The Met Store is All About Karl Lagerfeld
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THE KARL ECONOMY: Who wouldn’t want a Karl Lagerfeld cardholder?
As The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute prepares to unveil its spring 2023 exhibition, “Karl Lagerfeld: A Line of Beauty,” The Met Store is stocking up with a sundry of items inspired by the late designer. Online shoppers and in-store ones will find the white ponytailed designer’s likeness stamped on all sorts of merchandise. They can also choose from some co-branded memorabilia that has been created with Chanel, Fendi and the Karl Lagerfled brand.
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As of Monday – days before the show’s May 5 official public opening – shoppers can get first dibs on keepsakes like a $186 Karl Lagerfeld Kokeshi doll and a Chanel silk scarf with one of the designer’s sketches of the house’s namesake Coco Chanel. Designer brand-conscious consumers can opt for the $950 Fendi Karlito keychain, a $1,250 Chanel Airpod case or $1,400 Chanel fingerless gloves. The latter was a signature look for the designer, who died in 2019 at the age of 85. There are also Chanel Camillia brooches that will retail from $850 to $1,075. More affordable items can be found in the $99 KL x The Met canvas shopper tote, the $85 KL x The Met cardholder and the $85 KL x Met two-mug set. The $299 KL x Met Store leather doll is no doubt sure to be a crowd-pleaser, as will be the similarly collaborative $119 black T-shirt.
One of the most sought-after items could be the Karl Lagerfeld Bearbrick, which is being sold Stateside for the first time. There will be a limited run of 2,000 of the $7,500 Lagerfeld-esque item. When the design debuted in Paris last year, 1,000 were sold within a matter of days. Monday’s release will be the finale for the remaining editions.
To get a jump on the Kokeshi doll launch, the consul general of Denmark in New York Berit Basse and Lucie Kaas hosted a party Friday night in New York.
The Met is playing up the Karl factor to the nines – a fact that the creative would appreciate. So much so that The Met Store will pay homage to Karl Lagerfeld’s iconic office in Paris, where the designer crafted many of the sketches that will be showcased in the exhibition. Shoppers and browsers will find a smattering of books that have been selected in collaboration with Librairie 7L, the bookstore and imprint Lagerfeld started in Paris in 1999. The assortment reflects his thirst for poetry, philosophy, art, and design. Librairie 7L has also dreamed up a Smythson notebook highlighting one of Lagerfeld’s key quotes – “Books should be an everyday affair” – and a 7L notepad with his preferred drawing paper. Consumers can also buy “Fendi by Lagerfeld,” a scrap book-type book with 200 of his sketches drawn from his tenure with the company. The tome is being sold in a commemorative wooden box; the book also includes a poster comprising of 50,000 miniscule images of his sketches, a DVD, and illustrated booklets.
Showgoers can also buy postcards and prints of some of the sketches that are being featured in “A Line of Beauty.” Those who can’t get enough of the show can take home the exhibition catalogue written by Andrew Bolton, Wendy Yu Curator in Charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with contributions from Tadao Ando, Anita Briey, Amanda Harlech, Patrick Hourcade and others.
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