Karl Lagerfeld was a revered and influential fashion designer before his death at the age of 85, but he was also a devoted cat owner.
His pet Choupette, seven, travelled around the world with him and became famous in her own right, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
After Lagerfeld’s death, a post on Chopuette’s Twitter page said: “May Daddy @KarlLagerfeld’s memory live on forever through his work and may we never forget the creative genius who now sits in heaven beside Mommy Coco Chanel.”
May Daddy @KarlLagerfeld’s memory live on forever through his work and may we never forget the creative genius who now sits in heaven beside Mommy Coco Chanel. https://t.co/TiEVJ73uRL pic.twitter.com/TG6rOgJTnO
— Choupette Lagerfeld (@ChoupettesDiary) February 19, 2019
Lagerfeld previously told US magazine People that he got the cat after he was asked to take care of her for a friend.
He said: “A friend of mine got Choupette when she was only three months old and she had to travel and asked if I could take her in my house and take care of her.
“And then when she came back two weeks later I said ‘I am sorry Choupette will stay’.”
A few months later he declared her “the most famous cat in the world” and reportedly hired her a bodyguard, personal chef and two maids who tend to her every need.
Lagerfeld even designed fashion collections for her, the most recent called Choupette in Love in 2015.
The description on his website said: “Choupette is once again the star of a capsule collection this winter.
“Named Choupette in Love, the capsule features Karl’s favourite feline with her new boyfriend, Bad Boy.
“They appear on clutches, bags and other pieces to discover.”
She was also the subject of a 2014 book, Choupette: The Private Life Of A High-Flying Fashion Cat, which detailed how she has her own iPad, and ate next to Lagerfeld at the table from Goyard china.
Choupette has even proved to be a money-maker in her own right, with Lagerfeld telling The Cut in 2015: “She did two jobs and made 3 million euros last year.
“One was for cars in Germany and the other was for a Japanese beauty product. I don’t allow her to do foodstuffs and things like this. She’s too sophisticated for that.”
Since his death it has been reported that the pampered cat could inherit Lagerfeld’s multimillion-pound fortune.