![Karl Lagerfeld Without Sunglasses [Pictures]](http://media4.onsugar.com/files/2011/08/31/2/166/1668379/d2eee44a3c9f361f_FNP_EW_0217689.xlarge/i/Karl-Lagerfeld-Without-Sunglasses-Pictures.jpg "Karl Lagerfeld Without Sunglasses [Pictures]")
>> It's a rare moment when Karl Lagerfeld is without his sunglasses. Watchers of the documentary Lagerfeld Confidential have had the opportunity to see the designer sketch, sunglasses off, on film since it premiered a few years ago, and over the weekend, Lagerfeld was snapped in Saint Tropez with his bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau, eating at a cafe without his usual eyewear.
>> Last night, Karl Lagerfeld hit New York to debut a series of commercials he directed to promote the European ice cream brand Magnum in the United States. The three minute-long spots feature Rachel Bilson — portraying a fashion model, an art student, and a ballet dancer — as well as Baptiste Giabiconi, but Lagerfeld himself makes no appearances.
A waiter carrying a Diet Coke-filled stemmed glass on a tray followed Lagerfeld around the premiere party last night, as did his bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau. So why did Lagerfeld team up with Magnum, even though he admits he doesn't eat sugar? “I like advertising. I love my job in fashion. I love my job as a photographer, but making films was something I hadn’t done. If I was isolated in one job, I would get bored." Besides, he adds: “I would eat ice cream if I could. I made advertisements for Dom Perignon Champagne, and I don’t drink alcohol. After all, I’m a dress designer and I don’t wear dresses."
Bilson, meanwhile, estimated that probably had around 25 Magnum bars during the course of filming, which was done over three days in Paris on a soundstage and at the Folies Bergere. Lagerfeld said that he was given creative freedom, with the advice that the films' content should be “nothing very sexual,” and the budget for a crew of at least 80 people.
When asked whether there was anything he would not lend his name to, Lagerfeld replied: “I hate the idea of the politically correct, because it is very demode, but I would not make advertisements for something related to meat. Meat, no; fur, yes. I don’t think I would do advertising for condoms, even if it has the same name here [Magnum].”
As for the rumor circulating that he is working on a fragrance called "Paper Passion," intending it to smell like books, Lagerfeld said it's not happening. And his next film to debut is a 30-minute movie, "The Tale of a Fairy," starring Freja Beha Erichsen, Anna Mouglalis, Amanda Harlech, and Kristen McMenamy, and to be shown during the Chanel Cruise 2012 presentation in Cap d'Antibes.
>> For the 2011 Pirelli calendar, which launched in Moscow today, Karl Lagerfeld said that he produced “the visual version of Homer. I did with my camera what he did with his pen, although we understand that he probably didn't use a pen.” Lagerfeld gathered 15 female models, 5 male models, and Julianne Moore in his Paris studio back in April to produce 36 black and white images of deities from ancient Greece and Rome for the calendar. “I wanted to do something different. I looked at all the other calendars,” he explained, adding: “With such a concept and boys and girls like this, it was an easy job.”
Lagerfeld was surrounded by a cadre of the models featured for the Moscow launch, including Natasha Poly sporting a new brunette hair color. But who did he cast as whom? Julianne Moore plays Hera, Brad Kroenig poses as Zeus, Lara Stone gives her best Aphrodite, Jeneil Williams channels Hades, and Baptiste Giabiconi embodies the roles of both Narcissus and Apollo.
The rest of the cast includes: Bianca Balti (as a Bacchante), Elisa Sednaoui (Flora, Echo), Freja Beha Erichsen (Apollo, Pollux, Orpheus), Isabeli Fontana (a Bacchante), Magdalena Frackowiak (Athena, Estia), Anja Rubik (Hermes, Terpsichore), Abbey Lee Kershaw (Echo, Castor, Eurydice), Lakshmi Menon (a Bacchante), Heidi Mount (Aurora, Amphitrite), Erin Wasson (Ajax, a Bacchante), Natasha Poly (Melpomene), Daria Werbowy (Artemis, Penthesilea), Iris Strubegger (Athena), Sebastien Jondeau (Mars), Garret Neff (Bacchus), and Jake Davis (Achilles).
A peek at the calendar and launch below.
>> Set on the French Riviera in Saint Tropez with the models arriving on motorboats from a yacht in the harbor, Chanel's Cruise 2011 show reflected the '70s throwback party atmosphere emulated in Karl Lagerfeld's short film shown last night. Natasha Poly opened barefoot in a pastel print dress, and Karolina Kurkova and Abbey Lee Kershaw danced down the runway in knits. Toni Garrn and Jacquetta Wheeler made runway returns, and Crystal Renn, riding the current "plus size model" wave, made a cameo.
For the finale, front rowers like Anna Mougalis, Carine Roitfeld, Andre Leon Talley in a green cape, Emmanuelle Alt, Diane Kruger, Vanessa Paradis, and Franca Sozzani witnessed Lagerfeld's bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau pulling up on a motorcycle (which temporarily stalled) with Georgia May Jagger on the back. Then, appropriately, to a Rolling Stones soundtrack, Lagerfeld appeared in a purple jacket for his bow — and Abbey Lee threw her arm around Karl's shoulder.
>> First Look: Karl Lagerfeld's New Short Film, Remember Now —Last night's flight from New York to Nice, transporting a number of journalists and Karolina Kurkova to Saint Tropez for Chanel's Cruise 2011 presentation tomorrow, was delayed by six hours due to volcanic ash, but it ended up landing just fine this morning. Kurkova appears in Karl Lagerfeld's new short film, Remember Now, to be presented at the show tomorrow, along with actors Elisa Sednaoui and Pascal Greggory in the leading roles, and Freja Beha Erichsen, Magdalena Frackowiak, Baptiste Giabiconi, Sebastien Jondeau, Abbey Lee Kershaw, Leigh Lezark, and Heidi Mount supporting. The trailer, below. [Chanel News]
>> Yesterday's Chanel Cruise spectacle opened on the Lido beach in Venice with a barefoot, becloaked Tanya Dziahileva in a tricorn hat, and was immediately followed by an afterparty at the nearby resort hotel for the guest list of 300 or so. Lara Stone wandered, "looking for a boyfriend," according to Style.com's Derek Blasberg, and the crowd was overrun with sequin jackets. Karl Lagerfeld held court on the terrace, grooving to the disco music, with a bodyguard (presumedly Sebastien Jondeau, who walked earlier in the show) "holding back the editors back from his young perfect people posse."
Afterward, Karl retired for a late night salmon dinner with a select few — among them Ingrid Sischy and Heidi Mount — in the basement of the hotel, which apparently turned out to be a dungeon, not a basement, as Lady Amanda Harlech pointed out.
A gallery from backstage at the show, below.
>> Tom Ford is currently filming his directorial debut, and Wednesday, Karl Lagerfeld will show his own directorial debut, based on Coco Chanel's early years. Unlike Tom's feature film, Karl's film is only ten minutes — a length more fitting to kick off the showing of Chanel's Paris-Moscow collection in Paris. The presentation was originally supposed to take place in Moscow, but Karl changed his mind after Russian customs "wanted to have the clothes three weeks in advance, which means we wouldn't have been ready and the situation seemed risky, so we cancelled."
Shot in a Paris studio in two days, Karl's film is inspired by Mack Sennett's flickering black-and-white silent slapstick movies with "spliced in newsreel footage of WWI because I think it's interesting to juxtapose fashion with the horrible images of the trenches." Rather than cast extras — "they don't know how to touch the clothes" — Karl looked within his own posse to fill positions — muse Amanda Harlech and daughter Tallulah Ormsby-Gore as customer and model, Brad Kroenig as Chanel lover Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich, and bodyguard Sebastien Jondeau as a Russian general. For the role of Chanel, Karl went with Lithuanian model Edita Vilkeviciute — in character in the film stills below.
*image: source
Mimicking Karl's French road-safety campaign, Fall 2008 Chanel Couture; Paris, July 1.
*image: source, source
![Karl Lagerfeld Without Sunglasses [Pictures]](http://media2.onsugar.com/files/2011/08/31/2/166/1668379/d2eee44a3c9f361f_FNP_EW_0217689.xxlarge/i/Karl-Lagerfeld-Without-Sunglasses-Pictures.jpg "Karl Lagerfeld Without Sunglasses [Pictures]")
