The entrance to Prince de Galles sits just steps away from the Champs-Élysées
Looking for chic, swankiness and glamour in the ultimate Parisian location? Check out the Prince de Galles, where even the breakfast makes you feel you are in a Brigitte Bardot movie
Despite, perhaps because of, the plethora of boutique hotels that have opened in the city over the years, glamour is still an essential element for us any stay in Paris.
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And for glamour, you really have to be in one address, the Avenue George V, surrounded by luxury brands and feeling that you are a resident in the most exclusive area of Paris, the cross-cross of luxury boulevards in the 8th Arrondisement, in between the Champs-Elysees and the river.
The reception to the luxury boutique hotel is an art deco design of white and black marble
And so it felt very appropriate checking in to the Prince des Galles, in the heart of the area, with lobby of art deco black and white marble, offset by taupe carpets, and sweeping staircase. Our room was that very rare thing, and utterly silent haven in the heart of Paris, looking out over the rooftops, with no traffic noise, yet somehow in the middle of all the action. It had everything you would expect: lavish sheets, bathroom swathed in marble, and something you didn’t, in its sense of peace and tranquility.
‘Glamour is still an essential element for us any stay in Paris’
One of the most delightful parts of our stay was our breakfast. This is Paris, after all, so to be ushered into the grand dining room and offered an à la carte breakfast was special enough: but to be surrounded by the decor of the 19.20 dining room was even more so. Deep leather chairs, dramatic and vivid artworks, and a superb Eggs Benedict set one up for the day in a slow food way.
Read more: How art is remediating environmental and societal damage from overdevelopment
All of this with the assured service of a top hotel from the Luxury Collection, at a price point reasonable for its level of luxury. Love it.
A luxury bedroom at Prince de Galles
Daniel Grieder, CEO of Hugo Boss
Since 2021, Swiss entrepreneur Daniel Grieder has been applying his versatile talents to the helm of German fashion giant Hugo Boss, where he has doubled revenue. He talks to LUX about redefining the brand for a new generation.
“Hugo Boss is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year. Our goal is to put the company in a good position for the next 100 years.” No small words from Daniel Grieder. But then why would they be, coming from the man who, before joining Hugo Boss three years ago, increased net sales as CEO of Tommy Hilfiger from $3.3 billion to $4.2 billion over three years to 2018?
So far, Grieder is keeping his word with Hugo Boss, too. Even though, as he says in the brand’s latest performance report, we are acting in a world of “global macro uncertainty”, which dampened Hugo Boss’s sales in the second quarter of 2024, the company continues to gain market share.
Enter a few of the many statistics up Grieder’s designer sleeve: more Hugo Boss stores are open than ever before (1,418); revenue rose from €1.95 billion in 2020 to €4.2 billion in 2023. And potentially crediting the increase to lockdown is nullified by the figure being €1.32 billion above 2019, then the highest Hugo Boss revenue of the millennium.
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Let’s flick back a second to the German atelier that Boss started in a century ago. Hugo Ferdinand Boss drops out of school, does military service and works in a weaving mill. In 1908, he takes over the family trousseau shop. He creates his own company in 1924, making general clothing and later military uniforms. After the Second World War, the company is handed on to his son-in-law, Eugen Holy, and in 1969 to his sons Jochen and Uwe Holy, who will facilitate the route to the Hugo Boss we know today.By the 1950s, the company began to produce work clothing and had already added men’s suits to its programme.
In the 1970s the operation’s range adopted a new focus: high-end men’s suits made of high- quality material, anchored in the suave understatement that would bring decades of success and remains an imprint of the company. Now, Hugo Boss was a leading global brand. The following decades saw it attract a breadth of demographics with product that ranged from men’s, women’s and children’s wear to eyewear, watches and perfume.
Supermodel and Boss brand ambassador Gisele Bündchen in the Boss A/W24 campaign
In 2022 under Grieder, the company refocused to appeal to a younger, more global audience by leading on a two-brand strategy of Hugo and Boss, both with a 24/7 approach and offering businesswear as well as leisurewear, but addressing different target groups. Grieder has amplified the dual-branded identity through “emotional storytelling and comprehensive brand experiences”. He has gathered celebrity brand ambassadors, including Italian tennis player Matteo Berrettini, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen and Senegalese-born TikTok star Khaby Lame.
And his vast omnichannel campaign hinges on two simple hashtags: #BeYourOwnBoss addresses Millennials with the latest pieces that sit comfortably on the historical cornerstones of the brand, from the biker jacket and a contemporary take on the double-breasted jacket to the neutral shades of straight trousers and polo tops (with a zing of edge from transparent, collared jerseys).
#HugoYourWay speaks to Gen Z with flashes of bolder colours and edgier styles in lines that focus on leisurewear and clothes for all occasions. Think the recent Hugo genderless collaboration with Istanbul streetwear label Les Benjamins: straight, boxy cuts in leisurewear that leans towards the street, but with signature poise.
Boss brand ambassador and tennis player Matteo Berrettini at the Boss Open 2024, in pieces from the Boss x Matteo Berrettini collection
This, says Grieder, is what matters to the modern customer: “to be addressed by one brand in different areas of life”. Indeed, areas of his own life seem to perfectly straddle the company’s brand Boss. “I am more of a classic type,” he divulges of his own tastes. On the weekend that means jeans, a polo shirt, blue sweater and sneakers. At work it’s a jacket or suit. “Our new performance suit, of course,” he says, with a loyal nod to the new Boss stretch-fabric suits in light green, grey, khaki and blue.
As an active man, seen often on the Austrian slopes, the brand’s concurrent focus on sport and leisurewear seems suited to him as much as to the majority market. It is reflected in the various collaborations with sporting events, epitomising pared-back chic and quiet confidence – for instance with Formula 1, the Hahnenkamm ski races and the branded ATP tennis tournament, Boss Open.
A look from the Boss “Out of Office” S/S25 runway show in Milan
A look from the Boss “Out of Office” S/S25 runway show in Milan
“We must revolutionise the fashion industry to minimise its negative impact on the environment. No planet, no fashion”
Grieder is the type to do this. To take two major fashion brands, belt them up and shoot them back into the spotlight, both within a decade – and still be up before anyone else in the morning for a game of tennis or a shift down the slopes.
“I discovered my desire for entrepreneurship at an early age,” he says, unsurprisingly, judging from his steely confidence and steady eye. “While still at school I had an ice-cream stand, sold stones from the mountains to tourists, was a soap importer and even sold cars for some time.”
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How did his determined gaze turn to fashion? “Growing up, people asked if I was one of the Grieders from Bongénie Grieder department stores in Switzerland. No, I am not. But I started thinking that fashion was something I could do,” he says. He got a holiday job at a fashion shop, started a commercial apprenticeship at the Globus department store in Zurich, studied economics and his decision was made. The first company he founded specialised in buying and selling leather jackets from Turkey.
Later, he says, “I represented brands such as Pepe Jeans, Stone Island, CP Company, Belstaff and finally established Tommy Hilfiger in the European market before I joined this company.” That is the DNA of a CEO: blasé but hardworking. “I love challenges,” he says, with the glint of a professional sportsperson. “Athletes in particular have this special mindset I admire.” Grieder’s star-studded catwalk through the fashion business comes not from a competitive drive, he claims, but from the philosophy that “what is good enough today might not be good enough tomorrow: that is what drives and motivates me”.
Racing driver and Boss brand ambassador Fernando Alonso in the A/W24 Boss x Aston Martin capsule collection campaign
Setting his mind to Hugo Boss in 2021, he created the “Claim 5” strategy, a comprehensive five-pillar plan of brand identity, product, digitalisation, omnichannel presence and growth. “Our brands had lost relevance over the years,” he says. So he set himself the task to make Hugo Boss one of the top 100 global brands. And attracting those “new, younger consumers” from Millennials to Gen Z is at the crux of it.
Hugo x Imaginary Ones, a collaboration with Web 3.0 for mental- health awareness
“You always have to keep your finger on the pulse,” he says of his fashion inspirations. And “always”, for Grieder, means not just at work but at home, over casual conversations with his two sons or in front of the TV. It was by stumbling across a Netflix documentary about a particular dark-trousered, dapper ex-England footballer with a Boss-like muted colour palette, seen often in a biker jacket, rugged boots and a masculine edge, that he found a match. “Beckham is a true Boss,” says Grieder. “He is much more than a former soccer player.
He is an icon in the world of sport and also fashion. He is a successful entrepreneur as well as a dedicated family man.” Grieder has made Beckham his latest brand partner for Boss. Their global, multi- year design collaboration begins in spring/ summer 2025.
“What is good enough today, might not be good enough tomorrow: That is what drives and motivates me”
Football icon and Boss brand partner David Beckham, in the Boss A/W24 collection campaign
But with a presence in 130 countries, each with regions of varying taste, how does one keep communication sufficient, eyes peeled, finger on so many pulses? “We want to exploit growth opportunities in local markets by targeting regional needs,” says Grieder. Colour-coded lines, demarcating different styles, provide tracking opportunities for various strands of Hugo Boss.
See Boss Black (iconic tailoring), Boss Orange (casual), Boss Green (athleisure) and now Boss Camel (tailored luxury, including made to measure), as well as Hugo Red (contemporary tailoring and casualwear) and Hugo Blue (denim-based). These weave together different aspects of the brand’s global story, and harness the fact that brand recognition reportedly improves by up to 80 per cent with colour-related schemes. China, for instance, is particularly keen on Boss Camel.
If, in Grieder’s words, “the most exciting time in fashion is right now”, what can we look out for in Hugo Boss’s future? Unsurprisingly, Hugo Boss, as with all other major brands, “must revolutionise the fashion industry to minimise its negative impact on the environment.
No planet, no fashion.” The brand looks to respect the environment and “as a premium supplier, sustainability is a matter of course”. How to do this? Grieder notes the Digital Campus created by Hugo Boss to utilise data analytics and more.
A look from the Boss “Out of Office” S/S25 catwalk show.
A look from the Boss “Out of Office” S/S25 catwalk show
In fact, sustainability is not only a necessity but a style point. “Innovation is a key driver of sustainability, which is why innovation and sustainability go hand in hand for us,” he says. “We love fashion. We change fashion.” According to Grieder, Hugo Boss will soar both in terms of sustainability and style to become “the leading premium tech-driven fashion platform worldwide”.
“Innovation is a key driver of sustainability, which is why innovation and sustainability go hand in hand for us”
It remains to be seen whether Hugo Boss will fulfil its goal of reducing CO2 emissions by at least 50 per cent by 2030 compared to 2019, and achieving net zero by 2050. But for now, there’s no wavering to a character, force or closing comment such as Grieder’s: ‘I am absolutely convinced,” he concludes, “that this will perfectly set us up for the future.”
A soirée to celebrate Cristal and art in London. Left to right: Lorna Mourad, Jennifer Chamandi Boghossian, Rob Boghossian, Ege Gürmeriçliler, Darius Sanai, Laurent Ganem, Maria Sukkar, Frédéric Rouzaud, Anne-Pierre d’Albis-Ganem, Nadim Mourad, Richard Billett, Samantha Welsh and Malek Sukkar, with an Anish Kapoor artwork on the wall
Louis Roederer, maker of Cristal and other celebrated champagnes, has long led the way in environmentally conscious winemaking, using biodynamic and organic techniques. CEO Frédéric Rouzaud has also brought his passion for art photography to the fore with a series of initiatives supporting photographers around related themes. Now the champagne house champions massal selection, an expensive way of allowing natural selection to create diversity in the vineyard and complexity of taste. LUX visits the vineyards in France and speaks with Chief Winemaker Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon about how working with nature is the hardest – and most rewarding – labour of all.
Frédéric Rouzaud, CEO of Cristal maker Louis Roederer, commissioned artistic photographer Jean-Charles Gutner to create a series of images based on the leaves produced by grapevines of different varieties grown using massal selection
A Conversation with Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon of Louis Roederer about how working with nature stimulates biodiversity, conserves the soil – and makes the greatest wines
LUX: How long does it take someone to gain the necessary expertise to identify the best vines in a vineyard and to curate a massal selection?
Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon: It’s not one person only. Louis Roederer’s In Vinifera Aeternitas project was launched in 2002 and includes a group of experts: Professor Jean-Michel Boursiquot from Montpellier, probably the most talented ampelograph [one who identifies and classifies grapevines] in the world; Lilian Bérillon – a nursery owner specialising in massal selection of the best domaines all over the world – and his team; and our own vineyard team.
Jean-Charles Gutner, creator of Solar Panel, Jean-Baptiste Lécaillon and Frédéric Rouzaud
LUX: I read that for massal selection at Louis Roederer, you say the best bunches are small or medium in size, weighing 100g to 110g and of perfect quality. What makes a perfect grape?
JBL: ’Perfect quality’ does need explanation. In our quest, it means a combination of clean fruit – disease-free through thicker skins and good aeration – and homogeneous phenolic ripeness in berries of the same cluster, avoiding green or overripe berries that could create vegetal or cooked-fruit notes.
LUX: Louis Roederer is also opening up new possibilities by growing young vines without American rootstocks, that is, pre-phylloxera style [phylloxera destroyed many European vineyards from the 19th century onwards, a crisis combatted by grafting European vines onto phylloxera-tolerant American vine rootstock]. How is it working?
JBL: So far we must admit we have had little success in this experiment. Most of the vines have now been infected by phylloxera. Only very few are still alive. We follow them to see if they are resilient or not. We are also working on different clones of rootstocks.
A leaf from a Chardonnay vine from Avize, a village in the Cotes des Blancs, the hillsides renowned for producing the greatest Chardonnay wine in the region
LUX: What do you find most exciting about massal selection?
JBL: The most exciting thing is to witness the huge biodiversity within Pinot Noir. There can be up to 10-15 days difference in the ripening process, which is amazing.
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LUX: You have said of massal selection that you had to regenerate the plant material and recover some of the singularity of the Louis Roederer style through massal selection. Does this affect the taste?
JBL: The first goal is to regenerate virus-free vines for a strong ecosystem, through the diversity of individual vines replanted with pools of a minimum of 30 individuals. The second goal is to protect our unique legacy: we have chosen our oldest plots of vines, pre-1960, to select our massal vines. Those vines now make Cristal rosé, but before 1974 they were the heart of our Cristal domaine from its inception in 1876. Therefore, we believe that by regenerating this material, we are also on a crusade in the name of taste.
Louis Roederer uses sustainable practices, including massal selection, to work with nature and achieve the most accurate expression of its unique terroirs
LUX: In massal selection, the talk is of going back in time, to recultivating the uniqueness that wine used to have. But has wine always tasted the same, or did it taste different, say, in the pre-phylloxera era, and if so, how?
JBL: The idea is not to go back in time. Our In Vinifera Aeternitas project aims to restore the diversity of vines, which will reinforce the natural resilience of our production and ecosystem.
LUX: How does Louis Roederer’s process of massal selection differ to competitors?
JBL: It is our own unique legacy, therefore it cannot be compared to anyone else’s. We have also elevated the idea in an artistic dimension, such as when the photographer Jean-Charles Gutner teamed up with the In Vinifera Aeternitas project to craft unique pictures of the biodiversity of our ecosystem in his Solar Panel series.
The making of leaf images, from the Solar Panel series, by Jean-Charles Gutner
LUX: How has massal selection changed Louis Roederer’s character as a company?
JBL: It has not changed our character, which has always been to secure our family-owned business for the next generations. In Vinifera Aeternitas is one part – the biodiversity and taste part – of a higher ambition, which includes many other aspects of permaculture, like reducing our footprint through responsible soil, water and energy use. Hence our family motto: “hand in hand with nature”.
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LUX: What led the Rouzaud family and yourself towards a climate-conscious future?
JBL: The key was probably our meeting with Bill Mollisson, the father of permaculture, in Tasmania in early 1990s. It became obvious to all of us that we had to secure the future by introducing the philosophy of permaculture – working organically with nature not against it, considering craftsmanship and social aspect, biodiversity, low energy use, rotation, the balance of tradition and innovation.
“Perfect quality” black grapes from the vineyards are used for propagation in Louis Roederer’s massal selection
LUX: What is the future of massal selection? Will it ever take over from clonal selection, which ensures uniformity and consistent quality?
JBL: Unlike clonal selection, our massal selection is a permanent quest. Every year we must reselect new individual plants and add some individuals of different origins for propagation. It must be a permanent process if you want to restore biodiversity, as vines adapt and mutate under abiotic factors, such as water and soil.
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LUX: What is the future of massal selection? Will it ever take over from clonal selection, which ensures uniformity and consistent quality?
JBL: Unlike clonal selection, our massal selection is a permanent quest. Every year we must reselect new individual plants and add some individuals of different origins for propagation. It must be a permanent process if you want to restore biodiversity, as vines adapt and mutate under abiotic factors, such as water and soil.
Gutner’s leaf images champion the biodiversity of the Louis Roederer vines
LUX: How many people are involved with massal selection at Louis Roederer?
JBL: All our vineyard team is involved: 50 to 60 people!
LUX: Does massal selection make economic, as well as environmental sense?
JBL: Not in the short term, but we are family owned and take all our decisions for the long term.
Interview by Isabella Fergusson
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