But yesterday Tommy Hilfiger announced that it had acquired the trademarks of Karl Lagerfeld for an undisclosed sum. The deal, which includes his main label Lagerfeld Gallery as well as other Lagerfeld collections, is intended to expand the brand internationally with Lagerfeld himself still at the creative helm. It will not affect his work as creative director of Chanel or Fendi.

The idea is to yoke together the reputation of Lagerfeld as one of the world’s most successful designers with the experience and resources of Hilfiger.

The deal with Lagerfeld, who has made a career out of collaborations, is seen as a coup for Hilfiger. The American designer has fought hard to shake off his reputation as a creator of the brash, US-flag-emblazoned clothing that made him famous, and ridiculed by the fashion elite, in the 1990s.

Overexpanding the company also temporarily took its toll and Hilfiger has recently repositioned himself with the unveiling of H Hilfiger, a more low-key, classic line, promoted in a tasteful advertising campaign featuring David Bowie and his wife, Iman. Hilfiger is also thought to have paid Beyoncé Knowles £2 million to be the face of his fragrance, True Star.

For now, both Hilfiger and Lagerfeld are happy. “I have been impressed with Tommy and his team and I look forward to working together,” Lagerfeld said yesterday.

“Karl is a true inspiration,” Hilfiger said. “He has continuously set the benchmark for style, creativity and sophistication.”

But working with the often acid-tongued Lagerfeld may yet prove a challenge for Hilfiger. Although he professes a fascination with the workings of the industry at the opposite end to haute couture, the German has fallen out bitterly with his recent collaborators, H&M.

The line Lagerfeld designed for the high street chain sold out on the first morning it was stocked, but he has declared that he will never work with it again, complaining that it produced only a limited number of designs — and in large sizes.

With his sunglasses, silver ponytail and obscurely lilted accent, high white collars and his Left Bank bookshop, Karl Lagerfeld is not the most obvious master of mass-market appeal; Hilfiger on the other hand, with his cleancut branding and bold, easy looks, is.

Yet in the face of every other designer pluralising for the masses, it looks as if Hilfiger wants to move in the opposite direction. Fashion now is about being at once aspirational and mass-appealing, and Hilfiger and Lagerfeld (adroit marketeers both) know this well.

The deal goes against the current trend for small-scale expansion and acquisition. The last big-name takeover was the purchase of a majority stake in Jil Sander by the Prada empire in 1999. Many designers find it hard to survive after a take-over; last month Sander finally left the company after two attempts at sticking it out.

But, of all designers, Lagerfeld’s armour of canny cleverness and instinctive prescience means he should be more impervious than most. He has always liked to point to his success at Chanel as an example of how a fashion house can flourish despite the demise of its founder. And perhaps that is the ultimate achievement — to have your name continue without your work having to sustain it.

KARL LAGERFELD

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