Laetitia Crahay was 24 when she met Lagerfeld in 2000 after working as the artistic director for Olivier Theyskens’s sensational debut. “I arrived at Chanel by skateboard,” she told me. “And what ended up taking place wasn’t really an interview but rather a quiz.” Though Crahay seemed to respond correctly to all the questions, “we almost fought about a bracelet I was wearing that Karl insisted was from the 1950s,” she said, “while I maintained that it was from the forties.” She was hired on the spot and hit the ground running—and fighting. “One day, I was tempted to put my bag in the mouth of a taxi driver who was saying things that weren’t true about Karl,” Crahay said. Soon she became responsible for Chanel’s jewelry and accessories, and since 2006 she has also been artistic director of Maison Michel, the hatmakers acquired by Chanel in 1996. It’s clear to her that the loyalty she feels toward her boss is returned. “Karl has genuine intentions for the people he loves,” she said. “He keeps his promises.”
When she arrived on the set of the shoot with Lagerfeld and the Chanelettes, the actress, screenwriter, and director Maïwenn Le Besco, who recently joined Chanel as the new face of the Prestige eyewear campaign, seemed to be in a hurry. Moments later there was a flurry of activity as Choupette appeared in the arms of the professional cat sitter Lagerfeld keeps on his staff. Everyone vied for a moment with Choupette, as Le Besco waited patiently, looking at her watch. Having known Lagerfeld for far less time than the other women had, she seemed to stay on the sidelines. “Karl is someone who’s more attentive than affectionate,” she said from behind her Catwoman mask. “For affection, you need the passing of time.” Someone casually mentioned that with this shoot she was becoming part of the family. “Not part of a family,” she snapped, like a cat that’s been rubbed the wrong way. “Part of a house.”
Whether he’s thinking of his friends as family or he’s strictly concerned with the functions of the maison, though, Lagerfeld has always been more than generous to those in his favor. He’s gifted 18th-century furniture to de la Fressange, and he often surprises friends and colleagues like Viard and Harlech with jewelry. The legendary Marie-Louise de Clermont-Tonnerre, a veteran who has been at the company for 41 years and has headed its international public relations since 1971—two months after the death of Mademoiselle Chanel—showed me a series of drawings by Lagerfeld when I visited her. “When I had the apartment insured,” she told me, “the appraisers valued some of his drawings more highly than some of my pieces by Cocteau.”
