FASHION Magazine

Oh that Karl Lagerfeld.

Turns out he didn’t tell the stars of his latest short film, Once Upon a Time…Deauville 1913, that they would have speaking roles.

“I thought it was going to be a silent movie,” Keira Knightley revealed leading up to the film premiere on the lawn of the Raffles Hotel in Singapore earlier today. Knightley, who plays Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel in the lyrical black and white short that depicts the opening of Chanel’s seaside shop, didn’t make it to the party. But plenty others did.

Sipping Singapore Slings and lounging on the rattan chairs: French actress Clotilde Hesme, who plays Chanel’s Aunt Adrienne, Saskia de Brauw who plays Vita Sackville-West, Jamie Bochert, who appears as society muse and patron Luisa Casati, and Stella Tennant, who plays Lady de Grey, an early Chanel fan and pal of Oscar Wilde (his play A Woman of No Importance was dedicated to her.)

Honestly, what can’t Uncle Karl do?

With perfume campaigns that already take the characteristics of films and several short films under his belt so far; it is only a matter of time before Karl Lagerfeld takes on the role as writer and director of an full length film. (Watch out, Tom Ford!) In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Coco Chanel’s first boutique in Deauville, Lagerfeld created Once Upon a Time, his latest short film commemorating the success of his late great predecessor.

Stepping out his usual model-only short film castings, Lagerfeld chose Keira Knightley to play the iconic role of Chanel herself alongside French actress Clotilde Hesme as Adrienne, Gabrielle’s aunt and a slew of models who play the rest of Chanel’s crew (Jamie Bochert as Marchesa Luisa Casati is sure to thrill). Stella Tennant, Lindsey Wixon and Chanel devotee Amanda Harlech have special roles in the film as well, in which we are whisked away to the early days of Gabrielle Chanel’s first boutique circa 1913.