The theme of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 2023 Costume Institute exhibition and gala is “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty”—and one cannot consider Lagerfeld’s own aesthetic without taking his iconic ponytail into account. Visually speaking, Karl Lagerfeld became the Karl Lagerfeld we’ve all come to revere as an icon in the 1970s with the introduction of his raked low ponytail, a move that, though initially utilitarian, would become an integral part of his outward persona.
According to Caroline Lebar—a longtime colleague and SVP of image and communications at Karl Lagerfeld—the ponytail began as a low-maintenance means of taming soft, face-framing curls. But it evolved into something of a marketing tool. At one point in the 1980s, when considering a slight style change, Lagerfeld was told by a member of Elizabeth Arden’s communications team (with whom Lagerfeld worked on fragrance KL by Karl Lagerfeld) that ditching the pony could be detrimental to future campaigns. “I remember he was like, ‘Can you imagine what she told me? I cannot change my haircut for life now?’” recalls Lebar. After the initial shock, Lagerfeld seemed to relish his low-slung tieback, which Rachael Gibson (a.k.a. The Hair Historian) likens to the 18th-century queue: a mid-length ponytail worn by most men, including in the military where it remained mandatory until the 19th century.
