Baptiste Giabiconi | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | (1989-11-09)9 November 1989 (age 35) |
| Other names | Baptiste |
| Modeling information | |
| Height | 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) |
| Hair color | Black[1] |
| Eye color | Brown[1] |
| Agency | DNA Model Management |
Baptiste Giabiconi (born 9 November 1989) is a French model and singer. A muse ofKarl Lagerfeld, for many years he was the male face of major fashion housesChanel,Fendi and Karl Lagerfeld.
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Born inMarignane,Bouches-du-Rhône, Baptiste Giabiconi comes from aCorsican family. His father is fromBastia and his mother Marie-France fromCalvi, both in Corsica. He spent his infancy in Moriani-Plage in theHaute-Corse region very near to Bastia, before moving toMarseille.
He obtained aBrevet d'études professionnelles (BEP) in the food service industry, and a professionalBaccalauréat in "Accueil et Service". Then he trained for six months as a mechanical adjustor inAeronautics, landing a job atEurocopter, an internationalhelicopter manufacturing and support company.
In January 2007, a talent scout seeing him in a Marseille sport club suggested he apply to a local Marseille modelling firm run by a local photographer. Giabiconi compiled a modelling file that was sent to a number of modeling agents but with no results and no offers forthcoming. He returned to Marseille but continued to model locally. In 2008, Giabiconi signed with DNA Model Management New York.
In the same yearKarl Lagerfeld named Giabiconi the male face ofChanel, closing the haute couture house's shows in 2009 withFreja Beha Erichsen andLara Stone and in 2010 withAbbey Lee andIris Strubegger. In 2010, he appeared inSchwarzkopf ads becoming the face of their products.[2] In 2011, he appeared in ads for the German car makerVolkswagen alongside Karl Lagerfeld. He was in the campaign for series of parfums, watches and eyeglasses of the brandKarl Lagerfeld. He was also the face of the headphoneMonster. Giabiconi became the face ofCoca-Cola Light, alongsideCoco Rocha. The campaign was photographed by Lagerfeld.
In 2011, he was the image of Spring-Summer Edition ofH&M.
He has also appeared in fashion spreads inVogue (includingVogue Paris,Vogue Japan andVogue Germany ,Elle,Numéro Homme,V Man,Harper's Bazaar,Marie Claire, Purple Fashion,Giorgio Armani andL'Officiel Hommes,Interview,Wallpaper. In spring 2010, he was photographed for theRoberto Cavalli campaign, alongsideKate Moss[3] and forKarl Lagerfeld. In 2010, he made the cover ofL'Officiel Homme, posed forEnvy,Elle (Paris and Belgium editions),Grazia,Vogue Germany. He appeared alongsideLara Stone in the short filmVol de jour by Karl Lagerfeld for theChanel collection.
Baptiste was placed at number 1 onmodels.com listing of the Top 50 international male models for roughly two years before being replaced bySean O'Pry.[4] As of September 2011, he was placed on the more prominent "Icons" list of male models where he shares the No. 10 ranking with top male model,Werner Schreyer.
In January 2020, he took part in the showStars à nu presented byAlessandra Sublet alongside many other stars. The closing choreography was designed byChris Marques.
Giabiconi released his debut single "Showtime" in 2010. In 2012, he announced an agreement withMy Major Company fan-funded label to produce his debut album entitledOxygen. The album with 13 tracks all inEnglish language was released in September 2012 and entered theSNEP French Albums Chart straight in at number 1. The lead single from the album was "One Night in Paradise", a pre-release in promotion of the album. The follow-up single from the album is called "Speed of Light (L'amour & les étoiles)" and was released on 2 September 2012. A third single "Je te aime" was also released.
At the age of 16, in 2011, he auditioned forNouvelle Star without qualifying for selection to the live rounds.[5]
In 2012, he took part in tribute album project dedicated toJean-Jacques Goldman songs calledGénération Goldman singing Goldman's "Là-bas" as a duo withQuebec singerMarie-Mai. He was also on the track "Il suffira d'un signe" on the same album, singing withMerwan Rim,Amaury Vassili and Dumè.
In June 2014, he released his second albumUn homme libre on Be 1st / Smart (a Sony Music affiliate) and his debut as aFrench language album with 12 tracks. The album unlike the first chart-topping album had only modest success reaching number 44 on the French SNEP Albums Chart. One single titled "Je t'emmène avec moi" charted from the album.
However Giabiconi's biggest musical success was in 2016 with his cover of theDonna Summer hit "Love to Love You Baby" but with added lyrics and new EDM arrangement. The release was accompanied by an erotic music video. It made it to number 4 on the official French Singles Chart.
With two associate partners Patrice Merlo and Alexis Leng, Giabiconi created a theme restaurant called Tokio Sushi. Meant as a series of restaurants, the first one was launched atSaint-Victoret,Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in May 2012, followed by a second in Velaux also in Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in July 2014. The restaurants feature a sushi bar and Korean barbecue.[6]
Baptiste Giabiconi launched in March 2015 et limited "capsule collection" of streetwear under the slogan "Giabiconi is my sexfriend" comprising mainly T-shirts with a smaller series titled "Karl is my father"also offered all to be marketed by the e-shop Eleven Paris, a brand with which Giabiconi is associated with. Giabiconi agreed to pose nude for the collection. The site for the clothing saw 200,000 visits in 48 hours. Some of the photos for the collection were taken byKarl Lagerfeld himself.[7]
In 2016, Giabiconi published a calendar of 26 black and white photos photographed byMariano Vivanco on éditions Michel Lafon.
On 16 May 2017, he became a major investor and president of the FrenchNational 2 football league clubFC Martigues. The league is the fourth level of professional national association football league in France. However the venture soon turned sour and he was obliged to pend his resignation from the club position after a critical audit byDirection Nationale du Contrôle de Gestion (DNCG), the organization responsible for monitoring and overseeing the accounts of professional association football clubs in France.[8]
In 2018, in partnership withThéo Griezmann, the brother of the international football starAntoine Griezmann, he created a limited brand of "capsule collection" Gz Brand X Giabiconi (as part of Griezmann's brand The GZ Brand) for the benefit of the charity FCM Fondation with the aim of installing football facilities in the poor suburbs, in youth hospitals and in prisons.[9]
It is widely accepted Baptiste Giabiconi was the designerKarl Lagerfeld's "muse" starting 2008 when Giabiconi was just 18. In a revealing book entitledKarl et moi (meaning Karl and me) published on 27 March 2020, Giabiconi wrote extensively about their relationship, saying it was more a platonic than a carnal one.[12] He admitted at 18 he was a "blank page" and at the most opportune time was greatly affected as a young man by Lagerfeld.[13] Giabiconi says: "Often, we hugged. It was a very powerful filial relationship, with a love we could not describe" adding that he called Lagerfeld "My Karl, my little Karl and sometimes my love".[14] Lagerfeld was also "excessive" in lavishing him with gifts. Describing the affinity as more of a "father and son" relationship, Giabiconi says in the book that Lagerfeld even considered adopting him as his legal son[15] adding: "Karl had no children. He really didn't have a family by his side and surely it was also to fill a certain emptiness, some lack, some loneliness. He just wanted me to be his son one way or another. I wanted to protect myself."[14] Giabiconi also appeared nude in photos taken by Lagerfeld, but without getting involved sexually.[16] Lagerfeld in his will also appropriated funds for his Birman catChoupette which was originally Giabiconi's.[17] When he left to see his mother for a few days and asked Mr. Lagerfeld to cat sit, he left the cat with Lagerfeld and within days, the latter developed great affection for the cat, so Giabiconi ceded it to Lagerfeld as a personal gift from him.[17][18]
Giabiconi also revealed in an interview with the FrenchTF1 talk showSept à huit broadcast on 23 February 2020 that there were seven heirs named to Karl Lagerfeld's fortunes, and that Giabiconi's name was one of them.[19][citation needed] But people close to the family deny that he is part of the will and that the relations between the two had been strained for some time prior to Lagerfeld's death fromprostate cancer.[20]
He became a father on July 17, 2023, announcing on Instagram the birth of his son nicknamed Baptiste Jr. Giabiconi.[21]
| Year | Album | Peak positions | Certification | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA [22] | BEL (Wa) [23] | |||
| 2012 | Oxygen
| 1 | 171 | |
| 2014 | Un Homme Libre
| 44 | 156 | |
| Year | Title | Chart positions [22] | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA [22] | BEL (Wa) [23] | |||
| 2010 | "Showtime" | — | — | Non-album release |
| 2012 | "One Night in Paradise" | — | 51* | Oxygen |
| "Speed of Light (L'amour et les étoiles)" | — | — | ||
| "Là-bas" (Marie-Mai and Baptiste Giabiconi) | 96 | — | Génération Goldman | |
| 2014 | "Je te aime" | 110 | — | Oxygen |
| "Je t'emmène avec moi" | 160 | — | Un homme libre | |
| 2016 | "Love to Love You Baby" | 4 [24] | — | — |
*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 chart, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts. Position in table reached by adding 50 positions to the actual Ultratip position
| Year | Title | Chart positions [22] | Album | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FRA [22] | BEL (Wa) [23] | |||
| 2012 | ""Il suffira (d'un signe)" (Merwan Rim,Amaury Vassili, Baptiste Giabiconi & Dumè) | — | — | Génération Goldman |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Artists | |
| Other | |
