On Tuesday, the house of Chanel announced that the legendary fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld had passed away in Paris at the age of 85. The death of this creative genius is obviously a tremendous loss, especially for the fashion community, and tributes from his friends, fans, and colleagues have already started pouring in.
But, elsewhere on the Internet, people are asking the same question:
If you don't already know, Choupette was Lagerfeld's eight-year-old, white-haired Birman cat, and the two were virtually inseparable since he acquired her around Christmas in 2011 to his death. In fact, in a 2013 interview with CNN, Lagerfeld even said he would marry her if he could. “There is no marriage, yet, for human beings and animals… I never thought that I would fall in love like this with a cat,” Lagerfeld said.
Choupette, who has over 131,000 followers on Instagram, has become a celebrity in her own right, known for living a luxury lifestyle most humans can only dream of. According to The Telegraph, she has "two ladies-in-waiting, a bodyguard, a private medical consultant and three silver dishes, from which she eats her choice of two kinds of dry food, chicken pâté, or croquettes with a turkey or fish sauce."
She also enjoys a special treat of "a soupçon of finest caviar, or a portion of chicken en gelée with asparagus." and dines at the table in some of Paris' finest restaurants. Unsurprisingly, she travels by private jet, with her own set of custom-made Louis Vuitton luggage, and when asked if the cat really does fly with him on his private plane, Lagerfeld once responded, "Yes, why not?"
To say that Choupette was a "gift" is a bit of an overstatement. The true story is that she used to belong to the French model Baptiste Giabiconi. But Lagerfeld cared for her for two weeks while Giabiconi was traveling, and when he returned, Lagerfeld informed him that the cat was regrettably no longer his. Since then, their love story has been one for the ages.
"I don’t allow her to do foodstuffs and things like this. She’s too sophisticated for that," Lagerfeld told The Cut. "She had something unique. She is like a human being, but the good thing is that she’s silent. You don’t have to discuss it. She hates other animals and she hates children. She stays always with me and she has two personal maids. They play with her, they have to take care of her beautiful white hair, the beauty treatments for her eyes, and they entertain her. She is the center of the world. If you saw her, you would understand. She is kind of Greta Garbo. There is something unforgettable about her, the way she moves, the way she plays. She’s an inspiration for elegance. For attitude."
So it's no surprise that people are wondering not only about who will now care for the feline princess, but whether or not she's set to inherit part of the Lagerfeld fortune, especially given that the prolific fashion designer was not married at the time of his death and had no children.
In regards to Karl Lagerfeld’s passing, I ask that his cat, Choupette, be awarded his entire estate and become the new creative director for Chanel. pic.twitter.com/NgGqhFC0oB
— Taylor Berry (@sewnfruit) February 19, 2019
Not that she needs the money, given that she reportedly made over $3 million all by herself in 2015 off of two ad campaigns. But according to The Daily Mail, Lagerfeld himself "told an interviewer that 'among others' he would be giving his riches to Choupette."
And to meet more of the one percent of pets, check out these 40 Pets That Are Living the Good Life.
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