What It’s Like to Grow Up on the Chanel Runway, As Illustrated by Hudson Kroenig
Over the course of Karl Lagerfeld‘s illustrious tenure as creative director at Chanel, the designer has made a habit of closing his shows by taking a model-of-the-moment—Cara Delevingne, Kendall Jenner, Lily-Rose Depp and so on—for a spin on the runway. Year after year, though, no millennial It-girl with millions of Instagram followers has managed to beat the stiff competition and continue on as his finale favorite—which to say that they’ve all been out by a boy whose age has just barely hit double digits (though he does now have 40,000-plus Instagram followers, including Jenner). Hudson Kroenig, the son of the model Brad Kroenig, has been Lagerfeld’s muse for years, ever since he stepped out at Chanel’s spring 2011 show in Paris. Altogether, he’s made enough steady appearances, stretching all the way to Dubai, that at this point, he’s grown up on the runway—and grown so close with Grandpa Karl that he’s even dared to tell him that he’s fired. (Technically, Lagerfeld is his godfather, but the former title seems fitting now that he’s sticking with his newly grown beard.) Take a look back at Kroenig’s best moments on the Chanel runway, the most recent of which saw him begin to resemble something of a surly preteen, here.
With dad Brad Kroenig at the Chanel Spring 2011 runway show during Paris Fashion Week on October 5, 2010 in Paris City.
Karl Lagerfeld, Kroenig, and Cara Delevingne walk the runway during the Chanel show as part of Paris Fashion Week Haute-Couture Spring/Summer 2014 on January 21, 2014 in Paris, France.
Kroenig and Nadja Bender walk the runway during the Chanel Metiers d’Art Collection 2014/15 Paris-Salzburg on December 2, 2014 in Salzburg, Austria.
Lagerfeld, Kroenig, and Delevingne at the end of the Chanel show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2016 on October 6, 2015 in Paris, France.
Kroenig walks the runway at the Chanel Cruise Collection 2014/2015 on May 13, 2014 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
During the Haute Couture Spring-Summer 2013 collection shows on January 22, 2013 at the Grand Palais in Paris.
Kroenig at the end of the 12th Chanel Metiers d’Art show, “Paris-Rome,” on December 1, 2015 at the Cinecitta studios in Rome.
Lagerfeld attends his performance for Chanel at the Prado promenade in Havana, on May 3, 2016 with Kroenig.
Lagerfeld and Kroenig at the Chanel Collection des Metiers d’Art 2016/17 : Paris Cosmopolite Show at Hotel Ritz on December 6, 2016 in Paris, France.
Lagerfeld and Kroenig at the Chanel show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Fall/Winter 2017/2018 on March 7, 2017 in Paris, France.
Lagerfeld and Kroenig walk the runway during Chanel Cruise 2017/2018 Collection at Grand Palais on May 3, 2017 in Paris, France.
Lagerfeld and Kroenig walk the runway during the Chanel show as part of the Paris Fashion Week Womenswear Spring/Summer 2018 on October 3, 2017 in Paris, France.
Karl Lagerfeld and Hudson Kroenig on the runway at the Chanel Pre-Fall 2018 show in Hamburg, Germany on Wednesday, December 6th. Photo by Cleo Glover for W Magazine.
Kroenig walks the runway at the end of the Chanel Haute Couture Spring Summer 2018 show as part of Paris Fashion Week on January 23, 2018 in Paris, France.
Kroenig, all grown up, hangs out on the sidelines before rousing himself to join Lagerfeld and this season’s Chanel couture bride for the finale of the Chanel Haute Couture Fall Winter 2018 show during Paris Fashion Week, July 2018.
