Paris Hilton & Kit Butler Front Karl Lagerfeld’s F/W 2026 Campaign With NOT-KARL

Paris Hilton Meets Karl Lagerfeld’s New Digital Alter Ego, NOT-KARL

Paris Hilton is back in Karl Lagerfeld territory — and this time she is sharing the spotlight with British model Kit Butler and one very intentionally not-Karl character.

The Maison’s Fall/Winter 2026 campaign continues its ongoing From Paris With Love story while introducing NOT-KARL, a new digital personality built from the visual language and attitude of Karl Lagerfeld’s world without pretending to be the man himself. That distinction matters: this is not a digital resurrection. The brand describes NOT-KARL as a fresh creative presence with his own point of view.

Hilton returns after fronting the brand’s Fall/Winter 2025 and Spring/Summer 2026 campaigns, extending her relationship with the Maison through Spring/Summer 2027. For F/W 2026, she was photographed for the first time by Matt Easton, who gives the campaign a sleek, cinematic edge while the digital NOT-KARL appears through retro television screens like a fashion-world transmission from somewhere slightly sideways.

Kit Butler joins Hilton as the face of menswear, and the pairing makes more sense than it might first sound. The campaign leans into contrast: Hilton brings high-gloss pop-culture wattage, Butler brings a quieter, sharply tailored energy, and NOT-KARL floats in as the tongue-in-cheek digital connective tissue between them.

Karl Lagerfeld says Butler’s understated confidence and strong fashion profile position him as a contemporary counterpart to Hilton, while their long-standing friendship gives the campaign an easy chemistry rather than forcing some artificial “opposites attract” setup.

The clothes themselves stay close to the House codes: sharp tailoring, elevated outerwear and graphic simplicity, all pushed through a predominantly monochromatic palette. On the menswear side, that means clean suiting, controlled proportions and a polished city-ready mood. Womenswear carries the same precision while giving Hilton room to dial up the glamour.

NOT-KARL is the campaign’s wildcard. According to the brand, the digital character lives inside a television screen, carries a sharp personality and is meant to connect campaigns, culture and collections without becoming some uncanny attempt to recreate Karl Lagerfeld himself. In other words: inspired by the brand universe, yes. Reincarnation, absolutely not.

The strategy is actually smarter that way. Karl Lagerfeld as a label has to keep evolving without turning its founder into a frozen mascot, and NOT-KARL gives the House a vehicle for humor, commentary and continuity while still leaving room for real people like Hilton and Butler to carry the clothes.

The F/W 2026 campaign launched globally beginning September 1, 2026 across digital, social, print and out-of-home placements, bringing Karl Lagerfeld, Karl Lagerfeld Jeans and Karl Lagerfeld Paris under the same seasonal narrative.

Sources: Karl Lagerfeld; Business Wire; FashionUnited; Male Model Scene.