Fashion entrepreneur Albert Eickhoff died a few days before his 87th birthday. Son-in-law Stefan Asbrand-Eickhoff told the German Press Agency that he fell asleep on Thursday night with his family at home in Meerbusch near Düsseldorf. “He lived his life. He had a wonderful life.” His father-in-law said some time ago that he would like it to be over now, said Asbrand-Eickhoff. The “Bild” newspaper had previously reported online about the death.
Eickhoff was considered a pioneer in the German fashion landscape. With his wife he discovered numerous designers for Germany. He introduced Armani and was one of the first buyers of Tom Ford’s Gucci collections. In the 1970s he even lured the Italian designer Gianni Versace (1946-1997) to his sofa in his native Lippstadt in North Rhine-Westphalia.
Even if the retailer was unknown to many outside the industry during his lifetime, he was courted as the doyen of German fashion in Paris and Milan. It is not the look that is decisive for him, but the dress itself, Eickhoff once told the dpa: “I only look at all the collections in the world on the hanger.”
In 1961 he opened the fashion salon Eickhoff with his wife Brigitte in Lippstadt – his first boutique. 20 years later he relocated the headquarters of the company, which had meanwhile grown into a fashion house, to Düsseldorf’s luxury shopping street Kö. He later handed over the day-to-day business to his daughter Susanne Asbrand-Eickhoff and son-in-law Stefan. The traditional house closed at the end of 2013. “We stop at the peak,” Eickhoff told the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” at the time.