Met Gala 2023: Why is this year's theme 'In honor of Karl Lagerfeld' controversial?

German fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld acknowledges the applause of his models at the end of the show he designed for the French fashion house Chanel, for the 1993-94 Fall-Winter haute couture collection in Paris, July 20, 1993.

This year's Met Gala theme has a lot of people in the fashion and entertainment industry on tenterhooks because of the theme -- 'In honor of Karl Lagerfeld'.  The late designer made an indelible mark on luxury fashion in his long career at Chanel and Fendi among other places, but he was also known for his controversial remarks, prompting actors such as Jameela Jamil to condemn the theme.

Jameel even took to Instagram to acknowledge Lagerfeld's fashion genius but denounce his “distinctly hateful” remarks, often toward women.

Here are the 4 times that Karl Lagerfeld courted controversy with his comments:

1.) #Metoo movement
In the international fashion magazine Numéro in 2018, Lagerfeld said he was “fed up” with the effort to reveal sexual harassment, assault, misconduct, and rape.

“What shocks me most in all of this are the starlets who have taken 20 years to remember what happened. Not to mention the fact there are no prosecution witnesses. That said I cannot stand Mr. Weinstein. I had a problem with him at amfAR,” he said, referring to disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and a gala held during the Cannes Film Festival in support of the fight against AIDS.

2.) Bodyshaming models
“If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery, there’ll always be a place for you in the convent. They’re recruiting even!” he told Numéro in the same interview when asked about accusations against stylist and former Interview creative director Karl Templer.

3.) Fat shaming women
The man who co-authored a diet book after losing 42 kg in 13 months was vocally critical throughout his career of women larger than size 0 or 2. That includes his defense of designers exclusively hiring rail-thin runway models.

To German news magazine Focus in 2009, Lagerfeld declared of plus-size models: “No one wants to see curvy women.”

Asked in the same interview about German women’s magazine Brigitte declaring it would only publish photographs of “real women,” as opposed to professional models, Lagerfeld went on: “You’ve got fat mothers with their bags of chips sitting in front of the television and saying that thin models are ugly. The world of beautiful clothing is about ‘dreams and illusions.’”

According to the book The World According to Karl, a collection of Lagerfeld’s own words, he once said: “I think that for both women and men, fashion is the healthiest motivation for losing weight.”

4.) Same-sex marriageKarl Lagerfeld sent two brides in identical wedding dresses down the runway for the finale of his spring 2013 Chanel haute couture show in Paris, telling The Guardian it was a show of support for the French same-sex marriage law.

But in the 2010 Vice interview, he spoke against same-sex marriage, particularly as it pertains to two men.

“In the 60s, they all said we had the right to the difference. And now, suddenly, they want a bourgeois life,” Lagerfeld said. “For me it’s difficult to imagine — one of the papas at work and the other at home with the baby. How would that be, for the baby? I don’t know. I see more lesbians married with babies than I see boys married with babies. And I also believe more in the relationship between mother and child than in that between father and child.”

(With inputs from AP)

Read more: Met Gala 2023: Theme, Where to watch and which Indian celebrity is attending