The luxury is back. Sales and the courage to rise acquisitions. The best companies are quickly bought up all – a chance for the German avant-garde, which was presented at the Berlin Fashion Week
There was a time, there had to write off the luxury. Just two years ago was. And yet so far in the past. Since the sellers were pretty alone in Milan’s Via della Spiga in their boutiques, and not even the shrewd gang of fur thieves did more to come, the years before had driven up to mischief. Since the stores offered in June, just after the summer started right, displayed the latest collection at half price, only for the initiated, first, for reasons of self-respect left to those who did not know the magic word access only if the best pieces were discarded. As we drank champagne is not so much as it is sent, according to zeitgeist, not to order expensive suits. That the revenue in the online trade in the crisis years in the industry rose, it is also a reference to the self-mortification: On the Internet, no one has the fear of social control.
Restraint was announced and stealth, of course, publicly celebrated. The manufacturers noticed the pain in their balance sheets, some, like the Italian group Mariella Burani, to drive into bankruptcy. Others came into a tailspin, which financed their expansion with foreign money. 2009 was a black year in which the luxury industry learned that neither of the two-digit growth in profit margins were the God-given. Pessimists gave the business even at the new rich in China future. They were wrong. Today, two years later, everything is as it was – on the surface. Among the industry reorganizes.
The luxury is back and with him his favorite child, the fashion. Sales in the industry to rise again, in 2011 it will surpass the record of previous years, as the consulting firm Bain & Company predicts. € 220 billion turnover in 2014, analysts predict the manufacturers of expensive fashion world of shoes, jewelry and bags, cosmetics and accessories, which is nearly twice as much as in 2003. This increases the courage to corporate acquisitions – and its price: In March, the Paris luxury group Moët Hennessy – Louis Vuitton issued (LVMH) 3.7 billion euros for the Roman jeweler Bulgari, about 20 times as much as the family business before interest and taxes makes a profit. It is a time of strong financial conglomerates: they are called PPR and LVMH, as well as the small collection of brand name Labelux jewels of German billionaire Reimann family with plays. Investors to access, where they can – in the case of LVMH once from behind: that the group belonged to one fifth of the shares of competitors Hermès, felt that, in self-reliance has become 175 years old, as unfriendly. But who invented the Birkin bag and the most valuable names in the industry bears should not be surprised to become a takeover target. Hermès essence of luxury, grows and sells magnificent.
To renounce the good things which is just hard enough to have good fortune. There are only, and that has changed, no longer the same things as before the break of the financial crisis. Who has understood what is the new luxury, has overcome the crisis and will find their way into the new world of fashion. A look at it you could also throw this week in Berlin. We’re not talking about haute couture and Alta Moda, a business that thrives on the tradition of the great houses and elsewhere than in Paris or Rome does not seem feasible. The luxury companies, but go so well economically, to serve not only the absolute top class. The Fashion Week in Berlin is a feast of high-quality compatibility, quality and craftsmanship of one or other exciting idea. A good cut and a special story, so stores and labels are now selling their wares. There are no longer the logos to jump to the customer. The codes have become more sophisticated: The customer appreciates luxury jackets, do not wrinkle and Kashmir, which makes no nodules. Such was certainly present in Berlin.
Certainly promoted the fashion week is a certain megalomania, which is not alien to the capital. Raf Simons for Jil Sander was there, Marc Jacobs was there, the man behind Louis Vuitton, which has been raised with some respect and self-satisfaction to the topic of conversation. Even if Jacobs awarded only one prize to creative talent and gave autographs. The elegance of the Milan suffers recurring showcase, which is absent in Berlin. On the other hand, one in Milan has never heard that the police are a cheerful, spontaneous street party had resolved at a store opening, like Thursday night in Berlin-Mitte happen. Both shows that Germany used to be only getting back to play a role in the fashion business, as once in Cologne and Dusseldorf. The numbers of Fashion Week organizer are too solid to deserve only ridicule. 50 well-attended shows this year, eleven in the past, there was a larger exhibition area, and was booked. Also, the jeans-Bread & Butter, which took place at the same time in the Tempelhof Airport has developed into a leading event. It is the juxtaposition of the Berlin avant-garde designers and established names, from Escada to boss about Rena Lange, which constitutes the charm of those days. The German fashion is recovering from decline.
The industry consolidation is inevitable: in addition to creativity are the future financial strength. Raw material costs are rising, and not even the premium customer is willing to bear the price increases alone. Since companies must by, and many German SMEs are better equipped than private-equity firms. The purchase of those willing to look to Berlin: On her hunt for takeover targets, the loot of large, established brands will soon be divided, attractive candidates have become rare. The smaller, the most promising among the designers are in demand. It would not surprise me to hear more in the coming years in the fashion city of Berlin, as that Marc Jacobs has awarded a prize.