What is today's man wearing?

“A man should always have a good bag with him.

This tells me something about his priorities, ”says Michael Kliger.

Stefanie Diemand

Editor in business.

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Which ones does he wear himself?

Sac de Jour of Saint Laurent.

The bag is priced at more than 2500 euros.

These have a large inside pocket for a tablet computer as well as a ring pocket and outside pocket for a smartphone.

She satisfies his emotional needs.

“And my practical requirements.” However, Kliger first had to get used to such luxury products.

The world of the Pradas and Guccis was completely unknown to him, he says in a video conversation.

“I had to get to know a lot first.” Get to know what the structure of the industry looks like, get to know who the big players in the market are, and get to know what wealthy customers want.

Pretty pragmatic

Kliger, 54 years old, grayish hair of medium length and modern black designer glasses, dark blue suit and light blue shirt, says: Luxury is not functional.

Luxury meets needs.

But he, who sells luxury, looks pretty pragmatic at first glance.

Kliger is the head of Mytheresa, one of the largest platforms for luxury fashion.

Everything that is classy - and correspondingly expensive - is sold on Mytheresa: from sports bra from Balenciaga for just under 300 euros to wedding dresses, for which buyers have to significantly increase the price.

The company history of Mytheresa began in 2006, but this year in particular the retailer made headlines: Kliger brought Mytheresa to the New York stock exchange.

The share went on sale at $ 26, rising a good third to around $ 34.

Not bad at all, Kliger knows too.

From the company location in Aschheim near Munich to the stock exchange in New York?

That suits him well, Mytheresa has long been of interest to more than just German customers.

"Today our customers are more international than ever before," said the company boss during the video conference.

Around 13 percent of Mytheresa customers are already from the USA.

More are to be added in the future.

From used goods portal to luxury retailer

Kliger himself was in America for a short time when he obtained his MBA from the prestigious Kellogg Graduate School of Management in Evanston, Illinois.

But this experience didn't really help him.

After all, he is dealing with a small elite with his customers: managing directors or royal families - as a rule, the only thing consumers have in common is that there is usually a certain cushion in the account.

Later in the conversation, Kliger will say that he had never been a consumer of luxury fashion before joining Mytheresa.

“I had hardly any contact with that.” Initially, his professional background was actually far removed from glitz and glamor: he worked for the McKinsey management consultancy for more than a decade.

There, too, he was considered an expert in retail, but not in luxury department stores or designer fashion. Even today there are studies by him on the internet "on the success of the cheap markets Aldi and Lidl". So it was only logical that Kliger would later join the retailer Real as a manager. “Customers there are dependent on using their budget for the whole family,” he says.