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Lagerfeld's New Label
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Lagerfeld's Contemporary Spring Fling
wwd.com excerpt
Published: Thursday, November 17, 2005
Lagerfeld's Contemporary Spring Fling
By Marc Karimzadeh
NEW YORK — Karl Lagerfeld is offering a spring teaser of his new contemporary line.
A limited-edition spring capsule group from Karl Lagerfeld, which makes its official debut next fall, will be sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman beginning March 17. It consists of about 28 women's and 23 men's styles, with denim as a key component. Colors range from black and midnight blue to gray, slate and nude.
That collection will be shown to editors and buyers on the runway during New York Fashion Week in February.
The collection is inspired by the vitality of New York, where the studio is based and where Lagerfeld recently bought an apartment. The capsule collection includes five-pocket, low-rise, screen-print and laser-cut jeans, as well as denim jackets and vests. There also will be classic white woven shirts, retro-print T-shirts, tanks and silk georgette dresses.
Acierno wouldn't disclose wholesale price points, but suggested retail prices for women will range from $250 to $450 for jeans, $115 to $175 for T-shirts, $395 to $450 for jackets and $425 and $475 for dresses.
Neiman's will offer both women's and men's wear, while Bergdorf's will focus on women's.
*she won't disclose wholesale prices...
hmmm...i smell a major mark-up...
...
wwd.com excerpt
Published: Thursday, November 17, 2005
Lagerfeld's Contemporary Spring Fling
By Marc Karimzadeh
NEW YORK — Karl Lagerfeld is offering a spring teaser of his new contemporary line.
A limited-edition spring capsule group from Karl Lagerfeld, which makes its official debut next fall, will be sold exclusively at Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman beginning March 17. It consists of about 28 women's and 23 men's styles, with denim as a key component. Colors range from black and midnight blue to gray, slate and nude.
That collection will be shown to editors and buyers on the runway during New York Fashion Week in February.
The collection is inspired by the vitality of New York, where the studio is based and where Lagerfeld recently bought an apartment. The capsule collection includes five-pocket, low-rise, screen-print and laser-cut jeans, as well as denim jackets and vests. There also will be classic white woven shirts, retro-print T-shirts, tanks and silk georgette dresses.
Acierno wouldn't disclose wholesale price points, but suggested retail prices for women will range from $250 to $450 for jeans, $115 to $175 for T-shirts, $395 to $450 for jackets and $425 and $475 for dresses.
Neiman's will offer both women's and men's wear, while Bergdorf's will focus on women's.
*she won't disclose wholesale prices...
hmmm...i smell a major mark-up...
...$450 for LAGERFELD's jeans...Shocking. I wouldnt pay that much for Chanel jeans. Anyway's, needless to say Im anticipating it.
He bought an apartment, looks like you NYC people are going to be seeing lots of Karl, esp now that he's Tommy Hilfigers b*tch.
He bought an apartment, looks like you NYC people are going to be seeing lots of Karl, esp now that he's Tommy Hilfigers b*tch.
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tricotineacetat
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The only thing that keeps me excited about this is that the creative director for this Lagerfeld line is Melanie Ward, Helmut Lang´s former right hand, stylist and consultant.
travis_nw8
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from the nytimes..
February 2, 2006
When the Label Says Lagerfeld
By CATHY HORYN and ERIC WILSON
THERE is no bigger star in fashion today than Karl Lagerfeld. When Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman learned he would be creating a new line with his name on it, they ordered it sight unseen for spring. His first runway show for the collection, on Feb. 10 in New York, has created such anticipation that Apple Computer, which has never before approached a fashion designer to provide content, plans to make a video podcast available that night as a free download on iTunes.
Oprah Winfrey even arranged for Mr. Lagerfeld to squeeze in a trip to Chicago to tape an episode on Wednesday, with 10 models wearing the line.
"All you need to do is put the Lagerfeld name on anything, and people line up at the door," said Sara Albrecht, the owner of Ultimo in Chicago, a pillar of designer fashion in the Midwest. "Normally when I hear about a designer doing a lower-price line, I cringe. But he has such a perception of the consumer and how they wear clothes in reality that it could really work."
Therein lies the intrigue. The protean Mr. Lagerfeld, who already creates eight collections a year for Chanel and Fendi, in addition to pursuing flourishing side careers in photography and book publishing, has relied on others to complete this latest line. How will the emperor's new clothes measure up when Mr. Lagerfeld's involvement, like that of Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs in their lines, is more creative inspiration than hands-on designer?
The clothes, to be shown on the final day of New York Fashion Week, which begins tomorrow, are a collaboration between Mr. Lagerfeld and the sportswear colossus Tommy Hilfiger, who bought Mr. Lagerfeld's brand in December 2004. The clothes — two lines actually, known as Karl Lagerfeld and Lagerfeld Collection, distinguished by their price — are being designed simultaneously by Mr. Lagerfeld in Paris, his home, and by a team in New York, Mr. Hilfiger's headquarters.
Mr. Lagerfeld, who is expected to arrive from Paris on Tuesday, has not yet seen many of the designs that have been made in New York. The designers there, headed by the stylist Melanie Ward, have not seen the clothes Mr. Lagerfeld has designed in Paris. The results, judging by recent visits to both studios, had the appearance of a first-born child of two parents who look nothing alike; you weren't exactly sure what traits you were getting from whom, except for the last name.
Last Friday, three days after his spring haute couture show, Mr. Lagerfeld was in his studio in Paris for fittings. That day he had done a radio program on music with Hélène Arnault, had lunch with Mr. Hilfiger and company executives at his house on the Rue de l'Université and visited with his friend Princess Caroline of Monaco for two hours. That evening he was to be a guest on a French TV show. The night before he had photographed couture from different houses for Numéro magazine until 4 a.m., and the night before that he did another couture shoot for Chinese Vogue with his assistant and muse, Amanda Harlech, also until 4.
Organized chaos is routine chez Lagerfeld, something of a clash with Mr. Hilfiger's more disciplined approach to time management. The clothes designed in New York will bear the label Karl Lagerfeld and are priced at $475 for a dress, $275 for jeans and $155 for a T-shirt. The Paris clothes are called Lagerfeld Collection, and prices are roughly double: $1,100 for a dress, $634 for pants and $235 for a T-shirt. "It's a bit early to say how it will work out," Mr. Lagerfeld said of how he will show the two collections. "Perhaps we'll keep the lines more separate if we don't like the mix."
The long-held industry belief that lower-price collections ultimately dilute a brand's value does not seem to apply to Mr. Lagerfeld. His inexpensive designs for the fast-fashion chain H&M, offered as a one-time collection in 2004, were a litmus test. The skinny jeans and T-shirts sold furiously, and the surprise was that Mr. Lagerfeld, rather than damaging his name, managed to enhance his status as fashion's biggest star.
Jim Gold, the chief executive of Bergdorf Goodman, described Mr. Lagerfeld as a visionary, "and there aren't many designers with rock star power," he said. "When the best of the best designers informs you they are going to delve into a new venture, often you're going to get behind it." The store had wanted Mr. Lagerfeld to make an appearance on March 17, when his Karl Lagerfeld line for spring, exclusive to Bergdorf's and Neiman's, goes on sale. "He's so crazed between all his collections, he couldn't commit," Mr. Gold said.
On Monday, as boxes containing the first samples of the Karl Lagerfeld line began arriving in a 17th-floor photography studio in Chelsea, Ms. Ward, the creative director of the line, tried on a knit dress that had been finished in a factory in Europe. "He's such a modernist, and that's definitely my aesthetic," she said. Ms. Ward, whose fair features and pulled-back hair, framed by a wardrobe of only black, recall the luminous subjects of Vermeer paintings, had worked with Helmut Lang for 13 years, partly in a design capacity, until he left his company last year. She shares Mr. Lagerfeld's passion for art, photography and furniture design and multiple professional pursuits. The exchange of books and photographs, and long trans-Atlantic conversations, became the points of reference in design, fleshed out as concepts by Ms. Ward and a team of about 20 designers over the summer in New York and shown in pieces to Mr. Lagerfeld during visits to the city in October and December. The direction from Mr. Lagerfeld could be encapsulated as simply as this: cool, urban, modern, effortless.
"He is supportive and trusting," Ms. Ward said. "He is not somebody who would instill fear in the design department. For us, Karl is fashion."
In Paris the Lagerfeld Collection clothes are predominantly black, with long skinny coats with high collars and strips of black leather sewn on tulle on the cuffs and on the waists of slim black suits. The silhouettes were more linear than the past two seasons, a direction that is paralleled at least in the few pieces of Karl Lagerfeld that could be seen this week in New York.
The men's collection was nearly complete in a muddy gray palette, with charcoal wool pinhead suitings, dark wool flannel madras shirts, striped sweaters, shrunken sweatshirts and jeans made of deeply dyed selvage denim from Japan in cuts simultaneously baggy in the crotch and skinny with scrunched legs. (For those who are anxious for details, the denim is coated with resin to appear slightly damp, an effect that will improve with wear.) With a strong dark edge, the comparisons to Ms. Ward's association with Helmut Lang will be inevitable; many of his devotees are expecting the Karl Lagerfeld line will serve as a replacement for Mr. Lang's basic, functional — but well-designed — clothes.
Mr. Lagerfeld smiled at the suggestion. "I have a tendency toward severe clothes, but I can play," he said. "I have a large range."
Mr. Lagerfeld said he wanted to have one show in Paris, where he shows Chanel ready-to-wear and couture, one in Milan for Fendi and one in New York for his own label.
As with Chanel and Fendi, Mr. Lagerfeld does not venture widely beyond his role in design, and this can be maddening for corporate types. He is fond of saying he can design an Empire-waisted dress, but not an empire, though that may come across as feigned ignorance or as a shield, as Mr. Lagerfeld is well aware of the commercial side of the business.
"Listen, I'm a very basic, down-to-earth person," he said. "But if I showed that publicly, people would say, 'What a bore.' "
Mr. Hilfiger and Mr. Lagerfeld met for the first time in July 2004, when Mr. Lagerfeld was photographing Mr. Hilfiger for Harper's Bazaar. Mr. Hilfiger realized an opportunity to acquire Mr. Lagerfeld's small signature label, then known as Lagerfeld Gallery, and he did so for $27.5 million, according to a company filing last month.
From afar Mr. Lagerfeld "seems unreachable and untouchable," said Ann Acierno, the president of Hilfiger's Lagerfeld division. "But from the moment I met him he was very open and very opinionated. He's probably the most open-minded person you'll ever meet."
The company hopes to expand the Lagerfeld name to accessories like watches, handbags and shoes, and has continued negotiations with other companies while the sale of Tommy Hilfiger to a private equity group, Apax Partners, proceeds. The deal is expected to close this spring.
One reason Mr. Lagerfeld was interested in selling to the Hilfiger company was the promise of better manufacturing and distribution of his clothing. It was also an opportunity to give credibility to his small signature brand, long considered by American department stores to be an afterthought.
But so far this spring, the transition to Hilfiger's corporate control has been difficult as the company becomes accustomed to producing collections far more detailed and expensive than Tommy Hilfiger sportswear. Several stores that ordered the signature collection said deliveries of spring merchandise are exceptionally late. Missy Hebson, an owner of Neopolitan, a two-year-old designer store in Winnetka, Ill., said that after a trunk show last July the company could not complete many of its orders.
"We kept calling them, and they said there was no more fabric," she said. "We ended up turning off a lot of customers."
Spring deliveries are also late at Ultimo in Chicago and Capitol in Charlotte, N.C., and partly complete at Mix in Houston. This is a common problem after a designer company changes ownership, executives at those stores said, and the merchandise will probably sell well when it arrives.
"The appeal is Karl Lagerfeld," said Evelyn Gorman, the owner of Mix. "He is one of those figures in fashion who is like what Madonna is to music. They just seem larger than life because they continue to reinvent themselves."
February 2, 2006
When the Label Says Lagerfeld
By CATHY HORYN and ERIC WILSON
THERE is no bigger star in fashion today than Karl Lagerfeld. When Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman learned he would be creating a new line with his name on it, they ordered it sight unseen for spring. His first runway show for the collection, on Feb. 10 in New York, has created such anticipation that Apple Computer, which has never before approached a fashion designer to provide content, plans to make a video podcast available that night as a free download on iTunes.
Oprah Winfrey even arranged for Mr. Lagerfeld to squeeze in a trip to Chicago to tape an episode on Wednesday, with 10 models wearing the line.
"All you need to do is put the Lagerfeld name on anything, and people line up at the door," said Sara Albrecht, the owner of Ultimo in Chicago, a pillar of designer fashion in the Midwest. "Normally when I hear about a designer doing a lower-price line, I cringe. But he has such a perception of the consumer and how they wear clothes in reality that it could really work."
Therein lies the intrigue. The protean Mr. Lagerfeld, who already creates eight collections a year for Chanel and Fendi, in addition to pursuing flourishing side careers in photography and book publishing, has relied on others to complete this latest line. How will the emperor's new clothes measure up when Mr. Lagerfeld's involvement, like that of Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs in their lines, is more creative inspiration than hands-on designer?
The clothes, to be shown on the final day of New York Fashion Week, which begins tomorrow, are a collaboration between Mr. Lagerfeld and the sportswear colossus Tommy Hilfiger, who bought Mr. Lagerfeld's brand in December 2004. The clothes — two lines actually, known as Karl Lagerfeld and Lagerfeld Collection, distinguished by their price — are being designed simultaneously by Mr. Lagerfeld in Paris, his home, and by a team in New York, Mr. Hilfiger's headquarters.
Mr. Lagerfeld, who is expected to arrive from Paris on Tuesday, has not yet seen many of the designs that have been made in New York. The designers there, headed by the stylist Melanie Ward, have not seen the clothes Mr. Lagerfeld has designed in Paris. The results, judging by recent visits to both studios, had the appearance of a first-born child of two parents who look nothing alike; you weren't exactly sure what traits you were getting from whom, except for the last name.
Last Friday, three days after his spring haute couture show, Mr. Lagerfeld was in his studio in Paris for fittings. That day he had done a radio program on music with Hélène Arnault, had lunch with Mr. Hilfiger and company executives at his house on the Rue de l'Université and visited with his friend Princess Caroline of Monaco for two hours. That evening he was to be a guest on a French TV show. The night before he had photographed couture from different houses for Numéro magazine until 4 a.m., and the night before that he did another couture shoot for Chinese Vogue with his assistant and muse, Amanda Harlech, also until 4.
Organized chaos is routine chez Lagerfeld, something of a clash with Mr. Hilfiger's more disciplined approach to time management. The clothes designed in New York will bear the label Karl Lagerfeld and are priced at $475 for a dress, $275 for jeans and $155 for a T-shirt. The Paris clothes are called Lagerfeld Collection, and prices are roughly double: $1,100 for a dress, $634 for pants and $235 for a T-shirt. "It's a bit early to say how it will work out," Mr. Lagerfeld said of how he will show the two collections. "Perhaps we'll keep the lines more separate if we don't like the mix."
The long-held industry belief that lower-price collections ultimately dilute a brand's value does not seem to apply to Mr. Lagerfeld. His inexpensive designs for the fast-fashion chain H&M, offered as a one-time collection in 2004, were a litmus test. The skinny jeans and T-shirts sold furiously, and the surprise was that Mr. Lagerfeld, rather than damaging his name, managed to enhance his status as fashion's biggest star.
Jim Gold, the chief executive of Bergdorf Goodman, described Mr. Lagerfeld as a visionary, "and there aren't many designers with rock star power," he said. "When the best of the best designers informs you they are going to delve into a new venture, often you're going to get behind it." The store had wanted Mr. Lagerfeld to make an appearance on March 17, when his Karl Lagerfeld line for spring, exclusive to Bergdorf's and Neiman's, goes on sale. "He's so crazed between all his collections, he couldn't commit," Mr. Gold said.
On Monday, as boxes containing the first samples of the Karl Lagerfeld line began arriving in a 17th-floor photography studio in Chelsea, Ms. Ward, the creative director of the line, tried on a knit dress that had been finished in a factory in Europe. "He's such a modernist, and that's definitely my aesthetic," she said. Ms. Ward, whose fair features and pulled-back hair, framed by a wardrobe of only black, recall the luminous subjects of Vermeer paintings, had worked with Helmut Lang for 13 years, partly in a design capacity, until he left his company last year. She shares Mr. Lagerfeld's passion for art, photography and furniture design and multiple professional pursuits. The exchange of books and photographs, and long trans-Atlantic conversations, became the points of reference in design, fleshed out as concepts by Ms. Ward and a team of about 20 designers over the summer in New York and shown in pieces to Mr. Lagerfeld during visits to the city in October and December. The direction from Mr. Lagerfeld could be encapsulated as simply as this: cool, urban, modern, effortless.
"He is supportive and trusting," Ms. Ward said. "He is not somebody who would instill fear in the design department. For us, Karl is fashion."
In Paris the Lagerfeld Collection clothes are predominantly black, with long skinny coats with high collars and strips of black leather sewn on tulle on the cuffs and on the waists of slim black suits. The silhouettes were more linear than the past two seasons, a direction that is paralleled at least in the few pieces of Karl Lagerfeld that could be seen this week in New York.
The men's collection was nearly complete in a muddy gray palette, with charcoal wool pinhead suitings, dark wool flannel madras shirts, striped sweaters, shrunken sweatshirts and jeans made of deeply dyed selvage denim from Japan in cuts simultaneously baggy in the crotch and skinny with scrunched legs. (For those who are anxious for details, the denim is coated with resin to appear slightly damp, an effect that will improve with wear.) With a strong dark edge, the comparisons to Ms. Ward's association with Helmut Lang will be inevitable; many of his devotees are expecting the Karl Lagerfeld line will serve as a replacement for Mr. Lang's basic, functional — but well-designed — clothes.
Mr. Lagerfeld smiled at the suggestion. "I have a tendency toward severe clothes, but I can play," he said. "I have a large range."
Mr. Lagerfeld said he wanted to have one show in Paris, where he shows Chanel ready-to-wear and couture, one in Milan for Fendi and one in New York for his own label.
As with Chanel and Fendi, Mr. Lagerfeld does not venture widely beyond his role in design, and this can be maddening for corporate types. He is fond of saying he can design an Empire-waisted dress, but not an empire, though that may come across as feigned ignorance or as a shield, as Mr. Lagerfeld is well aware of the commercial side of the business.
"Listen, I'm a very basic, down-to-earth person," he said. "But if I showed that publicly, people would say, 'What a bore.' "
Mr. Hilfiger and Mr. Lagerfeld met for the first time in July 2004, when Mr. Lagerfeld was photographing Mr. Hilfiger for Harper's Bazaar. Mr. Hilfiger realized an opportunity to acquire Mr. Lagerfeld's small signature label, then known as Lagerfeld Gallery, and he did so for $27.5 million, according to a company filing last month.
From afar Mr. Lagerfeld "seems unreachable and untouchable," said Ann Acierno, the president of Hilfiger's Lagerfeld division. "But from the moment I met him he was very open and very opinionated. He's probably the most open-minded person you'll ever meet."
The company hopes to expand the Lagerfeld name to accessories like watches, handbags and shoes, and has continued negotiations with other companies while the sale of Tommy Hilfiger to a private equity group, Apax Partners, proceeds. The deal is expected to close this spring.
One reason Mr. Lagerfeld was interested in selling to the Hilfiger company was the promise of better manufacturing and distribution of his clothing. It was also an opportunity to give credibility to his small signature brand, long considered by American department stores to be an afterthought.
But so far this spring, the transition to Hilfiger's corporate control has been difficult as the company becomes accustomed to producing collections far more detailed and expensive than Tommy Hilfiger sportswear. Several stores that ordered the signature collection said deliveries of spring merchandise are exceptionally late. Missy Hebson, an owner of Neopolitan, a two-year-old designer store in Winnetka, Ill., said that after a trunk show last July the company could not complete many of its orders.
"We kept calling them, and they said there was no more fabric," she said. "We ended up turning off a lot of customers."
Spring deliveries are also late at Ultimo in Chicago and Capitol in Charlotte, N.C., and partly complete at Mix in Houston. This is a common problem after a designer company changes ownership, executives at those stores said, and the merchandise will probably sell well when it arrives.
"The appeal is Karl Lagerfeld," said Evelyn Gorman, the owner of Mix. "He is one of those figures in fashion who is like what Madonna is to music. They just seem larger than life because they continue to reinvent themselves."
travis_nw8
mmmmmm...fashion....
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example of what he's offering...unsure on the menswear....
fashionken
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... he should take a look at his own little potbelly and shut up.
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I actually like the idea of a Lagerfeld-inspired mid level menswear line. Would bridge the gap in the current set of clothing created by the diffusion stores and upper tier fashion lines. Perhaps this will be America's answer to Acne Jeans?
MissMagAddict
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I cannot WAIT to see Lagerfeld on Oprah!LoveMyBoots
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stephiev said:
Same here!
I'd definitely be interested if he did an interview and special like what Valentino did...
liberty33r1b
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and i can't wait to see that collection! i'm pretty sure i'm gonna love it....
tangerine said:
If the jeans are made in Japan, I think they would look something like these:
http://www.thefashionspot.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=127586&d=1133193625
They've been around for a while now, I've got a couple of them. The cut is different to get the scrunched up effect. Unworn, they are cut on the bias, baggy at the hips with skinny legs, and the legs are curved out (almost similar to Levi's Red) as if they are designed for bow-legged wearers. That is the trick to get the legs to scrunch from the knees down. If the jeans are simply extra long, they just bunch up at the ankles, and if they are tight, it would look wrong. Mine are about Euros 20-30 I got in Tokyo. I'm sure you can buy these very cheap online at some Japanese websites, if the label isn't important to you.
when it happensyouarearockstar
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tangerine said:
Of course Tang and I are gravitate instantly to the news about any form of mens denim. But I agree, the cut of these sounds interesting, and somewhat similar to the DSquared denim from FW05. But I can't wait to see more of this...
LoveMyBoots
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Just thought you guys might like to know..
Los Angeles Times said:
