Cara Delevingne defends Karl Lagerfeld after Jameela Jamil refers to late designer as 'fat-phobic misogynist'

The model said the designer's mistakes were part of being human

Cara Delevingne has defended Karl Lagerfeld after Jameela Jamil described the late designer as “ruthless” and “misogynistic”.

On Tuesday, it was announced that the 85-year-old creative director of Chanel and Fendi had died, prompting an outpouring of tributes to the German designer.

In the hours after his death was announced, rather than praising Lagerfeld as many others did, Jamil expressed her negative opinion of the controversial visionary, referring to him as an “oppressor” and describing him as a “ruthless, fat-phobic misogynist”.

The attack on the late designer angered Delevingne, who responded to the Good Place actress’s tweets by asking that she “please keep your opinions to yourself and stop bashing people for attention”.

“You are calling him ruthless??? Are you kidding me? No one is perfect but you clearly don’t know the man,” Delevingne, who was close to the designer and frequently modelled for Chanel, responded.

Delevingne then apologised for offending Jamil or anyone else before asking that they “move forward and lead with love”.

Delevingne’s response prompted a Twitter debate between the pair over the harm Jamil claims was caused by Lagerfeld’s comments regarding weight and his “toxic misogyny”.

“We have privilege so he was nice to us,” the actress responded. “He hurt a lot of people.”

Delevingne countered Jamil’s response by chalking the designer’s flaws up to being “human,” writing: “He was not a saint,” but should “have the chance to be forgiven for that”.

The disagreement continued with Jamil expressing her belief that not everything can be forgiven on the basis of being human - and that Lagerfeld was a “bad human”.

“Again, we can’t chalk decades of abusive rhetoric towards minorities as ‘being human’ or ‘making mistakes,’” Jamil wrote. “Doing it once as a joke and then apologising is one thing, doing it again and again in spite of public outcry is a bad human.

“I’m sorry to speak ill of someone you love.”

Jamil then apologised to Delevingne but denied her request not to refer to Lagerfeld as a “bad human” because the actress believes the model only had a positive relationship with the designer because she was “thin, and white, and incredibly privileged”.

“So you don’t feel the pain of his bad behaviour,” Jamil tweeted, before acknowledging that there is “never a good time to talk about this really”.

Throughout Lagerfeld’s career, he was frequently criticised for his comments on topics ranging from weight to sexual harassment.

In addition to perpetuating the idea that models should be thin, the designer once said: “If you don’t want your pants pulled about, don’t become a model! Join a nunnery,” regarding victims of sexual harassment.

Following the news of his death, people have grappled with the iconic designer’s controversial legacy.