The Karl Lagerfeld Selection Exclusively for Rosenthal

Beauty and perfection at their best. Rosenthal stands for luxury, lifestyle and a special
aesthetic feeling - for products without which sophisticated tabletop culture and contemporary interiors would not be the same. A sense of tradition coupled with the avant-garde is the underlying principle behind this worldwide leading company. Experience gathered from almost 13o-years of company history, the will to innovate and the intense cooperation with the best international designers, architects, artists and craftsmen guarantee the success of the world-famous company.

The star designer Karl Lagerfeld has also committed himself to the world of beauty. Not only his designs for famous fashion houses, but also his photographic works are world famous.

And now he has set porcelain in unusual scenes for the new Rosenthal campaign. "I was supposed to come up with twelve pictures and ended up with about sixty, because it was such good fun," says Karl Lagerfeld as he describes his work for Rosenthal." On the one hand I love this brand, which is truly part of the German legacy; on the other I am also interested in work as a link between beauty and functionality." Lagerfeld draws his very own personal picture of Rosenthal with the exclusive" EGO" selection- in the very sense of the word: From the product selection to the photography right up to the artistic campaign design.

The designer displays Rosenthal porcelain from a new, unusual perspective featuring Brad Kroenig, who is probably the most famous male super model of the day. "By choosing a male model I wanted to play with cliché of 'becoming bourgeois' which is associated with a porcelain and crystal dinner service. The man appears to embody the opposite of fragility, of the vulnerability of these precious articles, but perhaps this is just a marvellous illusion."

All motifs use the aesthetics of classic black and white photography in a consistent way.  Lagerfeld develops his own visual language: He plays with clichés, illustrates idioms, confronting transparency and vulnerability with the male model's force of expression.  His style is not to commit himself to any one style.

Even after almost 13o years of corporate history, Rosenthal still presents itself as both modern and fascinating. Tradition and innovation: Rosenthal has always continued to develop between these two poles - united and motivated by the ambition to create the best design in every epoch - "the originals of our times". Philip Rosenthal recognised the value of design way back in the 195o's: Impressed by "industrial design" in the USA and the avant-garde in Italy the innovative son of the company founder dares to break with traditional porcelain design. He invites young creative artists and designers to Selb in Germany to let them design modern forms - marking the birth of the Rosenthal Studio-line. Together with famous artists and designers such as Walter Gropius, Timo Sarpaneva or Raymond Loewy, Rosenthal became a pioneer of contemporary product design. This leading role provides the motivation to continue setting the design trends in the future, too.