Every now and then customers enter the boutique on Kronberger Strasse in Frankfurt's Westend with an enthusiastic “Are you new here?”.

Owner Jutta Heidt-Hansel could then answer a little flippantly: “Yes, pretty much.

We have only been here for 35 years. ”But the fashion expert is happy about such spontaneous comments:“ They show me that we can still attract attention with our business.

So we're doing something right. "

Christian Riethmüller

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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For the many regular customers, however, the corner store on the ground floor of a building from the early days is a well-known address, as you will find international designer fashion here that is not available in every shopping center and not even in luxury department stores. The dealer is a native of Frankfurt. After graduating from high school, she studied Fashion Management at the LDT Academy in Nagold and then worked for a few years in the fashion trade before opening her own shop in Westend in 1985. In the early 1980s she specialized in avant-garde designers, especially on the Belgian scene.

“At the trade fair in Paris, I noticed the collections of Flemish designers who were on the verge of a breakthrough at the time,” recalls Heidt-Hansel.

In Germany she was one of the first to sell the creations of the later famous designer group “Antwerp Six”.

Some of these designers, including Dries Van Noten, are like Heidt-Hansel born in 1958 - a number that is also the background to the boutique name Fifty Eight.S.

The number does not mean the house number, but stands for a year of birth.

A social change

Specializing in men's fashion for a few years, Heidt-Hansel was able to enlarge the business premises in 1992 and from then on also offer women's fashion. Female and male customers are more or less balanced to this day, although the owner can also see a social change in the way people look at the sexes: “I have some male customers who dress in the women's department,” she says.

But fashion should support the wearer in his own personality and his own style, says the expert, who offers her customers exclusive creations by designers such as Dries Van Noten, Comme des Garçons and Yamamoto, but also selected pieces from labels such as Aspesi, Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester or Felisi can offer.

Shoes, bags, but also perfumes, some jewelry and other accessories complete the range in the inviting shop.

Heidt-Hansel and her employees rely primarily on personal advice, but are also present in the digital world.

The Instagram channel is played with fashion photos every day, virtual consultation appointments with video viewing are also possible.

But the fifty-eighties prefer the question "Are you new here?"

Fifty Eight.S, Frankfurt, Kronberger Str. 19; Monday to Friday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., Saturday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. www.fifty-eights.de