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The Big Five Inspire Boss X Meissen Capsule Collection

Two internationally recognized German brands BOSS and Meissen have come together for the first time, with a ground-breaking collaboration united by the two brands’ shared passions for quality, design and creativity - inspired by Meissen’s celebrated Big Five figurines,

 

The Big Five collection, designed by sculptor Maximilian Hagstotz, features the African lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo, each decorated with a monochrome pattern placed to emphasize the animal’s characteristic traits.

 

These majestic creatures, depicted in an angular style inspired by traditional African wooden sculptures, are the starting point for a unique capsule collection of BOSS Menswear and Womenswear.  The fashion capsule collection includes both casual and formal pieces for men and women, all in a monochrome palette of black and white.

 

In recognition of the collaboration theme, HUGO BOSS will make a donation to the charity Elephants for Africa, which works with local and national stakeholders in Botswana to provide education and community outreach focused on conserving this iconic species.

 

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Hugo boss Meissen details:

 

Boss x Meissen: grail porcelain is now officially a thing

The latest collaboration from two of Germany’s most important marques, Hugo Boss and Meissen, is an unlikely marriage of fashion and chinaware

The obscure and cosseted world of fine porcelain now has a new champion in Hugo Boss. In what must rank as one of the more peculiar, but also brilliant, brand collaborations of recent times, Hugo Boss has produced a 42-piece fashion collection featuring five exclusive porcelain mugs, in partnership with the revered manufacturer Meissen.

 

Based 15 miles northwest of the German city of Dresden, Meissen was founded in 1710 by King Augustus the Strong, who originally summoned the young alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger to magic up gold from base metals. After several botched attempts, Böttger came up with something that proved to be just as precious: white porcelain, which was subsequently dubbed “white gold”. And thus, the European fine porcelain industry was born and the near total dominance of the craft was wrested away from China.

Since then, Meissen sculptures, dining services and objects d’art have graced the tables and palaces of royal families throughout the world. Known for its graceful lines, intricate detailing and a particular luminosity of colour, which makes it seem to glow with life, Meissen porcelain is collected avidly and can reach serious money at auction. The “Half-Figure” tea set, which was missing its teapot no less, was auctioned by Bonhams in 2012 for £541,250. Most recently, the state-owned company made fashion headlines via a one-off collaboration with Supreme. The figurine of Cupid wearing one of the brand’s T-shirts has an average sale price on Stock X of about £6,000.

 

Hugo Boss’ partnership represents two great German icons coming together. The collection features porcelain figurines of five African animals: elephant, buffalo, leopard, lion and rhino – designed by Meissen’s in-house protégé and young sculptor, Maximilian Hagstotz, who was encouraged to join the company by his mother at the age of 16.

Hagstotz also created an incredibly intricate monochromatic design, inspired by traditional African motifs, with which to adorn the figurines. Hugo Boss then applied this pattern to a range of specially designed leather accessories, shoes, clothes and five porcelain mugs, all made entirely in Germany.

 

“I wanted to do something different from what we normally do,” says Ingo Wilts, chief brand officer of Hugo Boss. “For us, collaborations are a chance to have fun. Our two companies have a lot in common. We are both big houses, very traditional German companies and we both produce our products in Germany.”

 

Just as important is the fact that both companies also believe passionately in doing things innovatively. “What I like about the Meissen collaboration is the modern graphic that Maximilian created. Also, the way they applied it to the figurines is very unusual,” says Wilts. “This is in line with how we work. We produce very modern suits but in a traditional way. This is where both companies follow the same direction.”

Now known for minimalism and efficient engineering, the country also has a rich heritage of baroque and rococo arts and crafts, which is ornate, whimsical and at times quite bonkers. Meissen and the city of Dresden, with King Augustus’ fabulous palace, epitomises this sometimes-overlooked side of the national identity.

 

“People are surprised, but we are going big with this collaboration,” says Wilts. “The animals will be in our store windows globally and in our ad campaigns and look book. We want this idea of ‘Made in Germany’ to spread around the world.”

 

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BOSS And Meissen Join Forces For A

Collaboration Of Old-World Craft And

Modern Abstraction

 

Sometimes, the best ideas come with a glass of champagne—this certainly holds true for the upcoming holiday season’s most surprising pairing, a collaboration between BOSS, a global fashion player known for sleek business wear, and Meissen, Europe’s oldest porcelain manufacturer.

 

“We had three glasses of champagne at the Christmas party of German Vogue two years ago, and after the fourth, Ingo [Wilts of Hugo Boss] said: Let’s do something together,” recounts Otto Drögsler, who, along with his partner Jörg Ehrlich, was named creative director of Meissen in 2017.

 

While collaborations have become a norm in the fashion industry, this one stands out. “As a German heritage company, we want to emphasize where we come from, and so it was a natural impulse to bring two German houses with a lot of common values together: we both have a strong history, and we both share a deep appreciation for quality, handicraft and elaborate aesthetics,” says Wilts, chief brand officer of Hugo Boss.

Yet, at first sight, the two companies’ aesthetics and crafts couldn’t be further apart. Hugo Boss is an international corporation with a global business network from the fast-paced fashion industry. Meissen, on the other hand, is a traditional manufacturer where every single piece is sourced and handmade within close proximity of its namesake hometown.

 

The manufacturer’s history dates back to the baroque era, when the European courts’ taste for rare porcelain from China sparked a continental quest to discover the secret to the “White Gold”. After almost two centuries of failed experimentation, it was the German alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger who invented European porcelain.

 

Upon his discovery, the company Meissen was founded in 1710 by the decree of Augustus II the Strong, Elector Prince of Saxony and King of Poland, and first housed at the historical Albrechtsburg castle in the namesake town of Meißen, just twenty kilometres from Augustus’ seat in Dresden and in close proximity to the kaolin mine that fed the production.

 

As the European pioneer of porcelain, Meissen not only imitated Chinese imports, but actually created the first fine tableware in Europe, along with intricate miniature figures and opulent sculptures. Amongst the most famous designs are the tableware sets ‘Swan Service’ and the original, much copied ‘Blue Onion’. In response to the many copycats, in 1722 Meissen introduced one of the oldest trademarks in brand history; the crossed swords logo that is still hand-painted onto every piece of their porcelain to this day.

 

A journey to the birthplace of the first European China reveals that little has changed since Böttger’s days: Still the perfect setting for a historical movie and just a stone’s throw from its original site, Meissen’s present-day premises offer a rare look into old-world artisanship when all things precious travel through caring hands.

 

Two workmen source kaolin, the base for the fine white porcelain, from the original mine; which is one of the smallest in Germany, and has been in use since the 18th century. The clay is processed under the watchful eyes of skilled technicians at the factory, and just a few halls away, it is cast and fired, glazed and hand-painted by specialist artisans with historically preserved techniques.

 

The adjacent museum and archives filled with ceiling-high stacks of porcelain moulds and historic sketches chronicle over 300 years of the factory’s history. Over time, these artefacts are testament to how Europeans imagined plants and animals from far-away lands at a time when realistic depictions of such things were unavailable.

 

“The traditional techniques largely remain the same, everyone has their specialties, and we work very closely with each other to design and realize new pieces. But over time, the aesthetics have changed,” says Maximilian Hagstotz, a sculptor, who like the majority of the artisans working for Meissen, was trained in-house.

“I wanted to do something honest and entered the factory as an apprentice when I was 16 years old and went on to the porcelain painting master class where I was educated in subjects like anatomy, painting and historical studies.” he recounts.

 

A specialist in painting animals, Hagstotz designed the black-and-white graphic images of the ‘Big Five’ animals that are at the heart of the Boss and Meissen collaboration. The holiday capsule collection features men’s and women’s wear and accessories adorned with elephants, lions, leopards, rhinoceros and buffalo, as well as hand-painted Meissen porcelain cups and figures of the animals.

 

“Thinking of the ‘Big Five’, I tried to find a dialogue between traditional African handicraft and porcelain and merge it into something new. I looked at ancient sculptures, woodcarving and traditional wax print fabrics from the animals’ countries of origin and departed from there,” explains Hagstotz.

 

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“Meissen has always looked beyond, and while our roots lay in the baroque and figurative, the design for the collaboration with Hugo Boss is more abstract” explains Drögsler, the creative director. A fashion designer and the founder of niche brand Odeeh with his partner Ehrlich, the duo has brought a wind of change into the manufacturer with a diverse approach to the creative process, while maintaining the traditional handicraft.

 

“Coming from very different angles with our heritage lying in the classic suit, we quite like the surprise effect. It’s important to broaden our perspectives and open fashion up to other things with a good partner. This work with Meissen was the easiest I’ve experienced; everything just went into the right direction from the beginning” explained Hugo Boss’ Ingo Wilts.

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Fashion brand BOSS backs elephant charity

November marks the start of a partnership between Hugo Boss fashion brand BOSS and an African elephant conservation charity – Elephants for Africa – for the BOSS Holiday campaign.

 

The brand has chosen to support the charity to raise awareness of the challenges that African wildlife face and showcase the beauty of the ‘African Big Five’; elephant, rhino, buffalo, lion and leopard, through a unique new clothing collection.

 

Back in 2007, Dr Kate Evans, Honorary Research Fellow at University of Exeter and member of the Elephant Specialist Advisory Group, set up this small charity that’s achieving big things.

 

Kate is an award-winning behavioural ecologist and conservation biologist who conducted her PhD ‘The behavioural ecology and movements of adolescent male African elephants in the Okavango Delta, Botswana’ through the University of Bristol.

 

Her career has been guided by a heartfelt promise she made at just seven years old.

 

She told an elephant that was in human care after losing its herd due to humans that she would do something to readdress the balance.

 

Kate was deeply moved that this elephant would not have the opportunity to live in the wild with its family.

 

Thirty-seven years later, she remains committed to her promise.

 

As an NGO that is committed to conserving the endangered African savannah elephants through research, education and raising awareness, Elephants for Africa is a perfect fit for this campaign.

 

Based at their research camp near The Makgadikgadi Pans National Park, Botswana, the charity’s small team of local and international experts are extremely pleased to have the support of BOSS, an organisation that understands and recognises its responsibility towards society, humankind and wildlife, and is committed to supporting worldwide access to education.

 

It is this commitment that has lead BOSS to make a donation, as part of this partnership, to one area of Elephants for Africa’s conservation work; it’s school’s education programme.

 

These funds will enable Elephants for Africa to continue, and expand, its education projects to share knowledge with local schools, create the environmental stewards of the future, and give the students opportunities to see their wildlife in their national parks as well as meet local role models working in the wildlife/tourism sector; to help them live alongside elephants safely and realise the benefits of wildlife to their ecosystems and economy thus, ultimately becoming the guardians of their elephants and other wildlife.

 

Kate said: “It’s incredibly exciting to see a leading global fashion brand like BOSS turning its attention to support African elephant conservation.

 

“Our involvement in the campaign will help to bring conservation needs into focus for an international audience.

 

“As a small charity, we are continuously working hard to raise funds to keep our projects going, so we are exceptionally grateful for this donation from BOSS.

 

“We will be able to run our existing education programme partnering with three primary schools further, and expand it by taking our tried and tested methodologies to Motopi Secondary School, into which the primary schools we currently work with feed into.

 

“This means we can help significantly more children to remain safe when sharing land with wild animals, provide career advice from local role models about working in the environmental sector and give them the skills required to become the environmental stewards and problem solvers of their communities.

 

“Our sincere thanks goes to BOSS for providing us with funds that will make a real difference to people's live.”