Anobano's Blog: Karl Lagerfeld

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Karl Lagerfeld

Karl Lagerfeld (born Karl Otto Lagerfeldt on September 10, 1933 in Hamburg) is a German fashion designer, artist and photographer based in Paris, France. He has collaborated on a variety of fashion and art related projects, most notably as head designer and creative director for the fashion house Chanel. Lagerfeld helms his own label fashion house, as well as the Italian house Fendi..

Lagerfeld was born in Hamburg, Germany. He has claimed he was born in 1938; however it has been reported that he was actually born in 1933 (according to the local christening register); indeed the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag has quoted his former teacher and classmates as confirming the earlier date.

Karl Lagerfeld moved to Paris in 1953. Initially he worked as a draftsman for fashion houses. At the time, in fashion, drawings were preferred over photographs. Lagerfeld is able to recap any costume style in European history at the drop of a hat, e.g. explaining collar styles used in 1710 Germany, as he has demonstrated in a German television series in the 1980s.

In 1955, at the age of 22, Lagerfeld was awarded a position as an apprentice at Pierre Balmain after winning second place, behind Yves Saint-Laurent, in a competition for a coat sponsored by the International Wool Secretariat. He told a reporter a few years later, "I won on coats, but actually I like designing coats least of all. What I really love are little black dresses." Yves Saint Laurent also won the contest for a dress award. "Yves was working for Dior. Other young people I knew were working for Balenciaga (Spanish Basque fashion designer and the founder of the Balenciaga fashion house), whom they thought was God, but I wasn't so impressed," he recalled

in 1976.

In 1993, he caused US Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour to walk out of his Milan Fashion Week runway show when he employed strippers and adult film star Moana Pozzi to model his black-and-white collection for Fendi.Lagerfeld was the target of a pieing by PETA in 2001 at a fashion premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City. This was in protest of his use of fur and leather within his collections. The tofu pies hurled by the protestors went astray, however, and hit Calvin Klein.

Economic Data
Ownership
The Karl Lagerfeld S.A., responsible for products under the Karl Lagerfeld label was bought in 1992 by the British Dunhill Holding Plc group, which is part of the Vedome Group, which again belongs to the Richemont Holding from Switzerland and managed by Lord Douro. The price of the deal was allegedly $26 million. The Vendome Group is also the parent company to Chloe, of which Lagerfeld used to be also head of design. In early 1997, Vendome sold back all rights to the Lagerfeld label to Lagerfeld himself.

Performance
Economic information on the Lagerfeld businesses are scarce, there were fashion sales estimated in 1991 to be around $18 million. 80% of sales are said to be gained by exports.

Distribution
In 1996, there were 230 exclusive Lagefeld boutiques around the world. Next to his own shops, Lagerfeld is sold in other exclusive boutiques and department stores.

Production/ Licenses
Current licenses include men's wear, neckties, scarves, shoes (Charles Jourdan S.A.), sunglasses, watches and jewelry, furs (Revillon), interior fabrics and wallpapers, and carpets.

In 1996, Lagerfeld licensed a lingerie and beachwear collection to the German lingerie specialist Furstenberg. The partnership was ended after just one season, because of different opions towards the styling of the collection.

In 1988, an unsual alliance brought together the German mass market apparell manufacturer Steilmann and Karl Lagerfeld to produce in license his diffusion line called "KL by Karl Lagerfeld". In 1996, Lagerfeld arranged with the Italian Gruppo Selene to produce in license a line called "Karl Lagerfeld". This movement led to the divorce between Steilmann and Lagerfeld. Starting Fall 1996, the German home order-giant Quelle will include the "KL by Karl Lagerfeld"-line in his catalog. Lagerfeld had before experiences with home order retailing from the work with French home order-specialist La Redoute. As part of the deal with Quelle, Lagerfeld will also do fashion consulting for the Nurnberg, Germany-based company. Since the collaboration with Quelle seems to be quite successful, the partnership will be extended. It is planned to offer beachwear in the Quelle catalog, which previous was licensed to the German specialist Furstenberg.

The company recently inked a deal with Tommy Hilfiger to produce a lower priced fashion line.

- Editorial provided by Jost Krebs