With a global flagship store at karl.com, KARL LAGERFELD connects with fashion fans all around the world. Its digital presence extends across Europe to the Middle East and East Asia. KARL LAGERFELD collections embody timeless style and rock-chic cool – whether in Paris, New York or Tokyo.
Less translation, more creation
The brand content team aims to convey its creator’s inimitable style across every language in its brand universe. That requires texts that inspire and move readers – and translations focused on emotion rather than precision.
In other words, transcreations. As the name suggests, these free translations embody a similar quality to a successful fashion design: creativity. Rather than precisely reflecting the words of the original, they reinterpret the message behind them in the way that best suits the target market. And that’s why they’re the right choice for complex marketing content.
Supertext’s transcreations won over KARL LAGERFELD in 2022. Since then, the brand and the language service provider have collaborated across seven languages and have already successfully completed around 1,500 orders.
Style initiative for a multilingual brand identity
It quickly became clear that embodying the contemporary spirit of the brand would require a flawless sense of style not only when it came to clothes but also to communication. Together with the language professionals at Supertext, the brand managers worked to nail down the multilingual corporate language.
OUR TONE IS KARLISTIC:
SOPHISTICATED
TONGUE-IN-CHEEK
(Excerpt from the KARL LAGERFELD brand code)
The tone of voice needed to be “Karlistic” – in other words, confident, inspiring and mischievous – across all the channels and in every language. The basis for this was the English style guide, whose core values Supertext transcreated into French, Spanish, German, Polish, Japanese, Italian and Dutch. In consultation with the local brand managers, the Supertext team then created comprehensive guidelines for global communication, ensuring that the brand essence of KARL LAGERFELD was made to measure across every market.
LocalReview: maximum oversight, minimum effort
In order to integrate the expertise of its internal specialists as efficiently as possible, KARL LAGERFELD uses Supertext LocalReview. The platform solution for systematic translation approvals brings together all project participants in a streamlined system featuring an online editor.
Here, participants can make changes directly, post comments, and ultimately approve the translation – from headlines, through multilingual video subtitles, to social media posts. The key advantage: any adjustments automatically flow back into Supertext’s translation memory and terminology databases. If these phrases show up again in future orders, the correct version will be visible from the start, further increasing consistency – and therefore quality – in the long term.
On the way to an iconic collab
The collaboration is already a success, but further optimizations are still in the pipeline. That’s why Supertext’s quality managers hold regular feedback sessions with KARL LAGERFELD’s local specialists, monitor changes via the LocalReview tool, keep databases and style guides up to date, and ensure that everyone involved has the latest information on an ongoing basis.
According to “team KARL”, it’s precisely this mix of linguistic expertise and support with technology and processes that they value so much about working with Supertext.
Cover image via KARL LAGERFELD