fashion is a dog-eat-dog business

Karl and Tommy, at play

It seems that Dog #1, we'll call him Karl Lagerfeld, was swallowed up by Dog #2, we'll call him Tommy Hilfiger, who in turn was swallowed up recently by junk-yard dog (the most aggressive of this creature) Dog #3, whom we'll call 'a private equity fund,' and pulled the plug on Dog #1. In my opinion, Dog #1 is really the Top Dog and Dog #3 wouldn't know a Top Dog if he bit him in his bottom line. All I can say is good luck to you Justin Timberlake. I hope the Toys 'R Us font will work for you little puppy.

Once a designer commits the ultimate act of self-parody by scaling down his vision for the masses, as Karl Lagerfeld did earlier this year in an ill-fated diffusion line, it becomes harder to see the value in what he differentiates as high concept. So he creates a new identity, as Mr. Lagerfeld did on Wednesday morning with a signature collection that was a smash, with one big, covetable idea after another. [...]

There was reason to suspect that Mr. Lagerfeld would retreat from such strong and graphic statements for his signature line, which was sold to the American designer Tommy Hilfiger, and shown in New York in February, with the new lower priced line. The private equity fund that swallowed the Hilfiger company closed most of Lagerfeld's operations and his store here on the Left Bank. But Mr. Lagerfeld is producing this collection in his own atelier, so he was free to show what he wanted. (source: The New York Times, October 5, 2006)

Karl and Tommy in New York
(Given what we know now, the
photo becomes quite poignant,
don't you think?)