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CNN Saturday Morning News

Interview With Karen Katz

Aired October 05, 2002 - 07:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Here to help you find the perfect Neiman Marcus gift is Karen Katz. She is the president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct. Thanks for being with us this morning.
KAREN KATZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO NEIMAN MARCUS DIRECT: Good morning, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You know, every time this comes out every year, I have to flip through just to see what the most -- I don't want to say ridiculous -- but maybe ridiculously expensive -- item that you have.

This year, $3 million for these incredible paintings. Tell us about them.

KATZ: Well, we are so excited to be -- to have the opportunity to offer this ten-portrait set of these Andy Warhol paintings.

Mr. Warhol painted these in the 1970s. As you said, they are the ten most famous athletes of that decade. And it's really a unique opportunity for someone to own the complete set because it is the only complete set that is still all together.

CALLAWAY: You think you're going to sell them?

KATZ: Oh, absolutely. We've gotten many inquiries already about the set of paintings.

CALLAWAY: Oh, really? That's interesting.

KATZ: Yes.

CALLAWAY: All right, we've got a lot to go through so I want to get to our next item, which is the taxi. Miles and I were talking about earlier. Tell us a little bit about this, why would anybody want to buy this London taxi?

KATZ: Well, you know, for the first time ever the famous London taxi is available for sale in the United States. It's been retrofitted for the U.S. roads, and to make it exclusive to Neiman Marcus, we've added this wonderful interior of the Burberry Check and as you know Burberry is very hot in the fashion world right now, so it was a perfect marriage between the London taxi and the Burberry check.

It is so precious inside. It's perfect for a very chic carpool mom because she can load all the kids in the back of it, and drive around looking very hot on her way to school in the mornings. CALLAWAY: All right how much -- how much?

KATZ: It's about $58,000.

CALLAWAY: How many are you selling? Are you -- just have one -- or...

KATZ: Actually, we only have 100 of these available, and we've already sold a few of them just in the first week the book has been out...

CALLAWAY: Oh really?

KATZ: Yes.

CALLAWAY: That's amazing to me. See, I'm going to be looking for one of these on the road now.

KATZ: Exactly. Well, a hundred spread throughout the United States, so look carefully.

CALLAWAY: I will. The Cadillac is gorgeous. Now why did you put this in the catalogue?

KATZ: Well, we have been featuring a Neiman Marcus exclusive car for the past nine years. We are celebrating our 95th anniversary this year at Neiman Marcus, and it just so happens that Cadillac is celebrating their 100th anniversary, so it was a perfect time for us to do something with Cadillac and this car is as sexy and glamorous as they come.

It's part of the new Cadillac XLR group of cars that they're producing, it's a -- it's got a big V8 engine in it. It's one of these...

CALLAWAY: How much?

KATZ: It's $85,000.

CALLAWAY: Miles, are you writing this down? You know, we don't have a lot of time, but one of the most interesting things in this year's catalogue are the action figures.

KATZ: Right.

CALLAWAY: That you can have made to look like yourself. How did this come about and they're rather expensive. Isn't it, like, $7,000 an action figure?

KATZ: It is, but actually you get two action figures for the $7500 price, but I have a team of people who spend the year looking for unique items like this.

Our his and her gift is always something over the top, and this is going to be a lot of fun for whoever decides to purchase this. They can have themselves or one of their loved ones made into an action figure. I happened to bring along my action figure today. I don't know if you can see this.

CALLAWAY: Yes, we can...

KATZ: But this is an exact replica of what I look like.

CALLAWAY: How do they do that? We don't have a lot of time, but, I mean, how do they get the exact -- do you send in your measurements?

KATZ: They do -- yes -- yes -- they do digital scanning of the person out in the studio in Burbank, and then their sculptors really take that digital scanning to make sure that they get all the details of the person -- and -- if you don't like your body, you can trade it in and they'll find you another body that you might like to live with for a lifetime.

CALLAWAY: See, what I think you should do is the next year -- like, next year -- I want you to put somewhere in the back photographs of the people who bought the things like the paintings and the taxicab, just so you can get a -- you know -- the image of who would actually buy this stuff or...

KATZ: OK, we'll do that.

CALLAWAY: OK, that's not going to happen. All right, Karen, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

KATZ: Thank you for having me, and a happy early holiday to you.

CALLAWAY: You too, bye-bye.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired October 5, 2002 - 07:50   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: Here to help you find the perfect Neiman Marcus gift is Karen Katz. She is the president and CEO of Neiman Marcus Direct. Thanks for being with us this morning.
KAREN KATZ, PRESIDENT AND CEO NEIMAN MARCUS DIRECT: Good morning, Catherine.

CALLAWAY: You know, every time this comes out every year, I have to flip through just to see what the most -- I don't want to say ridiculous -- but maybe ridiculously expensive -- item that you have.

This year, $3 million for these incredible paintings. Tell us about them.

KATZ: Well, we are so excited to be -- to have the opportunity to offer this ten-portrait set of these Andy Warhol paintings.

Mr. Warhol painted these in the 1970s. As you said, they are the ten most famous athletes of that decade. And it's really a unique opportunity for someone to own the complete set because it is the only complete set that is still all together.

CALLAWAY: You think you're going to sell them?

KATZ: Oh, absolutely. We've gotten many inquiries already about the set of paintings.

CALLAWAY: Oh, really? That's interesting.

KATZ: Yes.

CALLAWAY: All right, we've got a lot to go through so I want to get to our next item, which is the taxi. Miles and I were talking about earlier. Tell us a little bit about this, why would anybody want to buy this London taxi?

KATZ: Well, you know, for the first time ever the famous London taxi is available for sale in the United States. It's been retrofitted for the U.S. roads, and to make it exclusive to Neiman Marcus, we've added this wonderful interior of the Burberry Check and as you know Burberry is very hot in the fashion world right now, so it was a perfect marriage between the London taxi and the Burberry check.

It is so precious inside. It's perfect for a very chic carpool mom because she can load all the kids in the back of it, and drive around looking very hot on her way to school in the mornings. CALLAWAY: All right how much -- how much?

KATZ: It's about $58,000.

CALLAWAY: How many are you selling? Are you -- just have one -- or...

KATZ: Actually, we only have 100 of these available, and we've already sold a few of them just in the first week the book has been out...

CALLAWAY: Oh really?

KATZ: Yes.

CALLAWAY: That's amazing to me. See, I'm going to be looking for one of these on the road now.

KATZ: Exactly. Well, a hundred spread throughout the United States, so look carefully.

CALLAWAY: I will. The Cadillac is gorgeous. Now why did you put this in the catalogue?

KATZ: Well, we have been featuring a Neiman Marcus exclusive car for the past nine years. We are celebrating our 95th anniversary this year at Neiman Marcus, and it just so happens that Cadillac is celebrating their 100th anniversary, so it was a perfect time for us to do something with Cadillac and this car is as sexy and glamorous as they come.

It's part of the new Cadillac XLR group of cars that they're producing, it's a -- it's got a big V8 engine in it. It's one of these...

CALLAWAY: How much?

KATZ: It's $85,000.

CALLAWAY: Miles, are you writing this down? You know, we don't have a lot of time, but one of the most interesting things in this year's catalogue are the action figures.

KATZ: Right.

CALLAWAY: That you can have made to look like yourself. How did this come about and they're rather expensive. Isn't it, like, $7,000 an action figure?

KATZ: It is, but actually you get two action figures for the $7500 price, but I have a team of people who spend the year looking for unique items like this.

Our his and her gift is always something over the top, and this is going to be a lot of fun for whoever decides to purchase this. They can have themselves or one of their loved ones made into an action figure. I happened to bring along my action figure today. I don't know if you can see this.

CALLAWAY: Yes, we can...

KATZ: But this is an exact replica of what I look like.

CALLAWAY: How do they do that? We don't have a lot of time, but, I mean, how do they get the exact -- do you send in your measurements?

KATZ: They do -- yes -- yes -- they do digital scanning of the person out in the studio in Burbank, and then their sculptors really take that digital scanning to make sure that they get all the details of the person -- and -- if you don't like your body, you can trade it in and they'll find you another body that you might like to live with for a lifetime.

CALLAWAY: See, what I think you should do is the next year -- like, next year -- I want you to put somewhere in the back photographs of the people who bought the things like the paintings and the taxicab, just so you can get a -- you know -- the image of who would actually buy this stuff or...

KATZ: OK, we'll do that.

CALLAWAY: OK, that's not going to happen. All right, Karen, thank you very much for being with us this morning.

KATZ: Thank you for having me, and a happy early holiday to you.

CALLAWAY: You too, bye-bye.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com