The enchanting Birman, who rose to worldwide fame as Karl Lagerfeld’s beloved companion until the designer’s death in February 2019, is now the subject of a dedicated photography book, due to be published at the end of this month.
Entitled simply Choupette and shot entirely by Lagerfeld, the intimate tome is a love letter to the everyday joy of being a pet owner. Choupette is captured napping in an (undoubtedly priceless) urn and playing inside a cardboard box. While the book’s aesthetic may be minimalist, the same cannot be said for the lifestyle of Lagerfeld’s prized plus one.
Choupette’s status as the world’s most pampered pet has become a metaphor (and many a meme) for the excesses and occasional absurdity of luxury fashion, spurring an unofficial social media phenomenon on @ choupettesdiary. It takes a diligent team of round-the-clock carers to maintain Choupette in the manner to which she has grown accustomed.
“She’s like a chic lady… with her personal maid,” Lagerfeld said of his pet. “There’s a lot of things to do: to wash her eyes five times a day, to brush her white hair… She’s a full time job.”
Then there’s the private jet. One infamous shot of the perennially collarless Choupette staring out of a window on Lagerfeld’s plane went viral in 2013. And the new book offers further, previously unseen, proof of the cat’s indulgences – including a picture of her at 30,000ft alongside two white orchids.
“It’s a wonderful life, I think so. She’s travelling with me and her maid when I go to another country. She’s never alone,” Lagerfeld explained.
Beyond the rumours of a large inheritance, as instructed by the designer’s will, she has also amassed a fortune of her own from modelling jobs in Japan and Germany – an achievement the designer attributed to her coquettish looks.
In spite of this, the book is not an ode to extravagance. Instead, it signals a profound sense of gratitude on the part of the artist behind the lens. The four-legged fashion influencer wasn’t originally destined for the house of Chanel, but came into Lagerfeld’s life by chance via French model Baptiste Giabiconi.
“A friend of mine gave [her] to one of my mates, saying ‘I’m leaving for two days, could you keep [her] for two weeks?’,” Lagerfeld said. “When he came back, I said, ‘I’m sorry, Choupette is mine. I don’t give Choupette back.’ And she became a world famous star.”
Beneath the fame and fortune there lies limitless adoration. When asked how Choupette had changed his life, Karl Lagerfeld was unequivocal: “I think I became a better person. She gives energy, it’s very strange. When I have her next to me I feel like a telephone that is recharged.”
