Change is in the air at Hersbruck men’s fashion specialist Création Gross. After five years at the helm of the Carl Gross core brand, Division Head Thorsten Grönlund is saying goodbye to the company in the spring. FashionUnited met Grönlund, who has stylistic and creative responsibility for the family company’s core brand, during his last appearance on behalf of Carl Gross at the Pitti Uomo men’s fashion trade fair.
Grönlund revealed why a visit to the Florentine trade fair is essential, why there are hardly any shopping experiences these days, and why trends are not always relevant at the end of the day, at the Hersbruck company’s stand located directly at the entrance.
Right at the start of the ordering season this year, you placed a strong emphasis on your presence at the Pitti Uomo in Florence with a large exhibition stand. Why is a performance like this important right now?
On the one hand, we can show how we would like the mark to be in the store. The kind of store that makes you want to buy. Nowadays the frequencies are low everywhere and there is nothing going on in the stores. Of course, this is because we don’t emotionalize them enough. When we go shopping, we want to have an experience. It’s no longer about meeting needs like it used to be.
The second thing is of course to show who is wearing the pants in the competition and to show what you can do. You can’t say that the trade fair is worthwhile and you go home with a number of new customers. No, it’s pure marketing and mainly for existing customers. However, it is not known where the trade fair landscape is developing, as retailers used to be much more curious. They used to always be looking for a new, interesting label. This is also something that is unfortunately becoming less and less common.
Has risk appetite decreased in recent years?
Yes, I do believe that risk appetite has decreased significantly. We are all no longer as willing to take risks as we once were. Of course, this also has to do with the fact that profitability is different today. There were times when the textile industry was flush with money. When you went to trade fairs back then, for example in Cologne, the entire parking lot was full of expensive cars. These were all representatives or brands of some kind. Everyone earned more money back then and of course the willingness to take risks was higher.
You just said it’s no longer about meeting needs. How do you ensure the interest and motivation of customers at Carl Gross to buy?
The emotionalization is definitely the theme rather than the individual part. So to emotionalize the overall story and somehow beautifully package it so that customers feel like buying again. That’s not always easy, because Carl Gross stands for modernity, but not for trend. I want to make sure that the customer cannot dress up with us.
How do you decide which trends are relevant for Carl Gross and which are not?
I leave out certain trend peaks from the outset. Currently these are the pants that are becoming very wide again. They should first arrive on the market and be accepted, then we will implement this idea. We currently have pleated trousers that are slightly cropped. That’s okay for our customers, but I still don’t see them in bell-bottoms.
Does that mean your customers’ willingness to follow trends has a clear limit?
It definitely has a limit. And I don’t actually want to rejuvenate the brand, I want to visually rejuvenate our customers. And the customer, he likes to be 50 plus. The classic 50-year-old doesn’t intend to look 50. I’m also over 50, and at the end of the day you feel cool when you feel a little younger – without dressing up, because it has to fit your life circumstances.
That has always been the motivation for me in my job. I used to – I come from the area, learned at Peek&Cloppenburg in Düsseldorf – always said: when the customer comes out of the changing room, he has to look better than before. That’s the meaning of fashion. And that’s also why, for me, fashion is always relatively crisis-proof, because people want to beautify themselves. The best way to do this is with a piece of clothing.
And yet inflation and purchasing reluctance are currently on everyone’s lips…
Yes, there are two problems. On the one hand, in times like this, when everyone is talking about the crisis, people want to dress better again. They want to show that things aren’t that bad for them. Men in particular like to unpack their jacket or suit every now and then. The problems that retail has are again what I said at the beginning, they don’t emotionalize enough. You no longer need a department store today. I prefer to order my socks online before I go to the checkout at the department store. Nobody needs that anymore because when I go out, I want emotions. You need a shopping experience of some kind and many people do that wrong. There are almost only those who meet their needs and then everyone is surprised that they migrate online and meet their needs there and don’t celebrate shopping in the store.
Are there still true shopping experiences these days?
Of course, you can’t offer the same shopping experience as it used to. That’s why it will shrink. But stories like Galeria are actually really frightening. Especially for the inner cities, because when I think about what alternatives there are, I can’t think of much. At the beginning of Mönckebergstrasse in Hamburg there was a Karstadt sports store and on the other side the Kaufhof. They’ve been empty for a year and a half now. There’s no one going in there. On Mönckebergstrasse, best location, but these shops are just huge. Hardly anyone can fill that today.
We were just talking about crises, how is Carl Gross currently doing?
Of course, we benefited from the post-Corona period. We took advantage of the incredible wedding trend. Certainly we experienced a peak in 2023 and now, in 2024, we can grow at a healthy level. For me that means single-digit growth and that will continue over the next few years. We have to make sure that we grow profitably and with the right items.
With this goal in mind, what tasks do you see as essential?
Our job now is to close the gap between what we present at trade fairs and the reality in retail. The ranges need to be made more exciting and at the same sales level.
To what extent can you influence implementation in retail?
The dealers have to understand this for themselves; you have to go through the learning curve yourself. This is starting slowly. If you’ve invested in anything, you’ve invested in merchandisers. But as the frequencies and spins go down, on the other hand the understanding of beautiful visual merchandising and an appealing presentation grows. So I think it will happen relatively quickly. So those who really want to survive will develop further.
To get back to trends: Where is fashion heading for men in the coming season?
The most important thing that’s coming up in men’s fashion is clearly a change in silhouette. Away from slim fit, away from narrow lapels, away from short jackets, away from tight trousers. This is something where I see the greatest sales impact in the future. For men it takes a while, but once the silhouette has changed, we usually all have a lovely woman at our side who says, “but you can’t wear those pants anymore.” And that is of course also reflected in the sales.
The double-breasted suit is also an issue. The models already worked incredibly well for men once, but then the retail trade stopped using them for a while. It certainly doesn’t make sense to stock the entire store with double-breasted suits, but whether as a jacket, cardigan or coat, this is a theme that definitely has potential. We will also move away from the whole stretch qualities again. You certainly need these if the silhouette is narrow, but now the tide is turning. These are the biggest triggers for us in the future. And when it comes to colors, black will clearly come back strong. For women it’s actually anthracite at the moment, which was dead for us for a long time, but anthracite is really booming right now, just like brown. The whole brown theme will come back strongly, not directly through dark brown, but rather through nut tones.
You just mentioned the world of women’s fashion several times…
What is now actually noticeable is that more and more things from women’s fashion can be adapted into the men’s world. The wide silhouettes come from the women and the colors can also be adopted or at least seen as a guide.
And do these colors and silhouettes also reach men with a bit of a delay?
Yes, staggered two to three seasons.
After this round of orders, in the spring, you will say goodbye to Carl Gross after five years. How do you look forward to the end of your time at the company?
Wistful. A laughing and crying eye. This is quite a wistful event. This is a great company and it was a great time. But I am someone, I need problems, I need tasks. And we’re now at a level where I say, yes, I’m probably missing the challenges for the next two years.
And will you find this new challenge at the trousers specialist Hiltl?
Hiltl has a lot of potential, let’s put it that way. The company comes from a very high level, but unfortunately slipped down because the focus was too much on the brand. I’m not a designer or an artist, I’m someone who really comes from the surface, from the street. And I’m excited for as many people as possible to wear this product again. That’s always the best compliment for me when I see it often, in stores and on the street. That’s why I’m looking forward to the new task and I also believe that it will be good. But it is extremely difficult to leave. Saying goodbye has never been so difficult for me.