Designer Dresses For Less

Thanks to Karl Lagerfeld, things just got a little bit sweeter for shoppers with champagne tastes and a beer budget. Lagerfeld is the latest prestige designer to join the hot "masstige" trend, in which brand names like Isaac Mizrahi and Todd Oldham dream up affordable products for mass-market chains like Target. Lagerfeld, 65--the design genius behind Chanel, Fendi and his own Lagerfeld Gallery line--is hooking up with Swedish retailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M).

The 30-piece "Lagerfeld for H&M" collection, a one-time deal, will hit the racks at 800 H&M stores in 19 countries in mid-November. The line will include such basics as jeans, T shirts and sweaters at prices ranging from $2 to $130. Lagerfeld points with pride to one turtleneck in particular. Although he designed it for women, he notes that it's something everyone can wear and plans to get one for himself.

"He's a very good designer," says Margareta van den Bosch, head of design at H&M. "I've always admired him. He's one of the names that came up first. I think he has a way of looking at fashion that's very commercial."

Lagerfeld, who previously designed products for the French mass-market chain La Redoute, follows the relatively new trend of high-end designers' dipping down into popular-priced retail. In the 1970s Halston shocked the fashion world when he sold his name to J.C. Penney and launched a less expensive collection. Next month Oscar de la Renta will introduce a new moderate line, O Oscar, that will retail for less than $100. "We're certainly going to see more of this," says Marshal Cohen, chief analyst for NPD Group, a trend-tracking firm. "I wouldn't be surprised if we saw the Limited doing something like this. Lots of stores want to get into this midmarket."

As Lagerfeld likes to say, you don't have to spend a lot of money to look good. "Chic is a kind of mayonnaise," he says. "Either it tastes, or it doesn't."