7 Fantasies of a Woman

When Dom Perignon asked Chanel’s Karl Lagerfeld to capture his vision of a woman’s sensual fantasies in a series of photographs for the champagne brand, Lagerfeld began by immersing himself in paintings, novels and films. In the end he found his visual inspiration in late-eighteenth-century drawings by Moreau the Younger and in Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon. His racy literary references include scenes from Colette’s Chéri, featuring a young man in love with a former high-class courtesan, and from Laclos’ Dangerous Liaisons. Without hesitation Lagerfeld chose Helena Christensen as his heroine. “I couldn’t imagine using any one else.” And Christensen says of the shoot, “There was a slightly erotic feeling in the air, but handled with extreme elegance. It’s a bit like describing the feeling champagne gives you.” Internationally celebrated fashion designer.