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Francesco Vezzoli Brings Karl Lagerfeld’s Wildest Dream Back to Life in Monaco’s Most Glamorous Exhibition

Francesco Vezzoli Brings Karl Lagerfeld’s Wildest Dream Back to Life in Monaco’s Most Glamorous Exhibition March 23, 2025Art Events, Monaco0 Comments

Francesco Vezzoli Reimagines Karl Lagerfeld’s Memphis Dream in Monaco’s Most Anticipated Art Moment
By Shari Inessa

There are exhibitions that revisit history. And then, there are those that resurrect it with glittering irreverence – breathing new life into icons, clashing eras, and the delicious contradiction that is fashion at its boldest.

This spring, Monaco becomes the stage for one such exquisite resurrection, as artist Francesco Vezzoli unveils a dazzling homage to Karl Lagerfeld’s most radical interior fantasy – his Memphis-designed Monte Carlo apartment – in a solo show at Almine Rech Monaco, from March 20 to May 24, 2025.

The result? A surreal, seductive, and thoroughly hypnotic celebration of Lagerfeld’s lesser-known, wilder self—and a love letter to the riotous glamour of 1980s design.

Ettore Sottsass, “Suvretta” Bookcase.

George James Sowden, “Unknown” Table.

Michele De Lucchi, “Riviera” Chairs.

Ettore Sottsass, “Treetops” Floor Lamp.

Photo: © Jacques Schumacher

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

Vezzoli doesn’t just curate a memory – he embroiders it, frames it, and dares us to feel it. His six new works -intimate, baroque-framed embroidered portraits of Lagerfeld – don’t offer the usual high-collared fashion deity. Instead, they reveal Karl as a man of the night, of the Riviera, of disco-lit salons and razor-sharp wit. This is Lagerfeld before the myth calcified: club-hopping, culturally obsessed, seductive and subversive.

And the setting? Pure fantasy. Collaborating with Memphis Milano, Vezzoli reimagines the interior of Karl’s original Roccabella apartment – designed entirely in the radical, candy-colored chaos of the Memphis movement, helmed by Ettore Sottsass. The furniture, the palette, the geometry – everything pulses with that unapologetic mix of childlike joy and punk sophistication that defined Memphis and seduced Karl at first sight.

Picture it: sculptural chairs in clashing hues, angular lamps that look like sci-fi relics, and tables that feel like conversation pieces from another planet. Now place within that world a series of stitched portraits – emotional, expressive, slightly melancholic – of a man who was always two steps ahead of his time.

Installation view of Francesco Vezzoli presents KARL GOES TO MEMPHIS Tribute to a historic encounter in Monte Carlo, Almine Rech Monaco, 2025 / © Francesco Vezzoli – Courtesy of the Artist, Memphis and Almine Rech – Photo: Nicolas Brasseur

Vezzoli’s gesture is as cheeky as it is poetic. With his signature blend of camp and reverence, he blurs the lines between celebrity and sacredness, nostalgia and critique. It’s an act of love – but also of truth.

And of course, it wouldn’t be a true Lagerfeld tribute without theatricality. The exhibition is a full immersion—not just a gallery but a staged memory. It’s a Monaco apartment that never stopped living, reborn in technicolor and thread.

To complete the experience, a limited-edition catalogue by M/M (Paris) – the famed graphic duo known for turning layouts into collectible art – gives the project an editorial finish worthy of Karl himself.

In Vezzoli’s hands, Lagerfeld isn’t just remembered – he’s reawakened, in all his contradictions: the minimalist at Chanel, the maximalist at home. The master of black and white, who secretly lived in riotous color. The fashion dictator with a punk heart and an encyclopedic mind.

What Vezzoli offers is not just an exhibition. It’s an invitation into a fantasy – a playful, decadent, intelligent dreamscape where art, design, fashion, and memory collide with unapologetic flair.

It is, quite simply, the show of the season. And if Lagerfeld were still with us, one can only imagine the wicked smile on his face.