MILAN — German accessories brand MCM is able to unveil a latest chapter of its history.

Ahead of its debut as a part of the Milan Fashion Week calendar, MCM Global AG’s president Sabine Brunner discussed the brand new strategic direction the brand has undertaken and been increase recently.

The primary focus is repositioning MCM as a digitally driven luxury brand through a latest image and products that revitalize its heritage codes — tracing back to 1976 — in addition to expand right into a full-fledged offering of accessories, ready-to-wear and lifestyle. The goal is to further serve and have interaction each the brand’s existing customer base and what Brunner described because the “Digital Nomads,” the Gen-Z and Millennial consumers MCM has been increasingly attracting.

“I don’t think it’s a change, moderately a revisitation,” said Brunner in regards to the strategy. “Ms. [Sungjoo] Kim, who’s the owner and the chief visionary officer of the brand, all the time has the appropriate vision: She envisioned and will feel that there’s going to be a shift available in the market. MCM was very much sort of streetwear- and subculture-focused, which brought an incredible success to the brand consistently and for a few years. But we felt it was time for the brand to return to its roots and more to its heritage, to avoid being now completely out of tone, since the market will not be about streetwear. So she had an anticipation and we began working together on this seven months ago.”

The manager observed that the shift in behavior across generations may also play a key role in enabling the brand to realize further space. “This young generation’s parents and grandparents possibly had been buying the true luxury, like Hermès or Chanel, but we all know that this generation today don’t necessarily want that. They need something different, with value but possibly with a distinct story and price point, so that is where we try to interrupt some newness,” said Brunner. “I believe the highest luxury brands have increased all their prices a lot and that has really freed quite a lot of space in a sweet spot of medium-high range, where MCM already is and needs to reaffirm itself.”

To this end, Tina Lutz and Katie Chung have been appointed to steer and develop the brand new global design and inventive direction, enhancing the brand’s signature codes and making them resonate with today’s market demands. They succeed Dirk Schönberger, who quietly exited the brand earlier this yr, after a four-year stint as its creative leader.

Particularly, Lutz has taken the role of worldwide creative lead and relies on the brand’s global design studio in Milan, while Chung has the post of creative director and relies in Seoul.

“We liked to maintain the appropriate balance between our Korean ownership — now we have quite a lot of people working in Korea and Seoul is the middle of the world at once — and the German and European [side]. It’s a really interesting view,” said Brunner in regards to the double appointment.

“We love working as a team, and we talk on a regular basis over the phone. As our geographic location is split between Seoul and Milan, primary challenges we face are mostly the time difference and the physical distance between us. Nonetheless, we discover it incredibly helpful to collaborate online,” said Chung, a Central Saint Martins graduate who was creative director at Wooyoungmi and Solid Homme. 

Born in Germany and trained in fashion design and patternmaking at Paris’s ESMOD, Lutz worked for Issey Miyake in Paris and Tokyo, before moving to Recent York to work for Calvin Klein in 1992. In 2000, she cofounded Lutz & Patmos in Recent York, a women’s ready-to-wear line that focused on luxury knitwear. After 24 years Stateside, Lutz returned to Europe and launched Lutz Morris, a line of German-made luxury handbags based on her passion for artisanship, responsible production and sustainability. Now based in Milan, Lutz will retain the helm of her own brand.

Lutz confirmed the duo looked to modernize MCM by “reconnecting with its origins within the Greenbook,” the 1991 MCM catalogue celebrating the 15^th anniversary of the corporate. 

Chung moreover pointed to 4 primary pillars representing the essence of this approach. “Schnapsidee [‘crazy idea’], zeitgeist, sustainability and heritage: By combining audacious creativity, a deep understanding of the present landscape, a commitment to ecological sustainability and a respect for our brand’s heritage, we aim to create a forward-thinking and timeless brand identity,” she said.

The skills will unveil their first joint collection with the spring 2024 season here on Sunday. The apparel and accessory range was designed with a snug and ready-to-travel attitude and multifunctionality in mind and can introduce elements just like the “Recent Laurel Monogram,” a minimal and modern version of the brand’s iconic Visetos monogram. 

Typically, Brunner highlighted the trouble on segmenting the MCM offering to best reach different targets. While the Visetos pattern stays the core of the business, latest logo-ed cotton canvas styles represent the entry price. “We had to extend our prices like everybody, so we’ve lost some customers on the Visetos that we would like to realize back through this latest offer,” said Brunner. At the identical time, the brand has been constructing a higher-end catalogue, expanding the range of its leather bags. The manager eyes the chance to further add to the latter in the approaching seasons to deal with much more demanding clients. 

“Not that I would like to do expensive things but we will gather so many various customers,” she noted, pointing to other product categories as well. Particularly, the corporate will enhance its footwear business and is committing to growing its ready-to-wear line, up to now relegated to essential, sportswear-driven pieces. Similarly to accessories, apparel will reconnect with the heritage of the brand and its travel-based DNA, showcasing clothes “that can make you look elegant but not wrinkle in your suitcase,” said Brunner. 

Next up, lifestyle products will add to the MCM portfolio, in addition to to its presence in Milan, since Brunner teased the corporate is working on a project for next yr’s edition of Salone del Mobile.

Within the meantime, the corporate will likely be busy revamping its existing stores and opening latest ones with an evolved interior concept that respects the brand new brand image. Once more, Brunner will not be on the lookout for a revolution but just a little bit refresh of the retail spaces, tweaking color schemes and furniture. 

While by September all existing MCM stores will likely be revamped with these elements, recent openings included a store on the Singapore airport and the Harbour City all-in-one mall in Hong Kong. “We’re having some shops-in-shops within the U.S. too. For one, Saks Fifth Avenue is reopening next week with the brand new concept,” said Brunner. Overall, MCM is obtainable in 650 stores across 40 countries.

Even addressing a currently balanced distribution, Brunner said that the strategy is to regulate the network based on the brand new brand image by “performing some wholesale cleanup,” especially by way of stores which can be more sportswear-driven. This optimization will add to some relocations, especially in China, to be certain that the brand has a presence within the ever-changing shopping hot spots of the market. 

Ranging from next yr, Brunner will give attention to opening in other key European destinations, like Milan and Paris in addition to locations in Spain, “where we should always really start investing to develop a robust business and never only one fueled by tourism.”

Without disclosing specific figures, the manager said that MCM’s top three markets are Asia, Europe (especially German-speaking countries) and the U.S., equally accounting for one-third of the sales. 

Flanking the revamp of physical distribution, the corporate is aiming to speed up its growth by also enhancing its online presence. To this end, MCM has tapped Marie-Laure Lequain as its chief digital and merchandising officer. 

With greater than 20 years of experience in luxury and fashion, Lequain was in successive leadership positions at Gucci, shaping the jewellery business from scratch, rebranding the road of watches and leading the digital business to success. 

“Certainly one of her primary tasks is to research and review our e-commerce strategy, as we’re reviewing our complete digital approach. And [Lequain] has built previously, especially with Gucci, a really groundbreaking way of doing e-commerce,” said Brunner. 

As for Brunner herself, before joining MCM she held several high-profile positions including brand manager of Roger Vivier, where she led the event of the brand through direct retail stores. In her position as chief executive officer at Bonpoint she spearheaded a turnaround in visibility and profitability, while previously she cultivated the Asian marketplace for the Tod’s Group, managing the Hong Kong subsidiary. 

Asked a couple of lesson learned at her previous posts that she’s applying to her latest job, Brunner pointed to the way in which of working. “In luxury, every aspect may be very well taken care-of. So achieving what we’re achieving now requires to stay very concentrated and consistent… It’s not about doing an excessive amount of but to stay focused and really take the project from A to Z. Never move away from the target,” she concluded.