Clemens En August – On how doing it right

If you´re born as a Brenninkmeijer you don´t need to worry about perspectives and career at all.
Some gumption and a premium education will open the floodgates to the top and if you´re not acting dumb, the question of economic survival is not yours.

Alexander Brenninkmeijer knew about these “born-into” advantages, when he started his training in the family enterprise C&A and took the first international career steps after a master program. It could have been kind of cuddly in between the nearly 150 years old company with long tradition and the young Alexander Brenninkmeijer.

But how it is in great stories: There´s a break.
The protagonist leaves stamped out paths and his life gets into untidiness. In the case of Alexander Brenninkmeijer the change wasn´t caused by a huge tragedy, a big inner revolution or even a sensational love story – It was the question: “in which direction I want to go?” which induced the young C&A sprout to leave the cozy home.

And how it is in great stories, the answer to big questions is not waiting on the next corner.

Alexander Brenninkmeijer started travelling, looked for encounters and met his friends.
And while searching for himself, he found Kostas Murkudis, who was, back in the days, an aspiring newcomer on the fashion market.
Murkudis motivated the C&A sprout to go back on the textile industry track and together, they moved and shaked more or less effortlessness through the international fashion market.

And then the shock. Murkudis left the firm and went to Berlin, while Alexander Brenninkmeijer stayed in Munich. Without success, without money, without fame.

But how it is with great stories, there´s a Happy End.
Together with his team, Alexander Brenninkmeijer developed concept of Clemens En August.

An affordable luxury fashion label that focuses on classic but modern cuts, high quality manufacturing and premium materials, but not on an expensive marketing and sales strategy. The idea was, to go on sales tours, renting spaces in big cities, doing a temporary sale and move on.
This was 5 years ago. And it´s great to see, that only a few years later, Clemens En August is considerd a fantastic fashion label with great products and a growing amount of fans. I guess, Alexander Brenninkmeijer found a great answer to the question “in which direction I want to go?”.

The Clemens En August sales stop will be in Hamburg from 23th to 25th April in Produzentenpalast at Admiralitätsstraße gastieren. More tourdates here.

Photos via Clemens En August.