 2003. B/W laser print on canvas with metallic embroidery. 2 pieces 62 x 51 cm each. Courtesy of the artist.
In collaboration with Memphis, each of the pieces originally included in the apartment will be exhibited, meaning visitors can get up close and personal with a series of modern masterpieces; the likes of Ettore Sottsass’s Carlton bookshelf, Masanori Umeda’s Tawaraya Ring, Martine Bedin’s Super table lamp and Michele De Lucchi’s Atlantic chest of drawers on show in all their eccentric glory.
Francesco Vezzoli has created eight new pieces for the show, his noted embroidered portraits this time turning their eye to Lagerfeld in a series of “emotional” works inspired by photographs of the designer throughout that period; a moment far from the standoffish senior his public persona came to define, where spontaneity, nightlife and cultural collaboration were the forces that drove him.
A physical document of a creative collision initiated five decades prior yet with shockwaves felt to this day, Francesco Vezzoli presents: KARL GOES TO MEMPHIS. Tribute to a historic encounter in Monte Carlo is set to keep this surreal story alive for many other generations to come.
Tahiti by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Ashoka by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Carlton by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Chelsea by George J. Sowden, © Memphis.
Kristall by Michele De Lucchi, © Memphis.
Plaza by Michael Graves, © Memphis.
Riviera by Michele de Lucchi, © Memphis.
Super by Martine Bedin, © Memphis.
Tawaraya Ring by Masanori Umeda, © Memphis.
Atlantic by Michele de Lucchi, © Memphis.
Treetops by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Beverly by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Cavalieri by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
Quisisiana by Ettore Sottsass, © Memphis.
