meteorite: March 2010

ACAB

Tom of Finland

Synchromysticism i bloggosfären. 33/666

Slumpen är ingen tillfällighet... sök och ni skall finna...

Posta om Malleus tidigare idag, funderade på att ta med postern ovanför,

men valde Om istället... Visste jag sett den någonstans tidigare/senare.

Spanar in Meteorite och där är hon ju, utan huvud men samma kropp...

Senare hade jag en 33/666 synk, kolla länken till 23WellWellWell...

http://23sicksicksick.blogspot.com/2010/03/synchromysticism-in-tv-listings-imdb.html

Hugo Boss II

Hugo Boss

SPIEGEL Interview with Hugo Boss CEO Bruno Sälzer
'There Is a Global Taste for Upscale Fashion'

SPIEGEL spoke to Bruno Sälzer, CEO of German fashion house Hugo Boss, about the future of the company following its purchase by financial investor Permira. Boss used to produce Nazi uniforms and now controls 14 percent of the upscale menswear market.

Hugo Boss at the Berlin Fashion Show.
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Getty Images

Hugo Boss at the Berlin Fashion Show.
SPIEGEL: Mr Sälzer, the dazzling fashion business is becoming the playground of drab financiers who are buying up lifestyle brands -- from Jil Sander and Tommy Hilfiger to Escada -- by the dozen. Now British private equity firm Permira is taking over Hugo Boss. Is the luxury fashion business on the verge of a fundamental transformation?

Bruno Sälzer: Conditions in the fashion business at the moment are ideal for investors. The fashion houses are still of moderate size -- there are no real giant corporations among them -- and, most importantly, they still earn plenty of money.

SPIEGEL: But the world of luxury fashion is clearly under pressure. Houses which have not been purchased yet are trying to find fresh money. Prada and Ferragamo want to go public. Roberto Cavallo and Moschino are openly seeking contact with investment funds.

Sälzer: Many fashion companies have grown significantly recently. When you are suddenly making €2 billion ($2.75 billion) a year, a change of structure may be necessary. And some of those companies are still family businesses that now have to think about how to continue.

SPIEGEL: You've been on the fast track of international expansion with Hugo Boss for years, turning a Swabian menswear company into a global luxury brand on par with Prada and Polo Ralph Lauren. Have the new proprietors already given you the green light to continue, or has the rise of Boss come to an end for the time being?

Sälzer: Don't worry, the fun is far from over. After all, our strategy so far has been a success: A few years ago, we were still notably smaller than Giorgio Armani. This year, we will catch up to them in terms of turnover and profits.

SPIEGEL: Permira has already announced it does not intend to make personnel changes to the board of directors. Have you already spoken with the new proprietors?

FROM THE MAGAZINE

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Sälzer: Of course, but much less than you would expect. Our conversations were mainly devoted to properly understanding the fashion business, which happens to be very particular. You have to know, for example, that in luxury fashion the garment sector is not growing so strongly; women's fashion, shoes and accessories are the growth areas. It is there that we are especially well-positioned to expand.

SPIEGEL: Permira previously purchased shares of a chemical manufacturer and a frozen food company, but Boss is its first fashion buy. Are you afraid the new proprietors, who are foreign to fashion, could botch your business record out of ignorance?

Sälzer: In a publicly-traded company, the strategy is still crafted by the management. On the other hand, it is then our duty to explain the essentials in such a way that everyone understands.

SPIEGEL: For years, one aspect of your strategy has been to rely on your own stores, rather than on department store chains. What if you should suddenly be told: Give up these expensive company stores -- why don't you sell your products at the department store?

Sälzer: Of course we've already talked about these basic choices. In that area, one issue is the magnitude of the investments. Permira knows quite well that we invest about €35 million in the expansion of our store network every year.

SPIEGEL: But what lies ahead must already have become apparent to you from the offer made to the Boss shareholders last week. You were urged, in the characteristic manner of financial investors, to go into debt more in the future and pay out a higher dividend.

Hugo Boss may not be the biggest, but it's a global player.
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DER SPIEGEL

Hugo Boss may not be the biggest, but it's a global player.
Sälzer: That is just part and parcel of the private equity business model. You just have to be careful that it does not become unhealthy for the company. In the end, the management board has to answer for what happens. And we will certainly not allow anything which is out of proportion.

SPIEGEL: Others are less optimistic on that point. Michele Norsa, the CEO of Ferragamo, has just stated clearly that he believes financial investors are not competent to handle the luxury fashion business, and Giorgio Armani says the financial markets simply do not understand fashion.

Sälzer: I don't see it that way. Once they have reached a certain size, fashion companies have to deal with the market just like anyone else.

SPIEGEL: Private equity firms are known for their radical cost cutting measures. That could be problematic in the glamorous fashion business, where the necessary glitz factor can often only be achieved by spending plenty of money.

Sälzer: Of course. Inspiration, excitement and glamour clearly all belong to the fundamentals of success in the fashion business. Rest assured that I have explained this point very comprehensively.

SPIEGEL: The week before last, for example, Boss staged a fashion show with a catwalk in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to mark the start of Berlin Fashion Week. Then Boss invited half of Germany's celebrities to attend a vodka and caviar spectacle at the Russian embassy. That must have cost you a few million. Will you be able to still afford such events in the future?

Sälzer: Sure. We organize about six or seven parties on that scale every year, and there will continue to be such parties. Cutting back would endanger the medium-term growth prospects of the company. I am very optimistic that this has been understood.

SPIEGEL: You rented a palace in Mexico and the Guggenheim Museum in New York to award the Hugo Boss Prize for contemporary art. It looks as if you wanted to refute Wolfgang Joop, who likes to say fashion is not part of the entertainment industry.

Sälzer: You can assume I take a different view. The two belong together.SPIEGEL Interview with Hugo Boss CEO Bruno Sälzer
'There Is a Global Taste for Upscale Fashion'

Part 2: Luxury Fashion Is a Metropolitan Business

SPIEGEL: You have gotten very involved in Berlin Fashion Week. But does the Boss brand -- which has long had an international orientation -- stand to benefit from an association with Germany as a fashion location?

Sälzer: Luxury fashion is a metropolitan business. We make half of our turnover in major cities. We are always searching the world for the most important, exciting and fascinating cities. If you then come up with the right mise-en-scène, the appropriate party and combine everything with fashion, then the result is a great overall event. Berlin fits in very well for us there.

SPIEGEL: The Fashion Week and Berlin's new Premium fashion fair show how many young German designers are pushing to get into the international limelight. Are German fashion designers newly self-confident?

Sälzer: Yes, they have been for two or three years. A lively creative scene that attracts many people has developed. I know many designers in Paris with weekend apartments in Berlin.

SPIEGEL: Some are already dreaming of Berlin joining the league of international fashion capitals like Paris, Milan and New York. Will Berlin really be able to eventually catch up with these cities, which have a lead of several decades?

Sälzer: Not in the next three or four years. But maybe being like Milan or Paris would not suit the city at all. What is exciting about Berlin is that the city is still so unfinished, so creative in a young and crazy way.

SPIEGEL: But Germans still regard white socks and sandals as part of the national heritage. And cheap chainstores like KiK, which sells T-shirt five-packs for €10, are booming here.

Sälzer: Oh, it's not that bad anymore. What I saw in Berlin last week was no more provincial than in New York. At least I didn't see any beige shoes in combination with white socks.

SPIEGEL: But you're well aware of the German approach to fashion. Elsewhere in the world, Boss suits are purchased because they are considered a luxury product like Gucci or Armani. But in Germany, they are purchased because they are considered quality goods, like a well-constructed Volkswagen car.

Sälzer: But that is no disadvantage. The German buys a Mercedes because he believes it to be the best car, and he chooses Boss because he thinks it is the best suit. We can live with that!

SPIEGEL: Is Germany, the home of Boss, perhaps the one place where you have not yet succeeded in overcoming your old reputation as the slightly conservative men's tailor?

Sälzer: We have done too many things during the past years -- some of them crazy -- for that to be the case. But the German fashion market is not a luxury market. You have to live with that.

SPIEGEL: What distinguishes the Boss customer from the Prada or Gucci customer?

Sälzer: The product ranges of all major fashion houses overlap. The cloth and cuts of some of our Boss suits are not that different from a Prada suit. But overall, Gucci and Prada are far more focused on women's fashion and accessories, and they are also just a little more extreme when it comes to menswear.

SPIEGEL: Meaning, when I want a suit for the office I buy Boss, but when I need a suit for the gala evening, I prefer Prada?

Sälzer: Hold on! The Boss suit has become extremely attractive and no longer has anything to do with the business suit we used to produce. Otherwise we would never be as successful. We control 14 percent of the market for upscale menswear -- as much as Armani and Zegna together.

SPIEGEL: You want to compete in the top luxury league, but not according to the usual rules: Instead of introducing a haute couture product line, you are expanding your product spectrum to include children's fashion and -- in cooperation with Swiss company Swarovski -- costume jewelry.

Sälzer: Only very few companies still produce haute couture. We can succeed without it.

SPIEGEL: You also never needed a famous designer to enter the luxury sector. Gucci employed no new star following the departure of Tom Ford, and the designers working for Prada are largely no-names. Is it already the twilight of the gods for star designers?

Sälzer: There will certainly always be creative stars. But I have never believed that a single creative person can find the whole product for the world market. The view taken of this in the fashion world tends to be a bit clichéd and misty-eyed: "There is that great designer, he just knows." But you can forget about that when you have 10,000 employees and a turnover of €1.5 billion.

SPIEGEL: How many of your customers actually know that company founder Hugo Boss was no creative star like Giorgio Armani, but a Swabian clothes manufacturer who, among other things, produced uniforms for the Nazis?

Sälzer: In fact some people abroad still believe there is such a person as Hugo Boss. But we don't need such a signpost designer. A few years ago there was a major, representative survey, in which people were asked to associate various brands with just one concept, and Boss was associated with fascination. What more do I need to say?

SPIEGEL: Boss now makes three fourths of its turnover abroad anyhow, spread across dozens of countries. Is there such a thing as a global taste for upscale fashion?

Sälzer: Yes, in fact, increasingly there is. Perhaps I would prefer calling it metropolitan taste. The fashion preferences in Shanghai and Istanbul really are closer to Berlin now than to some little town in provincial Germany. Our customers have a similar lifestyle the world over: They are interested in the same restaurants, hotels, clubs and cars.

SPIEGEL: In particular, more and more Chinese want to enjoy this lifestyle too. There is a run there on classic luxury products, from Gucci to Rolex. How many Chinese are already wearing a Boss suit?

Sälzer: We have not counted them yet. We are the market leader in the quality fashion sector in China, with more than 100 stores in 38 cities there.

SPIEGEL: How long will it take until such a large market also influences the fashion style?

Sälzer: Wait a moment, that is already the case. And not just because more and more Chinese models are now appearing on the world market. Designers are now going to Shanghai for inspiration, and the first Chinese brands are starting to be active worldwide with their own stores.

SPIEGEL: In Germany, the average Boss suit costs €400 at the store. What does it cost in China?

Sälzer: I'm sure you think it's much cheaper. But on the contrary: The same suit costs €650 there. That's globalization for you.

Interview conducted by Thomas Schulz

Deutsche Industrie-Norm

DIN-kontakt är ett samlingsnamn för ett antal typer av kontaktdon som ursprungligen definierades av Deutsches Institut für Normung. DIN-normerna är numera utgångna och ersätts av den internationella standarden IEC 60130-9. DIN som står för Deutsche Industrie-Norm försökte man även lansera som "Das Ist Norm".

DIN 41524
Vänster-Höger (stiftnummer sedda från utsidan av en hankontakt)
1 Inspelning vänster/Mono
4 Inspelning höger (ej ansluten vid mono)
2 Jord
5 Avspelning höger (ej ansluten vid mono)
3 Avspelning vänster/Mono
Den svenska polisen använder DIN kontakt till blåljuset i civila bilar.

Eugenics

Strax efter 4 min in i klippet: Bill oroar sig för befolkningsmängden (och snart är det ännu fler etc), men om vi gör ett bra jobb med nya vaccin och sjukvård kan vi sänka den med 10-15%