Karl Lagerfeld For Magnum Ice Cream

Baptiste Giabiconi is Karl Lagerfeld's muse and right-hand man. He poses in Pirelli calendars with aplomb, struts Chanel runways like it's nobody's business and looks more than pretty next to Blake Lively. But now Lagerfeld has bestowed a peculiar honour on Giabiconi: he's sculpted him in chocolate. And not just any chocolate —for the young, comely, good enough to eat (in Lagerfeld's eyes, at least) French model, only the finest Belgium chocolate would suffice. 10.5 tonnes of the sweet stuff were used as part of the project —to make the chocolate bed (on which the cocoa-dusted Giabiconi, clad only in tighty whiteys, provocatively reclines), a chocolate chair, a chocolate lamp and, indeed, an entire chocolate hotel room.

Lagerfeld is increasingly becoming the king of endorsements and the kaiser of kitsch; his excuse for the project is to promote the three commercials he directed for Magnum Ice Cream (note the placement of the dessert stick in chocolate Giabiconi's hand). While Lagerfeld doesn't himself eat Magnums (presumably stemming from his fear of 'fat people'), his father was a milkman (ice cream is made with milk) and he loves the smell of chocolate (so much so that he would like to manufacture a chocolate-infused perfume). In defence of his Magnum-related ventures, Lagerfeld quipped in a press release yesterday, I made advertisements for Dom Perignon champagne, and I don't drink alcohol. I'm a dress designer and I don't wear dresses." Fair point, though we can't help but wonder whether being molded into a creepy, edible sculpture was part of Giabiconi's contract.

Oh, and in case you're curious as to what Giabiconi looks like in real life: here he is, posing with Karl in front of a wall of naked photos that Lagerfeld took of him.