“Karl will always be my muse,” explains his successor at his namesake brand Hun Kim, whose latest collection began its journey in St Germain, Lagerfeld’s preferred neighborhood for over 60 years.

A voyage that began in an old haunt of Karl, Café Flore, from whose terrace Hun watched and admired the passing Parisians.
 
The results was a spring/summer 2025 collection with safari detailing like flap pockets on shirt-dresses; explorer’s shorts and plissé colonial skirts. All made in khakis, beiges and white, often in densely woven cottons to provide more structure.

“There are many runways in Paris, but maybe the best is the sidewalk of St Germain,” noted Korean-born Hun.
 
Playing with Karl’s signature high white collars, most wittily with a built-in white tie, and knot embroidered with a black KL. 
 
Hun also collaborated with Joann, an Armenian artist and creative director, together feeding KL ideas into AI software from which resulted ideas for a multiple tiered uber ruffled shirt-dress that surely will one day have a place in a museum. Architecture and nature meeting with gusto.
 
While the house’s expressionist roots were apparent in a great range of black crepe looks, in particular an astutely rouched satin skirt, gathered at one hip in a fabric flower.

 
Men also went on safari with linen gentleman plantation owner suits and whisper light knit tanks. They got gussied up for evening in great jacquard dinner jackets. “Post covid men are looking for something that makes them feel elevated,” noted the designer.
 
And, of course, the range included several new KL high-necked shirts, with double collars or rounded Edwardian style, the type music legend Nike Rodgers keep custom ordering.
 
In a busy moment, the Amsterdam-based house also showed a new unique straw hat in tandem with Borsalino, and the latest bag from uber model Amber Valletta. This time a woven cotton graphic tote made in Burkina Faso.
 
In other news, the house of Karl Lagerfeld is pushing ahead on multiple architectural fronts. It opened a hotel in Macao – Karl’s lasting building project he personally oversaw. And the brand is busy building a dual use residence in the Old Town of Lisbon; a gated community with over 50 villas in Dubai and a high-end residential quintet of luxury villas in Spain.
 
So, five years after Karl’s passing, his brand seems very much alive, and keeping the polish, brains and wit of the world’s most famous designer alive and well.