BRAND HISTORY MCM, THE STORY OF MICHAEL CROMER, THE KING OF SUITCASESSTORY - MCM, a brand with a moving history. In 1972, Michael Cromer and his wife Mara opened a hairdressing salon on Kürfürstenstraße in Munich Schwabingen.
Cromer worked as an occasional actor, which gave him good contacts with prominent figures in Munich. As a result, his salon was visited by numerous celebrities.
He designed a logo for the salon shortly after it opened. The logo consisted of the letters "MCM", a laurel wreath and a double bow. MCM originally stood for
"Modern Coiffure Munich", Cromer later changed the name. In 1972 he designed a series of white cosmetic bags for his salon clients, which featured the MCM
logo. During a visit to Rome, he noticed that hotel guests with Louis Vuitton suitcases were given preferential treatment. This inspired Cromer to design
suitcases and bags. In 1975 he developed a prototype in cooperation with a suitcase manufacturer from Upper Bavaria. This consisted of black plasticized
canvas with a white MCM logo. However, this did not correspond to Cromer's ideas. Over time, the black, plasticized linen became a cognac-colored collection
of suitcases, bags, and accessories. His suitcases and bags were made of an imitation pigskin he called Visetos. The logo is dark brown and the corners and
edges have been offset with leather. The clasp was a shiny brass lock.
At first his suitcases and bags could only be bought in the salon. In September 1976, Cromer's first celebrity customer stocked up on MCM bags and suitcases.
With this purchase, MCM entered the international jet set.In order to distinguish himself from the salon, he founded the "Modern Creation Munich Luggage
GmbH". Thanks to his good network in Munich's chic crowd, the demand for Cromer's bags and suitcases rose quickly. He did not shy away from advising his
prominent clients himself. This helped the company to a rapid increase in sales. He saw himself as the German answer to the French fashion house Louis Vuitton.
Cromer was a party king, friend of celebrities and the guy with the crazy cars. He was the German bag king.In April 1998, Cromer was targeted by tax
investigators. An anonymous letter was received by the tax investigators. According to this, Cromer should have embezzled more than 40 million euros in
taxes. Shortly after receiving the letter, he fled to Switzerland. As a result, credit negotiations with his bank failed and Cromer was no longer able to pay
his bills. In 2000 he was sentenced to two years probation for tax evasion and returned to Germany.
His bank sold the trademark rights to a Swiss holding group. Cromer tried to take action against this sale with his private fortune. However, he lost the fight.
He never got over the loss of his life's work. Cromer died in Straßlach, a town south of Munich, in 2007, where he lived in a terraced house with his wife Mara.
MCM has been sold several times in recent years. Most recently, Korean Sung-Joo Kim bought MCM. She relocated the company's location to Zurich and helped
the brand regain its glory.
THE BEGINNING OF A NEW MCM ERA-Things changed at MCM after Sung-Joo Kim took over. She studied the balance sheets and books, made difficult
decisions and closed over 100 branches. Her goal was to rehabilitate the brand and reposition it on the international market.But who exactly is Sung-Joo Kim?
The native Korean definitely didn't have an easy youth. She lost her brother and her fortune at a young age. Sung-Joo Kim was a child from a rich family. Her
father was very successful in South Korean industry. However, after her marriage to her husband, she was disinherited because her parents did not consent.
After studying in London and Harvard, Sung-Joo Kim works for large companies in the luxury industry. She worked for Bloomingdales in New York in the 1980s
and for Gucci in the 1990s, where she acquired the Gucci license for Asia. There they built a high-volume business, which helped her become part of the Italian
strategy team.With the purchase of MCM, she wanted to prove that she could stand on her own two feet. When Sung-Joo Kim acquired the brand in 2005, it
was practically on the verge of. With an ingenious plan, she managed to place MCM back on the international market. Even then she had big goals.Today she
runs MCM from the hotel room or airplane. Sung-Joo Kim travels the world a lot. She sells her bags, suitcases and accessories through all sales channels. MCM
can be bought in over 35 countries worldwide, from over 400 sales partners and in around 130 of our own stores.Sung-Joo Kim set up a foundation where 10%
of her profits are donated to charitable organizations.The bag king at that time, Michael Cromer, became a bag queen. On today's website hardly anything
reminds of Cromer.MCMS DESIGN,Sung-Joo Kim retained Cromer's original design. Since the original target group was too "old", it focused on the younger
ones. Her goal was to appeal to the younger generations. In 2005 she brought the German Michael Michalsky on board as creative director. He stayed until
2013 and is still active in an advisory capacity today. They changed the design and adapted this to the younger generations. The bags and backpacks were
provided with rivets or made in bright colors.From 2013 to 2016, the Swiss Adrian Josef Margelist worked as creative director for MCM. In 2016 he moved
to Liebeskind Berlin. Dirk Schönberger has been creative director at MCM since 2018.MCM repeatedly cooperates with celebrities as guest designers, they
design bags, backpacks or accessories for MCM. The guest designers include the singer will.i.am and the Berlin gallery owner Johann König.
Though Dirk Schönberger has stayed in the background at Adidas, what he has achieved for the German sporting goods maker in recent years has not gone
unnoticed: collaborations with Raf Simons, Rick Owens and Kanye West and the revival of the Stan Smith sneaker can all be attributed to Schönberger.
That is why the designer, born in 1966 in Cologne, has now been appointed global creative officer of the MCM brand, which was founded in Munich. For some
a highly anticipated coup, for others a strange parallel to the appointment of ex-Adidas designer Michael Michalsky in 2005 to the now Seoul-based label.
MCM was founded in 1976 by Michael Cromer in Munich, hence the name. The company stood for expensive leather suitcases and handbags and thus was vital
in influencing the image of Munich’s in-crowd in the ‘80s. In 1995, the company ran into financial difficulties; in 1997, it was restructured and shops and
trademarks were sold. In 2005, South Korean entrepreneur Sung-Joo Kim secured worldwide rights to the MCM brand. She hired Michael Michalsky as
creative director and he remained in that position until 2013. He was followed by Adrian Josef Margelist who moved to the bag brand Liebeskind Berlin in
early 2016. Now, Dirk Schönberger is expected to build on the success of his predecessors, for which the new global creative officer is even getting a design
studio in Berlin.Viral collaborationsLike Michalsky, the designer excelled at Adidas with collaborations. In an interview with The Fader , he said, "When I first
came to Adidas, my first thought was to focus on the Adidas brand, not cooperations. I had known Raf [Simons] for a long time and we were talking about
Adidas and how much he liked the Stan Smith [sneaker]. That’s when I thought, well, maybe it would be interesting to bring people back to the brand with
collaborations and to let them work on their visions. I think of our collaborations as a virus that has infiltrated our company and is turning it into something
else." This approach has been a great success for Schönberger and the Adidas brand. Since his appointment in 2010, the Adidas share price has risen from
about 40 euros to about 200 euros. Even if this is by no means attributable to him alone, it is safe to say that he probably has done everything right in his
position.Unlike Michael Michalsky, however, Dirk Schönberger prefers to remain behind the scenes. In 2016, he answered DandyDiary’s question, why he was
not communicating his own person more aggressively, such as at Chanel or Dior: "The answer is probably very simple: we are not a fashion brand but a sports
brand. We cannot do that much with this personalisation as it happens at big fashion brands. adidas [sic] is a brand with many designers and categories and
different orientations, from Originals and Neo to Y-3. It's hard to say that there is one outstanding person. It is a team, rather. That's what sets us apart
from fashion brands."
12
Sign up for newsletter