Fashion icon Karl Lagerfeld designs a home safe with his name on it: Narcissus

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If for nothing else, you have to admire fashion designer Karl Lagerfeld for his audacious sense of I-don’t-care-what-people-think-of-me integrity. In a recent interview, the creative mind who revived Chanel and Fendi and launched his own successful collections said, ‘There are very few important things, and they are not possessions.’ Now that he’s gotten that off his chest, Lagerfeld has put his name to what is being called the most expensive home safe in the world.

Lagerfeld teamed with Markus Döttling, the managing partner and master locksmith of the 91-year-old German safe manufacturing firm Döttling. Their design process took nearly two years. The result is a 1,760-pound treasure chest that stands nearly 6 feet tall and is more than 3 feet wide. It has ‘owner-recognition technology’ that allows access to two handcrafted interior cabinets, which pop out from the sides of the sleek, monolithic piece. The exterior skin is chrome-plated aluminum that has a mirror-like finish, so when you have fetched your finery, you can admire yourself. Fittingly, it is called the Narcissus.

Made to order and limited to an edition of 30, the Narcissus will be exclusively distributed in the U.S. by LA Closet Design in the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. The price: about $340,000 -- and that’s before your designer adds his mark-up. Narcissus does redefine what a safe might look like, but Lagerfeld, who photographed himself with his creation, clearly has as much price sensitivity as he has a sense of irony.

‘I am not interested in what people want,’ he said in a statement. ‘I’ve designed a safe that I would like to own and which will stand in my home.’

-- David A. Keeps

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