Model Pat Cleveland, who swooped (literally) onto the red carpet at Lincoln Center last night in billowing chiffon, owes much of her career to Karl Lagerfeld. “He is the seed of Europe for me,” she exclaimed. “You know, he put me into the soil and helped me to grow into a flower.” While Lagerfeld shared many stories from his life onstage last night, she added some recollections of her own: “He’s so well read. If it’s afternoon, he will close his door and go read twenty books. And in the seventies, we [models] were all into dancing and joking around, and he taught us all to read, actually!” Another gem from the seventies: “We would go to the south of France and Karl was quite the muscle-builder, so I just remember his muscles — his gleaming muscles in the sunshine!” she cried. “He was a weight lifter, and he tried to get us all to develop our bodies, not only our minds. He’s all about improving your inner and outer self.” Oh, Karl.
Click through our slideshow for other attendees’ fondest Karl memories, and read more about his conversation with Jessica Chastain here.