Q&a / Meet Chanel’s Marseille-based model Erin Wasson: the Texas native was front row at the cruise 2024-25 show and fondly remembers the late creative director Karl Lagerfeld – interview

May 21, 2024

Model Erin Wasson was front row at Chanel’s cruise 2024-25 show in Marseille and reflects with fondness on working with the late, great Karl Lagerfeld. Photo: @erinwasson/Instagram

Born and raised in Dallas, Wasson has been based in New York and Los Angeles but now lives on France’s Mediterranean coast – where Chanel just held its cruise 2024-25 show

Her memories of Lagerfeld include famous shows at the Grand Palais, and spending time with him at his publishing house 7L and his house in Biarritz

Among the many creatives who have in recent years decamped from Paris and even farther away to the southern French city of Marseille is American model Erin Wasson. Formerly based in New York and Los Angeles, Texas-born Wasson recently moved to the port city on the country’s Mediterranean coast.

Unsurprisingly, Wasson was a front-row guest at the Chanel cruise 2024-25 show held in Marseille in May. Now 42, she has a long history with the house and with the late Karl Lagerfeld, who helmed the maison for more than three decades before passing away in 2019.

We caught up with her after the show to talk about life in Europe, memories of Lagerfeld, and coming full circle with Chanel.

Erin Wasson at the Chanel cruise 2024-25 show in Marseille, in May. Photo: Handout

What was your reaction when you found out that Chanel would hold a show in Marseille?

I was surprised and not surprised. Given that Chanel is such an important house in French culture, it’s tilting a hat to the amazing place that is Marseille and the amalgamation of cultures here. It’s the largest port city in all of Europe, so it’s natural to want to come down to the south, to a city that for a long time was looked upon in certain ways. People had to lift the veil and show that there is a lot more depth to be had. Everyone thinks it’s so dangerous, but anywhere in the world is dangerous; you just need common sense.

Tell me about your life since you moved here.

I came and started a business; I wanted to be based in Europe. It’s the ease of being between here and Paris. It’s lovely – the life out here and the fact that you’re in the second largest city in France, but you live in a city that is like a village.

How does it feel to be here in Marseille for a Chanel show?