"...the ideal product... the ultimate merchandise. No sales talk necessary. The client will crawl through a sewer and beg to buy." - William S. Burroughs

Following a visit to Lanvin's ecommerce site...and as a devoted worshiper at the shrine of Lagerfeld ephemera...I have to say that Karl needs to up his output...for Lanvin has one of the largest selections of crap, I mean collectibles, that I have ever seen.

At this point I think we're all familiar with the porcelain dolls (which, truth be told, I've always thought of as updated versions of the insipid, pudgy, porcelain children that little old ladies collect)...but there's so much more...an "Alber Sketch Pen" for $395...a $225 "Mother and Daughter Snowglobe"...six greeting cards which, though lovely, at $55 are much too expensive to contemplate using (or entrusting to the USPS).

I understand what I'm going to call the "make up and perfume" concept...creating something affordable so that, even if you can't buy the clothes or bags, you can introduce something (theoretically) touched by the designer into your life...but, for most of us, none of these items could possibly be deemed affordable. So, who buys them? And does someone out there have a glass cabinet in their living room filled with Lanvin's ladies, posing their little ceramic hearts out?