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Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld, the Kaiser of Couture, has decided to give the rag trade a try. The German-born couturier recently presented his debut collection for Sweden's fast-fashion company H&M. Lagerfeld spoke to NEWSWEEK's Jenny Barchfield in Paris about his attempt to make inexpensive clothes as fashionable as luxury lines, and the effects it will have on fashion. Excerpts:
BARCHFIELD: Why did you decide to work with H&M?
LAGERFELD: Because I believe inexpensive clothes--I never say "cheap," I hate the word "cheap"; people are cheap but clothes are expensive or inexpensive--should be well designed. After all, inexpensive cars are well designed, inexpensive furniture at IKEA is well designed. So design should be good on every level.
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What do you want to achieve with H&M?
What they wanted and one of the things that I thought was attractive was there would not be fake Chanel. In fact, they have had enough of that. So I did it the way I like people to look, the way I dress myself: the graphic version of black and white clothes, white shirts, high collars, tight jackets.
So it was actually more personal than the collections you design for Chanel?
Yes, much more personal.
Is this the first time you've designed mass clothing?
No, I did something once in Germany, but they were not organized. They had furniture and sheets and so on, and my thing was lost in the middle of nowhere. What I like about H&M is they do nothing else. They don't even do shoes.
How are your H&M target customers different from your Chanel customers?
It's a question of budget and also scale. The customer from H&M is a customer who buys Chanel lipstick, and perhaps a perfume.
How is it that fast-fashion companies have come to hire a couturier like you?
At the extremes there is a common point. It's like in politics: in the end, extreme right and extreme left is the same. So here, the two extremes met.
Do fast-fashion stores dissuade people from buying a $2,000 dress?
No. Buying expensive things in beautiful shops is a pleasure. It's another sort of pleasure to buy a trendy thing at H&M. And I like both. I mean, you go to McDonald's for a quick lunch and then you go to an expensive restaurant and drink expensive wine instead of drinking Diet Coke. That's life today: you like expensive, you can have expensive; you don't want to spend a lot, you can have that, too, and you're not a poor creature who can only have secondhand things.
So inexpensive fashion can now commingle easily with luxury?
Yes, with less money you can be as trendy as with a lot of money, and sometimes even better because you're freer, because you don't see clothes in terms of investment.
Is fast fashion having an impact on the luxury labels?
I think so. Everybody has to be quick these days. They cannot fall asleep and say, "We are createurs, we must take our time." Now you have to work, and work hard. It puts luxury companies under pressure to be more modern, and I think it's a very good thing. Everyone should be trendy today. Nobody wants to be a poor little thing forgotten by fashion.
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