Londonfrey’s chief menswear buyer: Premium brands want to play in the luxury segment by increasing prices

As head of buying at the traditional Munich store Lodenfrey, Sebastian
Haufellner is responsible for three areas that could hardly be more
different at first glance: Menswear, Kidswear and Men’s Traditional
Costumes.

Before the start of the upcoming trade fair season, the Munich-based
designer revealed to FashionUnited how the individual areas influence each
other and where the fashion journey for men is heading in the coming
season. He also spoke about the lessons and horrors of past seasons, the
balancing act between trend and tradition and the upcoming generation of
the next Lodenfrey customers.

Before we start a new season, let’s take a look back. How would you sum
up the past order period?

What struck me was that everything has become double-digit more
expensive across the board. This will of course present us with challenges
in the future when it comes to enforcing this with end consumers.
Especially if the same products become more expensive.

And it’s not the first season in which everything has become more
expensive…

That’s right, our end consumers are also accepting that everything from
tomatoes to houses is currently becoming more expensive, but it’s time for
everything to slowly settle at a new and, above all, stable level.

Are brands open to a dialog regarding rising prices?

In existing partnerships and in cases where the brand relies on
wholesale, there are open dialogues and our needs are also addressed.
Either through a stable recommended retail price or fair mark-up
recommendations. And then, of course, there are brands for which their own
retail is much more important than wholesale. These brands gather their own
experience and say quite clearly: “Price doesn’t matter to us.”

Are there price increases that make a brand no longer viable for its
product range?

Yes, that crystallises relatively quickly, within one or two seasons.
The biggest problem here are premium brands that believe they also need to
break into the luxury market. And before they do that in terms of image,
they go for the price. These brands certainly have the biggest problem
surviving, as classic luxury consumers spend large amounts due to scarcity
and desirability – and not on 20, 30 or 40 brands that all think they can
play in the luxury segment by suddenly raising their prices.

Can you give us an example?

Let’s take a sportswear brand as an example. A well-known sportswear
brand has had a strong presence in Munich’s cityscape in the height of
winter for the last five years. Back then, end consumers bought this jacket
for around 800 to 900 euros, even before it got cold. The same jacket now
costs between 1,300 and 1,500 euros. The brand seems to think that in
future it will be consumed at the level of the Monclers of this world and
brands on the Maximilianstrasse [Ed. an expensive shopping street in
Munich]. However, this completely ignores the fact that end consumers don’t
see the brand as luxury at all, but rather as mainstream – also due to its
presence in the cityscape.

Do you have any new brands on your radar that you would like to include
in your range?

A certain percentage, around 10 percent of our range, is always
dynamically viewed and exchanged. Therefore, around 20 to 30 percent of the
brands that I visit in their showrooms are not yet part of our range and
are not yet written by our buyers. These are mainly brands that have
potential or prospects. If we only buy by the numbers, which many companies
do, then we will be left standing. We have to make sure that we are always
setting the next stimulus.

Where do you look for inspiration and how do you and your team find new
potential brands?

Nowadays, of course, the algorithms of the digital world help. If you
follow a brand on Instagram, the algorithm automatically suggests global
brands that are similar or are searched for and consumed by similar people.
And we also physically travel through cities from time to time, especially
before our order phases, and see what’s happening outside.

Are there any cities that play a special role in this?

In Europe, it’s London, as we’re in Paris and Milan during the order
phase anyway. Scandinavia is interesting, but the intersection of fashion
at Lodenfrey is not necessarily Scandinavian. When it comes to traditional
costume, it’s other cities that are more in the Alpine region. And then it
tends to be stores, and they can also be on greenfield sites.

Have you learned any lessons from the past season that you will take
into the upcoming order season?

We will once again adapt our buying somewhat more to the performance of
Lodenfrey. We still want to grow on both channels – stationary and online –
but with a little more humility. After the pandemic, there was a certain
gold-rush atmosphere and the hope that end consumers would consume
excessively forever, as the catch-up effect at the time could not be
estimated.

Lodenfrey stands for tradition for many Munich residents, but the
classic male image in particular is changing more and more. How do you
combine fluidity and modernity without offending the “classic menswear
customer”?

With men, of course, it is quite clear that they cultivate a well-kept
boredom. This means that men more or less always buy the same things. 80
percent of what we do big business with are the same jeans every year, the
same beige pants, the same dark blue jackets and so on. It’s important that
the buyers work professionally and sometimes disregard trends, because you
can only afford to shop for trends up to a certain percentage.

Many of your customers grew up with Lodenfrey, right?

Overall, we are not a high fashion house, but something that radiates
reliability. I myself grew up with Lodenfrey as a child. Sometimes it’s
almost amazing that we have such a high status across different
generations. It starts with a physical experience for the children, which
we also focus on with the carousel and slide, so that young and potential
customers say: “Mom, Dad, I want to go to Lodenfrey.”

An incredible number of employees grew up on the slide. We have
customers who grew up on the slide and for them it’s somehow an emotional
anchor.

You are not only responsible for menswear, but also for kidswear. How
do these areas differ in terms of trends and their cycle?

With girls, it’s the case that women’s trends hit the girls’ fashion
world almost simultaneously. You have to look closely and be early. And
with the boys, it’s sometimes seasonal or even annual. If we notice that a
trend is on the rise in men’s fashion, then it comes to children’s fashion
the following year.

It’s similar to brands. If we notice a brand hype, then we also have to
take a closer look at children’s fashion. Many big brands also recycle
their collections. You can then see that a theme in the previous season in
terms of colours or qualities for men will often be a theme for children
the following year.

Where will the fashion journey take men next season?

Fashion-wise, there will be a refinement of the trend that we formulated
for our mission statement last year with “The Talented Mr. Ripley”. Back
then, we invited our entire men’s department to the cinema to present the
film as a “trend”, to set the tone and show how to celebrate this clothing
– the wider pants, the natural materials, the colours, the knitted polo
shirts as key highlights.

One crisis follows another – are customers buying less as a result?

Yes, that’s what we assume for the market as a whole. The question is
whether, conversely, this also means that we are buying less or planning
for a loss. We have been restricting our range quite considerably recently.
We are definitely buying fewer brands than before. For example, if we get
rid of around 20 brands, we only take on around ten new ones. This is how
we want to sharpen our profile.

And what is the situation at Lodenfrey? Have your customers continued
to invest in fashion?

In times of crisis, we probably even benefit a little more than in other
times. Just like the luxury brands, the old ones, the reliable ones, who
also benefit from the fact that people buy “the good old things”. Clearly,
however, we also have to keep reinventing ourselves and move with the
times, as the traditional companies that don’t move with the times are
slowly dying off.

Does the ongoing ‘Quiet Luxury’ trend also play a role here?

We stand for ‘Quiet Luxury’, for us it’s not a trend. We struggled a
little with ‘Logomania’. I think a quiet trend naturally follows a loud
one. ‘Silent Luxury’ is also about the code that you show. And Munich is
predestined for showing what you buy. So everything has to be ‘Silent
Luxury’, it has to be the right shoe that everyone recognises on the
street.

After the ‘Quiet Luxury’ trend, the end of the luxury boom is now
imminent. How do you deal with this?

Just like the trend or the phrase “streetwear is dead”. Customers will
always spend a lot of money on something if they think it has a special
value. Whether that is a special performance, a special quality, a special
service or a special scarcity.

The weather has not necessarily helped the start of the fall/winter
season, how is business going at the moment?

We have made a double-digit loss in fashion due to the weather, but at
the same time we have made a plus in the company, as the traditional
costume sector was very strong for us.

The saying “After the Wiesn is before the Wiesn” [After the Oktoberfest
is before the Oktoberfest] – does that also apply to the traditional
costume business?

The Oktoberfest, together with the Wasen in Stuttgart, is actually the
last big festival of the season. All other folk festivals take place before
it. The core costume business therefore takes place in the summer months.
So from April, when the spring festivities begin, many weddings, some
corporate events, birthdays take place, but ultimately the many folk
festivals are also held. This means that we have also shifted our entire
seasonal management of traditional costumes.

Has traditional costume therefore become a season-independent product?
And how does the cycle of traditional costume differ from fashion?

Nowadays, we actually see our core traditional costume business as a
year-round business. In the past, the traditional costume cycle was always
a little later than fashion, according to the motto “we’re not a
fashionable product, so we don’t have to deliver or sell early”.
Accordingly, we always wrote the orders for a winter season with delivery
in July, August, and September in February and March. This is impossible
with today’s supply chains. Today, we start buying straight after the
Oktoberfest. You’re never smarter than right after Oktoberfest anyway.

Has this shift also changed the goods you order?

It has actually become more traditional again. People are buying them
authentically. That naturally helps our overall style and message, because
we really like to cultivate this traditional part. There’s no end in sight
at the moment.

You just mentioned a double-digit loss due to the weather. Where is
there a need to catch up?

Wardrobes are full, so it’s not pent-up demand, but a need to catch up.
Of course, sportswear, coats, outerwear and knitwear. The mid-winter
product groups are suffering at the moment.

The topic of weather seems to be revisited every winter season…

It’s funny that every year we talk about how it was too warm in the
autumn and that the winter coats are still hanging on the rack. But
honestly, we’re going about it the wrong way too.

When we left the normal statutory sale in Germany at the end of January,
we tried to artificially extend the season. Suppliers were forced to
deliver winter goods in the summer in order to maximise the sales period,
even though they knew they wouldn’t sell them in those weeks. However, you
still have to pay, and this leads to liquidity bottlenecks in many places,
which in turn triggers hysteria. So the price battles start in September
and October, without the season even being close to starting.

The industry needs to be relieved of this schizophrenic sale price
pressure. The duty is on the suppliers and retailers.

What are your hopes for the upcoming season?

I am definitely looking forward to a very, very humble attitude from all
market participants next year.