If you're a European official mulling loosening restrictions on selling luxury goods online, there's clearly only one man to confab with: Karl Lagerfeld. The Kaiser spoke with European commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes for two hours in Brussels this week. Though Karl buys books and CDs online at Amazon.com, he doesn't purchase items of apparel from the internet. "I like the physical contact with the goods," he said, adding he didn't think there was a rush to change the regulations since they're not broken and don't need fixing.
Karl said "it's still to [sic] early" to sell luxury items of apparel online because "an H&M dress and a Chanel dress look the same in a small photo, but not in real life."
Just clicking also drains the joy out of shopping, he said. “When you buy in a shop, you buy what you discover, what you might have had no intention of buying.”
So even though he still buys CDs, he's not completely out of touch — he just wants shopping to truly fulfill. Karl might not IM or BBM or Gchat (that we know of), but he knows how to capitalize on the internet's marketing power. Following the short film he made for his latest Chanel pre-fall collection show, he just wrapped another pre-fall mini-movie.
“I call it ‘Fitting Room Follies,’” he said, describing scenes of models Lara Stone and Baptiste Giabiconi cavorting in the cabin for his camera.
Genius.
Lagerfeld on Shopping and Luxury [WWD]
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Filed Under: chanel, karl lagerfeld, karl says, prefall 2009, shopping
