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G-III Apparel to buy eponymous label of the late Karl Lagerfeld

By Huw Hughes

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Management

Image: Patrick Kovarik, AFP

US fashion group G-III Apparel has announced plans to acquire the namesake brand of the late Karl Lagerfeld.

The group said Monday it will snap up the remaining 81 percent stake in the label for 200 million euros (210 million US dollars) to become its sole owner.

It said Karl Lagerfeld’s current leadership team will continue to lead the company, and it expects the deal to add in excess of 200 million dollars in initial annual sales.

G-III first snapped up a stake in Karl Lagerfeld back in 2015. Since then, the group has built the brand into an “important and rapidly growing part of our North American business”, G-III chair and CEO Morris Goldfarb said Monday.

“This transaction marks yet another significant milestone for G-III,” he said.

It comes after G-III, whose portfolio already includes brands DKNY, Donna Karan and Vilebrequin, bought iconic Parisian luxury label Sonia Rykiel last year.

Karl Lagerfeld, who served as creative director of storied French fashion house Chanel from 1983 until his death at the age of 85 in 2019, “was an icon of the fashion industry”, Goldfarb said.

G-III takes full control of Karl Lagerfeld

Goldfarb continued: “[Karl Lagerfeld's] namesake brand embodies his spirit as a designer while also appealing to a broad range of consumers throughout the world.

“We have great respect for Karl Lagerfeld’s experienced and talented leadership team, led by Pier Paolo Righi, with whom we have worked closely for the last seven years.”

Goldfarb said the Karl Lagerfeld brand’s global potential represents a retail sales opportunity in excess of 2 billion dollars.

Karl Lagerfeld CEO Pier Paolo Righi said: “As proud custodians of Karl’s legacy, we are guided by his mantra to ‘embrace the present and invent the future’, and I am looking forward to building the future of his namesake brand with the combined strength of our team and G-III’s expertise in the industry.”

The transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of fiscal year 2023.

G-III
Karl Lagerfeld