Choupette Lagerfeld Will Attend the Met Gala, Thank God

Choupette first came into Lagerfeld’s life in 2012, when he reportedly kitten-sat for his friend Baptiste Giabiconi, the model, over the 2011–2012 holidays. He and the kitten grew close, and Giabiconi let Lagerfeld keep her. She soon became something of a media sensation, with her official Instagram and unofficial parody Twitter garnering tens of thousands of followers. People were entranced by her fluffy white fur and bright blue eyes, and by her luxurious lifestyle, which included meals of king crab and caviar. She was the subject of a book and of a Shu Uemura ad campaign. In 2015, reports the BBC, Brigitte Bardot wrote a letter “to Choupette” asking her to “purr in the ear” of Lagerfeld to get him to stop using fur in his designs, and Chanel became the first major fashion house to go fur-free.

Okay, I know, but what you have to remember is that in the 2010s, people were absolutely obsessed with internet cats. It was a huge, huge thing. And while Choupette was never actually more famous than Grumpy Cat, she was certainly the most high-class of the web-famous felines. And Karl truly loved her. I highly recommend this Q&A he did about her that he took very seriously.