عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Fashion

Smarter Dressing in Store for Hugo Boss as Lockdowns Lift

An employee displays suits at the Hugo Boss section of the Central Universal Department Store (TsUM), on the first day after ending a coronavirus lockdown, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
An employee displays suits at the Hugo Boss section of the Central Universal Department Store (TsUM), on the first day after ending a coronavirus lockdown, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
TT
20
TT

Smarter Dressing in Store for Hugo Boss as Lockdowns Lift

An employee displays suits at the Hugo Boss section of the Central Universal Department Store (TsUM), on the first day after ending a coronavirus lockdown, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
An employee displays suits at the Hugo Boss section of the Central Universal Department Store (TsUM), on the first day after ending a coronavirus lockdown, in Kyiv, Ukraine January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Hugo Boss expects its business will continue to suffer in the first quarter but forecast a gradual recovery from April as people buy new clothes when they emerge from lockdowns.

Although the German fashion house said on Thursday it would continue to push more casual styles, helped by a new partnership with actor Chris Hemsworth, it noted pent-up demand for smart clothes seen in China after lockdowns were lifted there.

Hugo Boss had already made the shift toward casual clothing even before customers switched suits and ties for tracksuits when lockdowns forced them to work from home.

Formalwear only accounted for 25% of sales in 2020, down from 35% in 2019, acting Chief Executive Yves Mueller said.

"There is a desire in the population in many countries to go out again, to shop again," he told reporters, adding that Hugo Boss was responding to the trend for more comfortable clothes by using more stretchy materials, even in its suits.

About 30% of stores were still closed globally in the first quarter, but Hugo Boss hopes for a gradual recovery from the second quarter as vaccinations pick up and lockdowns are eased.

Mike Ashley-led Frasers said in January it had increased its Hugo Boss stake to 15.2%, part of the British businessman's drive to take the sportswear retailer upmarket.

Mueller said he was not aware that Hugo Boss, which expects sales and operating profit in 2021 to be "well above" the level of 2020, could be a takeover target.

Hugo Boss shares were down 2.3% at 0916 GMT, making them one of the biggest fallers on the German mid-cap index after it reported a 29% slump in fourth-quarter sales to 583 million euros ($695 million). It still managed to record a positive operating profit of 13 million euros as it cut costs.

Hugo Boss said its business continued to recover in the US market and Asia/Pacific, with China recording strong double-digit growth. Rival Burberry has also seen a strong bounce back in demand in China and South Korea.

Online sales at Hugo Boss grew fast, up 49% in 2020 to more than 200 million euros as the brand expanded e-commerce to 32 more markets. Mueller expects online sales above 300 million euros in 2021 and 400 million euros in 2022. ($1 = 0.8385 euros)

Most Viewed

 
Fashion

Saint Laurent Opens Paris Fashion Week at Pinault’s Art Palace with Show of Force

A model wears a creation as part of the men's Saint Laurent Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel
A model wears a creation as part of the men's Saint Laurent Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel
TT
20
TT

Saint Laurent Opens Paris Fashion Week at Pinault’s Art Palace with Show of Force

A model wears a creation as part of the men's Saint Laurent Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel
A model wears a creation as part of the men's Saint Laurent Spring-Summer 2026 collection, that was presented in Paris, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Michel

It-designer Anthony Vaccarello on Tuesday sent out a Saint Laurent men's collection that felt both sun-drenched and haunted, set not just in the heart of Paris, but drifting somewhere between the city and the legendary queer enclave of Fire Island in New York.

Staged at the Bourse de Commerce, the grand art palace and crown jewel of Kering 's Pinault family in the French capital, the show paid tribute to Yves Saint Laurent’s own history of escape and reinvention.

Star power in the front row, including Francis Ford Coppola, Rami Malek, Aaron and Sam Taylor-Johnson, and house icon Betty Catroux, underscored the label’s magnetic pull.

Oversized shorts, boxy trenches, and blazers with extended shoulders riffed on an iconic 1950s photo of Saint Laurent in Oran, but they were reframed for a new era of subtle, coded sensuality. Flashes of mustard and pool blue popped against an otherwise muted, sandy palette — little jolts of longing beneath the surface calm.

Yet what truly set this collection apart was its emotional honesty. Vaccarello, often praised for his control and polish, confronted the idea of emptiness head-on, The AP news reported.

The show notes spoke of a time “when beauty served as a shield against emptiness,” a phrase that cut deep, recalling not only Saint Laurent’s own battles with loneliness and addiction, but also the secret codes and guarded longing that marked the lives of many gay men of his generation.

That sense of secrecy was everywhere in the clothes: ties tucked away beneath the second shirt button, as if hiding something private; sunglasses shielding the eyes, keeping the world at a careful distance. These weren’t just styling tricks, they were acts of self-preservation and subtle rebellion, evoking the rituals of concealment and coded desire that defined both Fire Island and of closet-era Paris. For generations, Fire Island meant freedom for gay men, but also the risks of exposure, discrimination, and the heartbreak of the AIDS crisis.

Fashion rivalry and a famous venue If the installation of artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot’s pool of drifting porcelain bowls spoke to the idea of beautiful objects colliding and drifting apart, so too did the models: together on the runway, yet worlds apart, longing and loneliness held just beneath the surface.

This season’s blockbuster staging felt all the more pointed as Kering faces tough quarters and slowing luxury demand. The group leveraged one of its artistic crown jewels, Saint Laurent, and a dramatic museum setting to showcase creative clout, generate buzz and reassure investors of its cultural muscle.

The venue itself — home to the Pinault Collection — embodies that rivalry at the very top of French luxury. The Pinault family controls Kering, which owns Saint Laurent, while their archrival Bernard Arnault helms LVMH and its Louis Vuitton Foundation across town. This season, the stakes felt especially high as the Saint Laurent show came just hours before Louis Vuitton’s own, throwing the spotlight on a Paris fashion power struggle where every show doubles as a declaration of taste, power and corporate pride.

If the collection offered few surprises and leaned heavily on crowd-pleasing shapes, it was undeniably salable, proving that when a house this powerful plays to its strengths, few in Paris will complain. A collection for those who have ever wanted more, and learned to shield their hearts in style.