Karl Lagerfeld isn’t the guy that would immediately come to mind when you think of affordable fashion. As the head designer at Chanel and as a proponent of customer segregation – between those who buy full price and those “inferior” folk on the hunt for designer bargains – you can easily say that Karl has always been about the high life.

But times are tough and sometimes people who make comments with condescending conviction  are compelled to swallow their words, because money must be made and it could come from customers from all walks of life. You saw it happen with Donatella’s big-ticket gig with H&M. And now it’s happening again: Karl Lagerfeld is broadening his market with a lower-priced line dubbed Karl.

Poised to be unveiled during Couture Week in Paris in January 2012, the new collection, priced between AED 300 and AED 1,700, will feature some 100 pieces of womenswear, a fact that we’re extremely thankful for because we know this isn’t going to be a half-baked job like most diffusion lines and capsule collections.

A video and a total of four photos have leaked on the web since its announcement earlier this month, and from the looks of it, women all over the world are soon going to be touched by Karl – with the fashion honcho’s own take on rock and roll.