In case you were wondering how deep fashion people’s capacity for purchasing branded novelties is, yesterday morning’s quick sell-through of a thousand Karl Lagerfeld-designed and -branded Barbies at Net-a-Porter should tell you all you need to know, thanks to a little digging by Tyler McCall at Fashionista. The Barbies went for $200 a pop, and they were gone before I got to work in the morning.
McCall confirmed with Net-a-Porter that they originally had 999 of the dolls, which were an NAP exclusive, in stock, and the math from there is self-evident. Not only does Lagerfeld have a singular sway over fashion industry dollars, but special edition Barbies have a fervent collector’s market all their own, whether they’re fashion-related or not. Put the two together and you get a lot of sales, very quickly.
The collaboration also comes at a particularly opportune moment; novelty and irreverence in fashion are seriously trendy, and consumers are more willing than every to spend significant money on things that are funny or cool rather than traditionally luxurious. Would you spend $200 on a Barbie from your favorite brand?
