Kristen McMenamy’s Life As A Chanel Muse

“She is modern fashion, which is not to be obsessed with beauty but with life, personality, vitality,” Karl Lagerfeld declared of Kristen McMenamy in 1993.

The Chanel designer was one of the first to spot the talent of British Vogue’s January 2022 cover star, labelling her “the new face of beauty” in the ’90s. McMenamy promptly joined fellow supers Claudia Schiffer, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, Kate Moss and Stella Tennant in the pantheon of Chanel muses, consistently bringing her edgy persona (and ever-evolving hairstyles) to the house’s ready-to-wear and couture presentations.

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“I Really Want To Be A Grown-Up, But I Can’t”: At 56, Kristen McMenamy Remains Fashion’s Most Fabulous Eccentric

By Vassi Chamberlain

In the years since Kristen met Karl, she’s been draped in Chanel’s signature chains, modelled its bouclé tweed, worn its double-C sunglasses and carried its many It-bags everywhere from New York to Paris. In 2011, she even made a return to the catwalk as one of Lagerfeld’s famed couture brides – an especially poignant moment given that the Chanel patriarch walked her down the aisle at her first wedding, to photographer Miles Aldridge, in London in 1997. 

In honour of the January 2022 cover, revisit Kristen McMenamy’s greatest Chanel moments through the years, below.