If the start-up world had fairy tales, Jennifer (Jenny) Fleiss and Jennifer (Jenn) Hyman would be the main characters. Once upon a time, the Harvard Business School classmates—Fleiss from the finance world and Hyman from sales and marketing—met casually for lunch every week to brainstorm entrepreneurial ventures.
Rent The Runway co-founders Jennifer (Jenny) Fleiss and Jennifer (Jenn) Hyman
The idea that stuck came over Thanksgiving break, when Hyman’s sister, Becky, wanted something gorgeous to wear to an upcoming wedding, but didn’t want to drop an obscene amount of money on a dress she’d only wear once. From that moment on, Fleiss and Hyman had their concept: Rent the Runway, a “Netflix for dresses” that allowed women to rent designer gowns for a fraction of the retail price.
Now, just over three years later, Fleiss and Hyman oversee the rapidly growing, 125-person, multi-million dollar enterprise with a cultish following of customers who get their own Cinderella experience—a new, gorgeous dress for every special occasion.
We got to chat with the incredible duo to hear more about how they turned an “I have nothing to wear” dilemma into an opportunity that looks like it’s headed for happily ever after. Read on for the story of how they got started, and the advice they’d give to every aspiring entrepreneur.
Why was Rent the Runway the right idea—and what made you move forward with it?
Jennifer Hyman, Rent the Runway Co-Founder and CEO
JH: Actually, I never said, “oh this is a brilliant idea, this is going to be a billion dollar company, we have to do this.” My reaction was: I had an idea, I thought it was interesting, Jenny thought it was interesting, we thought it was fun, and we thought, let’s figure out if this is a great idea.
JF: When Jenn came to me with this idea, we decided to do it as a course credit. But we also decided to spend the rest of the year figuring out if this was something we could do full time, instead of getting a job. We gave ourselves a fixed deadline—by the time we graduated, we’d see if this would actually work. And if it didn’t, we had other jobs that we were going to accept.
You didn’t write a business plan—you just got started! Why?
Jennifer Fleiss, Rent the Runway Co-Founder and President
JH: I think people waste so much time strategizing about what they should do, rather than just going and doing something, making mistakes, and then pivoting. The goal of a start-up should be: Launch as many things as possible, fail as quickly as possible, and then figure out how to move forward from there.
JF: We started by purchasing dresses at retail in our own sizes—we figured if the concept didn’t work, at least we’d have a great wardrobe! We just went to different undergraduate campus and started renting dresses to women.
We went to Harvard on a weekend we knew they had an event. Then we went to Yale, and we rented the dresses, but didn’t let women try them on. For the third trial, we sent a PDF out to students that said “call us if you want to rent this dress.” So, each time we were iterating a little bit closer to what our actual concept was—an internet dress rental site—to prove that it was really going to work.
Obviously, it did work! After you saw that the customers loved it, what was the reaction you got from designers and investors?
JH: The designers were initially skeptical—this is something that’s never been done before. But honestly, I appreciated their skepticism, because it made us dig deeper and figure out what we really wanted our brand to be, and who we wanted to market to and target.
JF: It was tough to prove to the investors that this concept was really going to work. It’s really hard for the 60-year-old men we were pitching to understand the emotional connection that women have with fashion. So we would take them to the trials, or we would take videos, and we would show them the experience that women were having—and that was huge.
JH: They loved our approach of just learning by doing, and running different experiments and seeing what traction we got—could we send something through the mail? Would a girl ruin a dress if she wore it to a party? I think we were able to eliminate investor skepticism by actually going out and doing stuff.
Here's the Rent The Runway website homepage:
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The following video provides an excellent review of Rent A Runway's website, the services the company provides, designer brands, styles, sizes, colors, etc.
What’s been your biggest challenge along the way?
JF: One is technology—Jenn and I came to Rent the Runway with no technology background. The other is around the fashion industry. We started a fashion technology company with no fashion or technology experience!
What’s been most surprising about the experience of growing your company to what it is today?
JH: That we’ve been able to do it! We were two women without any experience in leading companies. I had led teams before, but nothing like this. I don’t even think I dreamed as big for myself as this company already is, in just the first few years. It’s surprising when you don’t put blockades in front of yourself, and you just allow yourself to run, how far you can go.
JF: Literally every day I walk in the office, and it’s amazing to see all of these people working towards the same mission and goal!
Also, the reception that consumers have had from the product. We get photos, and hand-written thank-you notes, and gifts sent to the office from people who say “thank you, you’ve changed my life!” People feel like they’re getting this awesome Cinderella experience. In a small way, we feel like we’re changing people’s lives in a great and really fun way.
What advice do you have for entrepreneurs who’d like to follow in your footsteps?
JF: I’d say—go for it! But I mean that in a couple of ways. One, do it—there are not as many risks as you feel like there are. People think it’s this scary thing that’s going to make or break your career, and it’s not. If it doesn’t work out, you’ll get another job, and you’ll definitely learn more than you ever would otherwise.
But also, go for it in the sense that you need to test the concept out, and you need to be brutally honest with yourself if it’s not working. Going for it means don’t just sit there with your ideas—figure out a way to see if it’s going to work.
JH: Number one is to figure out how you are going to assess whether you have a good idea or not. So, go do something, learn from it, and be able to have an unbiased view as to whether your idea works.
Also, be very aware of what your strengths and weaknesses are, not just what your skills are. How successful you’re going to be as an entrepreneur is really a story of how compelling a leader you are.
Finally—you know we had to ask. What’s your favorite Rent the Runway dress you’ve ever worn?
JF: You know, it’s not only the dress—it’s also the memory associated with the dress. I actually wore a really great Catherine Malandrino dress when I was about eight months pregnant, and it looked awesome! It’s not a maternity dress, but it just happened to work and fit and fall really well. So that’s a great example of something I needed to wear for one day, but wouldn’t necessarily want to buy.
JH: That is a ridiculously hard question! I think my favorite dress is this incredibly sophisticated Nina Ricci sheath that I wore to the most important presentation I’ve ever delivered in my life. I felt more confident wearing that dress than I’ve ever felt before, and I think that I nailed the presentation because of it—I give 100% credit to the dress!
COMMENTARY: Rent the Runway’s slogan might as well be: Friends don’t let friends wear H&M to the most important events in their lives. The company solves the perennial “closet full of clothes and yet nothing to wear” problem that most women face, by allowing them to rent designer clothes for a big event for about 10% of the price.
It’s clearly a problem women have. The question– like most rental businesses like Zipcar– is how many women want to rent clothes as the solution.
So far, there’s at least one million active users, spanning a wide demographic of women, from 15 years old to 45, says Jennifer Hyman, Rent the Runway CEO and cofounder. She says.
“That was a surprise. Initially we thought it would be only young women in their 20s.”
There’s a lot of heavy lifting behind the scenes in this business. A warehouse in New York dry cleans, repairs and re-rents thousands of designer pieces. An algorithm helps women pick age-appropriate, body-appropriate pieces. A social layer allows them get advice from a small circle of trusted friends and family.
The company had raised $16 million to date from Highland Capital and Bain Capital, bringing the total amount raised so far to more than $30 million. And, surprisingly given the costs to a business like this, the company was profitable before this round.
Hyman says the money will be used to build out its underlying technology, physical distribution hubs all over the country, a sophisticated inventory management system and the micro-social network aspect of the site. Kleiner’s Aileen Lee will join the board.
I like Rent The Runway's business concept very much, but my main concern as a renter would be renting something via the internet and making sure that the garment fits properly when I receive it. When you are renting or purchasing apparel online and on short notice, the worst thing that could happen is to receive the garment, but it doesn't fit well.
I do like that Rent The Runway is getting on the "celebrity bandwagon," by renting some of the designer dresses worn by celebrities at various events like the Academy Awards, Golden Globes, and so forth. When you are renting designer dresses to a market consisting predominantly of Millennials (18-34 year olds), connecting a particular designer dress with a celebrity is very important.
I reviewed Rent The Runway's pages on both Twitter and Facebook, and its my opinion that they need to do more in the social media area. Rent The Runway only has 25,730 followers, but only follows back 419. What the hell is that? They should be using Twitter more smartly by following back everybody, and using Twitter to get immediate feedback on events where designer dresses are worn. This could tip them off to which designers and dresses are "hot." They are doing a bit better job on Facebook where they have 88,000 fans, but if they should have ten times more fans and followers on both Facebook and Twitter.
Rent The Runway should seriously consider developing their own iPhone and Android app. Most Millennials are highly mobile and use their smartphones and tablets to log into their social networks and surf the Internet. An app will allow Rent The Runway to "glue" right into every fan or follower, and they could provide them with real-time posts of events, new designers, new dresses, promotions, polls, and so forth. App users should also be able to rent a garment right through the app, no matter where they are, 24/7, 365 days a year.
Rent The Runway claims to be profitable, but there is always the danger of copycats, especially from the designers themselves or major garmet makers eager to capitalize on a growing trend and new market opportunity. I can easily see this happening.
Courtesy of an article dated February 29, 2012 appearing in The Daily Museand an article dated May 23, 2011 appearing in TechCrunch
The rich are getting richer at a pace that leaves everyone behind. And in the long run, that threatens our democracy.
You might not know it, with all the progress we've made as a society in the past 100 years (our first black president, for instance), but America is still an incredibly unequal place. The gaps between classes, sexes, and races are--in many ways--actually getting worse, and the gap between the rich and the poor is larger than at any time in the last 75 years.
This graphic illustrates just a few of the quantifiable ways that our society manifests these various inequalities.
Taken from information provided by The Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality, the graphic--by Kristy Tillman for Objects in Repeat--explains 15 different facts about American inequality that might tweak your worldview a little. For instance, did you know that the average CEO's pay is 1,039 times more generous than that of the average worker?
And it's not as if we've always lived that way. Forty years ago, CEOs were only being paid 39 times that of the average worker. Some companies these days are tying CEO pay to the pay of the least compensated employee at the same company. Clearly not that many.
Or look at the results of a study done in Chicago and Boston in 2001 and 2002: Job applicants with "black" sounding names were far less likely to be called in for job interviews (this was back when there were jobs to interview for):
Looking for a job? Consider changing your name to Kristen or Carrie on your resume. That wouldn't help your insurance situation, though. Children of minorities are far more likely to live without health insurance:
What else? Women also make less than men (though this is improving!) and jobs with higher pay have a smaller percentage of women working at them. Minorities are far more likely to drop out of school, and immigrants are far less likely to receive an education. And though GDP has risen, wages have remained stagnant (except for those CEOs), which has contributed to the top 10% of the wealthiest Americans controlling nearly three-quarters of all the money in America.
Taken individually, there are potential statistical and cultural reasons to explain away each of these stats. Arranged in this order, it's hard not to realize we need to do better to give everyone a little bit more of an even playing field.
COMMENTARY: Nothing about this infographic shocks me. Not everyone is meant to be rich. Capitalism does not work for everybody. When you become rich, for some reason people forget where they came from. The attitude seems to be, "I got mine, so go get yours." That's the problem with trickle down economics. There is really no trickle down.
CEO's that did a shitty job, still draw huge bonuses. It is a rare case where this is not true. Even those banks that were bailed out by the Federal government, paid themselves fat bonsuses. They are the ones that got us into this fine economic mess.
Where are the jobs for minorities and older Americans. Race has a lot to do with it. If you are a minority, namely black or hispanic, you already have two strikes against you. If you are over 50 years of age, nobody wants to hire you. If you are out of work, many employer's won't even interview view. What's with that shit? Even employment ads say, "only employed need apply". There is no such thing as racial equality. I looked at the unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they are frightening.
What I have never been able to figure out is why all developed countries, and even many developing nations, that universal healthcare for their people, yet the U.S. believes that this is a bad thing. It's not a right. I don't want to dwelve too deeply into politics, but is it possible that some individuals, don't care if you die due to lack of healthcare? I am really disturbed by this. It goes beyond cruelty.
I actually looked into America's healthcare system in a previous blog post titled, "An Unabashed Look At The U.S. Health Care System, 'The Greatest Health Care System In The World', Damn Gummit". It gets worst, did you know how much the pharmaceutical industry paid politician's to protect their interests through their Washington, D.C. lobbyists? I didn't think you did. Check this. Do you know what the top health care industry CEO's in America make? You will be shocked when you read this.
In the U.S. we have our priorities backwards. We spend more on national defense than we spend on educating our children, feeding the poor and aged and providing decent healthcare for all American's. Every state is attacking their public school systems. Teachers are being laidoff in mass. How can America maintain its competitive edge if our kids are not adequately educated? My country is fighting three wars, if you count Libya. 175,000 troops are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Our military seem to be everywhere, and yet, most of those countries don't want us there. How many countries have 15 super carrier's? Stealth bombers and fighter jets? Intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear warheads? Who are we kidding. Nobody wants to really fight us, or they would've by now.
The 400 richest famlies in America now control 50% of the net worth of America. 3% of the wealthiest Americans control 90% of the wealth in America.
The New World Order, Ruling Class or Illuminati, as it is commonly referred IS real. They go back to the Middle Ages. They have been associated with the occult even belief in Lucifer or The Devil. They are at the top of the food chain and control EVERYTHING. Everybody thinks that the Big Corporations, Politicians and Military Industrial Complex are the rulers, but they are just merely the tools to concentrate power at the top.
The Politicians are controlled by the Illuminati through their financial support, favors and even bribery. Washington lobby groups dominate Washington, D.C. The Big Corporations, through their global business activities provide the capital to acquire and control the vast majority of global worth. The Top 137 corporations control 40% of the world's wealth.
The Politicians and The Big Corporations both report to the Military Industrial Complex which is where the "muscle" of the Illuminati resides. The Illuminati are the equivalent of the Boss of Bosses or top Don of a Sicilian family. The Military Industrial Complex are equivalent to the Bosses of La Familia or Mafia. The various branches of the military are the Under Bosses, and then there are the soldiers.
The Military Industrial Complex consists of the U.S. military and heads of the CIA, NSA and FBI and "The Greys." YES, extra-terrestrials are involved indirectly, and they take great pleasure in watching over everything. They are the ultimate beneficiaries. They have unlimited power, and their technology is millions of years ahead of us, and they could destroy the Earth if they wanted, but they need us, so they don't care if there is a power struggle for supremacy among us humans.
Image of a Grey Alien, circa 1955
The Greys are a dying species of extra-terrestrials who travelled to Earth and colonized it thousands of years ago, and through genetic experimentations of human DNA developed Modern Man. Trust me, it was not Divine intervention like it says in the Holy Bible.
In the 1950's, The Greys entered into a secret pact with the Eisenhower administration. According to that Pact, the U.S. government would provide The Greys with access to a certain number of humans so they could conduct DNA experiments to replicate their species by combining both Grey and Human DNA. In exchange, The Greys were to provide us with certain advanced technologies.
A few unscrupulous Illuminati individuals within the U.S. government saw an opportunity to exploit the alien technology to consolidate power, wealth and control over the masses on Earth. The Greys really don't care. We are their form of entertainment. In fact, they love harvesting our souls. They get off in capturing the soul as it leaves the human body upon death, and use it like an aphrodisiac. In effect, they get off on US.
The Big Corporations controls the Corporate Media and Global Banking. It is the job of the Corporate Media to spread disinformation and propaganda that has divided the masses. I am sure that you will agree that this has worked perfectly.
Global Banking provides the financial resources so that the Big Corporations can successfully carry out their evil commercial activities throughout the world and create more wealth for the Illuminati.
The Politicans control the Government and Courts. The Government creates the laws and regulations to control the masses. The Courts are the enforcers for the politicians. They punish the masses if they don't stay in line.
Below is a simplified organizational chart showing the Ruling Class or Illuminati at the top with the other organizations and entities just described below them:
The Illuminati has the following pecking order or power rank which is illustrated in the graphic below:
British Monarchy a.k.a." The Royals" which is headed by Her Highness Queen Elizabeth II.
Israel who control most of the banking industry and Wall Street.
Welf Relations.
The Freemasonry a.k.a. The Masons.
Catholic Church.
The Illuminati or Ruling Class
I know some "British Subjects" are going to scream blasphemy for mentioning Queen Elizabeth at the head of the Illuminati, but the decision was an obvious one. The Illuminati needed natural succession at the top, and The Royals fit that description perfectly. They are of royal blood, respected worldwide and there is logical order of succession. Next in line in order of succession is Prince Charles. Even President Barack Obama and the First Lady bow to Queen Elizabeth.
Israel is next in line in the Illuminati pecking order. They are the business leaders, power brokers and bankers of the world. They also control the media (from newspapers to the Internet). Facebook is a front for the CIA, FBI and NSA. I warned you about this in a previous blog post. Do you notice that every American presidential candidate goes before the prominent Jewish Organizations like the National Jewish Democratic Council to make sure the next president will support Israel? That's not a coincidence.
Next is the Welf Relations which stems from the House of Welf. The House of Welf (historically rendered in English, Guelf or Guelph) is a European dynasty that has included many German and British monarchs from the 11th to 20th century. The original House of Welf Family Tree is below:
In its modern context, Welf Relations now includes the hundreds of descendants of the House of Welf who live today. They consider their membership in the Illuminati a blood right.
The Freemasonry are next in the pecking order. Freemasonry is a fraternal organization that arose from obscure origins in the late 16th to early 17th century. You can recognize a Freemason by the symbol of a square and compass and letter "G" in the middle. Some say the "G" stands for God or Guild. Some say its the symbol for the human penis.
Freemasonry now exists in various forms all over the world, with a membership estimated at around six million. Very few Freemasons are in the Illuminati, but the top guys probably are. The fraternity is administratively organized into independent Grand Lodges, each of which governs its own jurisdiction. There are over a quarter of a million under the jurisdiction of the United Grand Lodge of England and just under two million in the United States.
The heads of the Roman Catholic Church is the last in the pecking order of the Illuminati. This includes Pope Benedict XVI and the College of Cardinals. The Cardinals are princes of the Church appointed by the Pope, who are ordained senior bishops. As a whole, the College of Cardinals advises the Pope, and those cardinals under the age of 80 at the death of a Pope elect his successor. There are now a total of 193 Cardinals, of whom 112 are aged under 80. Of the voting-age cardinals, 64 were appointed by Pope John Paul II, and 28 by Pope Benedict XVI.
BTW, the Roman Catholic Church, was duped by The Greys. Jesus was never born of a Virgin Mary and he never rose from the dead. He was "invented" by those evil Greys, and the rest is history. The Roman Catholic Church provides the people something the Illuminati cannot or won't: HOPE. It's perfect, the Greys get a great kick out of it. But, the Church is now worried that they maybe exposed and be out of the religion business. I mentioned this to you in a previous blog post when The scientists from Vatican met with the scientists from NASA and 20 or so top-level scientists because they want to know if ET is for real. Ha, ha, ha. I got a kick out of that one. Naturally, they've been given assurances that ET does not exist.
The Royals and The Committee of 300 make the important decisions for the Illuminati. They represent the wealthiest, most powerful and influential individuals in the World, not necessarily the most well known or even wealthy. None of them would ever admit they are a member of The Committee of 300 or Illuminati. The Committe of 300 include a Who's Who of Americans, British and Europeans. Famous Americans who are members of The Comittee of 300 include Senator John Kerry, Senator Joe Lieberman, former Senator and Democratic Presidential Candidate Al Gore (consolation prize for losing the Presidency to that idiot son George W Bush), investor Warren Buffet, former President Bill Clinton, Former President George H.W. Bush, Microsoft executives Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer, The Rockefeller's, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner and others. Political affiliations do not matter within the Illuminati. Everybody is pals, some of them even swop their wives to seal a deal, then they laugh and do high-fives afterwards.
The ultimate goal of the Illuminati is to own everything, and judging from the concentration of wealth among developed nations throughout the world, it's working. Eventually they will have total control of the working class. Their ultimate plan is to keep the poor as poor as possible, eliminate the middle class, and increase their numbers at the top so they own quite literally everything.
I know what you are thinking: The Illuminati does not exist and this is all bullshit. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I may even be a member of the Illuminati, and you would never know it, because I would never admit it.
In its Duramen series, Bonsoir Paris puts a surreal twist on a traditional form of displaying art.
A frame, whether literal or metaphorical, bounds something in and gives it structure. But what if the frame is loosey-goosey, hanging on the wall like goopy molasses? Doesn’t that subvert the whole idea of the thing? Yes, and that’s exactly the idea behind Bonsoir Paris’s Duramen (“Heartwood”) series, a set of hand-carved wooden “frames” (no CNC-milling here) that appear to be in the process of melting into puddles on the floor.
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The French multimedia agency, headed by Remy Clémente and Morgan Maccari, worked with a sculptor (Adrien Coroller), cabinetmakers (Kwantiq), and a fellow designer (Jules Cairon) to create frames that, in their words, have been “so strongly mistreated they have become unrecognizable.” The duo experimented with various kinds of wood, including oak, fir, wenge, pear, and linden, ascribing a different character to every species. “Each one of them has its own way to melt,” Maccari tells Co.Design. He elaborates on the process:
The sketches have been done a first time to explain our intentions; in a second time, the drawings were reworked according to the sculptor’s advice and remarks. For example, some technical specifications about the different woods helped us to know what type of shapes we could get, which finish we could have. So the woodworkers and us were on the same wavelength.
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The sculptures are mind-bending displays that blend craftsmanship with a surreal sensibility, and, in the words of Clémente and Maccari, they walk the “razor’s edge [of] two opposites, that of the deformed and that of the elegant, instinctive and thoughtful.”
COMMENTARY: Hmmm, just love chocolate.
Courtesy of an article dated December 21, 2011 appearing in Fast Company Design
Background: Created by Danish design studio UiWE, the Pollee portable urinal for women is a star-shaped toilet system that looks a bit like a giant toy pinwheel and accommodates four girls at a time. Instead of the classic urinal, which is designed to be stood in front of, Pollee urinals are long and thin so that they can be easily straddled. Girls just do a semi-squat and go.
Why It's Unique: Pollee urinals don't takeup much room and are very easy to setup almost anywhere they are needed. Girls can’t pee standing up, and the Pollee provides a great option to a regular toilet seat. Finally, a portable urinal that is not debasing to women.
Vertebrae Vertical Bathroom
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Location: Various
Background: Occupying a mere 4.3 square feet, this "Swiss Army Knife Bathroom" takes space conservation to a whole new level, packing a toilet, sink, cistern, two storage units and two shower heads into one compact system.
Why It's Unique: Named for its resemblance to the spinal cord, the bathroom's modules all connect to a central axis. Everything feeds from the top of the structure, which attaches to the ceiling. Users have the option of directing the waste pipes downward through a hole in the floor, or into the wall through a hole at the back of the toilet. To enable shower drainage, the Vertebrae must be installed in a sealed wet room with adequate slope to the floor, according to the brochure. "Real estate is priceless in the bathroom," says Judith Balis, an interior designer with experience constructing restrooms.
Space Bathroom
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Location: International Space Station
Background: With no gravity to ensure that water stays in the toilet bowl or to force waste down, NASA was forced to build pumps and harness airflow to create an effective and hygienic bathroom for astronauts.
Why It's Unique: Because the entire system relies on air, creating a tight seal between the user and the toilet bowl is essential. Foot straps and pivoting bars anchor the astronauts to the ground, and an intricate network of tubes, pipes and ducts handles the waste. Far removed from water treatment plants, the ISS must treat waste on its own and actually converts a large percentage into potable water. A hose-suction option is also available in lieu of the main toilet bowl.
Bulletproof Bathroom
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Location: Beijing, China
Background: The 15-ton, $100,000 public bathroom in Zhong GuanVillage Plaza may be the safest in the world.
Why It's Unique: Immune even to TNT explosives detonated from within, this bunker of a bathroom is part of a string of anti-terrorism products debuted in China after 9/11. For the Chinese, the bathroom isn't much of a draw. Originally, usage instructions posted outside were in only English and French, but even after adding a Chinese translation in 2006, the toilet remains unpopular.
Background: Here to rescue Mother Nature from full bladders everywhere is AANDEBOOM, a Dutch design studio that has invented either the world’s cleverest or the world’s grossest makeshift restroom. P-Tree is a rotation molded recycled plastic receptacle that straps onto a tree trunk, transforming your resident oak into the backdrop for a public (very public) urinal.
Why It's Unique: P-Tree urinals can be installed virtually anywhere there is a tree. The P-Tree costs very little, and can be installed in a jiffy, anywhere you need them. They are great for public parks and recreational facilities, outdoor festivals, almost anywhere you can imagine.
Aquarium Bathroom
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Location: Akashi, Japan
Background: Like many beach-side bathrooms, the Mumin Papa Cafe is decorated with deep-sea creatures. But the live three-wall aquarium enveloping the stall one-ups standard wallpaper by a large margin.
Why It's Unique: The underwater restroom cost $270,000 to build and is ladies-only, except for the giant sea turtle swimming around. The surrounding aquarium was designed to mimic the feeling of relieving yourself while swimming in the ocean.
South Pole Urinal
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Location: Antarctica
Background: This urinal was constructed just 350 meters from the geographic South Pole, and drifts 10 meters closer to the pole every year. Now that's an impressive piece of plumbing.
Why It's Unique: Chris Curtis, the photographer of this picture, says that this urinal "marks an elusive destination and goal that was not able to even be reached until the early 1900s and carries with it the suffering and the loss of life of several explorers; and one that is at a place that is not only off the beaten path but literally 'miles from nowhere' ... in fact, no other urinal in the world or even space can compete with the efforts and loss of life that went into [this fixture's] eventual permanence at the South Pole. What it may lack in beauty it more than makes up for in dignity." Hear, hear.
Disappearing Bathroom
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Location: Various
Background: This modern bathroom conceals a washbasin, toilet and shower tray beneath folding wooden shelves and benches, enabling a sleek transformation from bathroom to multipurpose room.
Why It's Unique: Though the designers say the wooden coverups add elegance, Balis says they're simply unnecessary. "You can put the most beautiful shade of lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. You're really not fooling anyone." Purportedly, the bathroom could be installed on one wall of a larger room (such as a living room) or in a very small space so as to enable a more flexible house design process without sacrificing sophistication.
Arctic Outhouse
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Location: McMurdo Station, Central West Antarctica
Background: In a place where humans attempt to make no environmental impact, waste must be handled carefully.
Why It's Unique: Normally, people in Antarctica walk around with bottles for collecting urine, and then empty the day's contents into a bigger drum called a "U drum." Outhouses are for solid waste only, and contain a five-gallon plastic bucket lined with a plastic bag. After the bucket's been filled, it's sealed, placed on a pallet, and shipped off. Arctic outhouses are said to be mostly aroma-free, and the sturdily built units make for a temporary respite from cold and wind.
Ebb Bathroom
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Location: Various
Background: Taking "streamlined" to a whole new level, these combined-function Ebb designs make for a modern, almost futuristic bathroom.
Why It's Unique: Balis calls the Ebb bathroom "fabulous, both visually and functionally." The main building material for the fixtures in this bathroom, which was designed by UsTogether, a British and Irish group, is LG HI-MACS, a natural acrylic stone made out of aluminum hydroxide. The material improves impact strength, heat and scratch resistance, visual homogeneity, and thermoplastic moldability over mainstay bathroom materials such as marble, granite and glass.
Dolce and Gabbana's Gold Room
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Location: Milan, Italy
Background: Part of an A-list restaurant simply named "Gold," this opulent bathroom has been host to several stars such as Giselle, Kylie Minogue and Paris Hilton.
Why It's Unique: "It's the little luxuries we allow ourselves that probably come into play in the bathroom more than anywhere else," Balis says. Indeed, the bathroom is luxurious, with golden bamboo lining the walls, giant mirrors and marble counters; Dolce and Gabbana stays true to its high-end name. The clincher is the constant loop of Goldfinger playing inside every golden stall on plasma screens.
Bar 89
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Location: New York City
Background: The bar's bathroom doors use liquid crystals to selectively turn opaque when the customer enters and closes the stall.
Why It's Unique: The crystal innovation in this stall is called Privacy Glass, which harnesses light diffusion in order to create privacy while still allowing light to enter. The sheet of liquid crystal is sandwiched between two normal panes of glass, and the molecular array of the crystals is naturally random enough to disperse light, creating privacy. But when voltage is applied to the sheet, the crystals arrange themselves into a neat parallel formation that permits the passage of light, making the bathroom door transparent.
UriLift Public Pop-Up Toilet
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Location: Various
Background: A bold move to hamper alcohol-induced nighttime public urination, the semi-permanent Urilift Pop-Up Urinal emerges at 10 pm and disappears at 3 am, coinciding with prime bar-hopping hours.
Why It's Unique: These misdemeanor-fighting urinals cost $70,000 each; the unit consists of three adjoining 6-foot-tall stalls. The urinals connect to main water lines in order to flush away waste, and pipes lead directly into the underground sewage system. The alcoves lack much privacy (there are no doors), but users don't seem to take issue with that triviality. The toilets recede into the ground during the day in order to avoid obstructing traffic, and police are pleased with the installments so far, noting a reduction in arrests, fines and aggressive behavior following the installation.
See-Through Toilet
Click Image To Enlarge
Location: Basel, Switzerland
Background: This one-way glass stall looks like a mirror to an outsider, but completely transparent to an insider, leading to a nerve-wracking bathroom experience.
Why It's Unique: The bathroom was designed by artist Monica Bonvicini, who enjoys delving into public versus private life in her exhibitions. This piece is entitled "Don't Miss a Sec," and was inspired by her viewers' reluctance to use the bathroom during art shows, fearing they might miss out on something important. One-way mirrors work their magic by having one side painted with a very thin reflective coating, then strategically adjusting lighting. For the outside to look like a mirror, it must be very bright so that the mirror's surface has plenty to reflect. The inside must be kept dark so that light can't pass through the glass. If the placement of light is switched, however, the walls become windows and your business becomes everyone's business.
COMMENTARY: That's what I call some rather unqiue and outrageous bathrooms and public restrooms. If you know of any other unique restrooms or bathrooms post a comment. The saddest is that Arctic Outhouse, and the kinkiest is definitely that See-Through Public Restroom.
Courtesy of an article appearing in the January 2012 issue of Popular Mechanics
The cult darling of Belgian fashion brings weirdo decadence to Paris, a city overrun by precious traditionalism.
Avant-garde Belgian fashion house Maison Martin Margiela has given a très-cool makeover to a fussy, luxury hotel in Paris, the high Holy Land of fussy, luxury hotels. Maison des Centraliens reopened to the public in May with a slick interior that turns this ornate, Second Empire townhouse (and former home of a Viennese princess) into a monument to the headscrewy Belgian surrealism for which Maison Martin Margiela earned its fashion-world star.
The place is a study in optical illusion. It’s got chairs and tables that appear to suspend in mid-air and trompe l’oeil wall coverings done up in the Hausmannian style that make closed doors seem like they're open. Laser in on the photos, and you’ll be hard-pressed to figure out whether you’re looking at new wallpaper or molding that the architect, Jules Pellechet, dreamed up some 150 years ago. There's a corridor covered floor to ceiling in what looks like tin foil and a mirrored, diamond-shaped parallelepiped said to reference 2001: A Space Odyssey. The dominant color scheme: clinical white.
This sort of high-minded impishness is weird stuff in a city that decorates its top hotels with canopy beds and Louis Quatorze tapestries. But there’s a business reason for it. Maison Martin Margiela -- which no longer operates under the aegis of its fearless, but elusive, leader, Martin Margiela -- rumbled to the fore of the fashion scene more than two decades ago with brainy, deconstructivist design often billed as a rebuke to the era’s penchant for opulent clothing. It has since become a cult darling of the taste-making elite, counting, among its loyal fans, everyone from Jay-Z to Thom Yorke.
Which means that in the rarefied world of fancy hotels, where exclusivity is everything, Maison des Centraliens has one thing the Ritzes and Le Meurices don't have: It’s cool. Says Bernadette Chevallier, who helped oversee the rebranding:
The hotels whose openings have lately been in the news, or soon will be, are all top grade luxury hotels embodying quite a traditional idea of luxury, even conventional in some cases. It’s a choice that has its merits but the Maison des Centraliens, by contrast, puts the focus on discretion and an offbeat take on luxury hotel standards. …[I]ts values revolve around light-heartedness, humour and a laid-back attitude. … Rather than a traditional luxury hotel, we are positioned as a prestigious boutique hotel that combines five-star amenities and services with an unconventional vision of the upmarket hotel business.
Even rarer: It’s relatively affordable. Rooms start at 203 Euros. A comparably sized room in a four-star hotel in Paris can cost twice that.
COMMENTARY: The Maison des Centraliens (La Maison Champs Elysees) hotel is so typical of old style classic French hotels. I love what Maison Martin Margieladid in redesigning the interior of the hotel. The white is a bit too much for my eyes, but I could definitely enjoy a stay there.
The Maison des Centraliens is a 5-star hotel and has 57 rooms and suites, offering the ultimate in comfort, exemplary service and attention to detail. The hotel is ideally located off of the Champs Elysee. It has a garden view on the quiet rue Jean Goujon, in the heart of Paris. Amenities include Free Mini bar, Free WiFi, Free video films, and Apple Mac mini in all rooms. Rates start at 500 Euros per night. Check out the video:
I love that gold leaf being applied to the walls. Below is a video of the grand opening of the hotel.
It's definitely a must see if I am ever in Paris and have the spare cash to afford such luxury. It takes $1.41 Euros to the U.S. dollar, so that is going to be an expensive hotel bill, not including food, wine and tips. I love wine, so I could definitely go crazy there.
I’m writing from the air, descending into the heart of The Great Tech War of 2012: San Francisco. During my last trip here, a few weeks ago, I got a taste of what this battle is all about. My client was a once high-flying tech pioneer now struggling with the erosive power of commoditization. It used to take generations for your core business to devolve from the high-margin cutting edge to a low-price commodity. Now it can take just a few years. What you once sold for enviable profits someone else might offer for free any day now. View my webcast on this topic here.
My recent post about Netflix sparked a heated debate on various newsgroup message boards, and illustrates the dilemma well. There are three ways to price your service: cost, competition, value. When you have no competition your price can soar to just under the value you deliver. Netflix enjoyed those days when it was the only movie-streaming business that worked well. But as soon as direct competition enters, things change. You have to lower your price to resemble the competition’s and often, as in Netflix’s case, start paying suppliers more.
So how can you fight the commoditization? How do you remain extraordinary and profitable in a fast-moving world? There are at least eight ways to do it.
Bring back the dead: My wife’s birthday was this weekend and I’m under strict orders not to buy her any more gadgets. But when I saw an old turntable and a collection of vinyl records, I could not resist. Vinyl is making a comeback. Record companies are reissuing albums on the huge black disks and even releasing new albums in the old format. Music fans are turning back to vinyl for nostalgia, because it offers better sound quality, and for the fantastic artwork you just can’t replicate on an iPod. With clever marketing, what is old can become new. What new (or old) reason can you give customers to rediscover your out-of-date product or service?
Create new occasions: Walk into your kitchen. Open your refrigerator. Do you see a box of Arm & Hammer baking soda? Arm & Hammer was competing with the ultimate commodity. One type of baking soda is as indistinguishable from another as salt or sand. But the company pulled itself out of a low-price, commodity battle where everyone is the same by creating new uses and occasions for its baking soda. What new uses can you create for your product/service?
Become the ingredient: Another strategy that has worked well for Arm & Hammer is to borrow other people’s roads into your home. Today you find Arm & Hammer in toothpaste (whiter teeth!), detergent (cleaner clothes!), and deodorant (fresher smell…!). The beauty of becoming an ingredient is that customers become less price sensitive. They are willing to pay a higher price for your ingredient because it represents only a small portion of their total cost. Whose road can you borrow by becoming an ingredient in their product/service?
Move the action:U-Haul is not in the truck rental business. Best Buy is not really an electronics retailer. At least not when judged by profits. U-Haul gets you into their store with the promise of low-cost truck rental. Then they sell you high-margin boxes and packing tape. Best Buy lures you in with competitively priced TVs, and profits by selling you service plans you are unlikely to fully use. To where can you move your profits?
Shift the basis of competition: Our 5-year-old Mac just died. The PC in my home office has better specs than most Macs and it cost just $700 from Costco, but we’ll probably end up spending three times that for another Mac. Why? We like the design. The Mac is the only computer you can proudly place in your living room. In commodity games everyone competes on the same basis (performance) so you can distinguish yourself by choosing a completely different dimension (design). On what basis are your competitors competing? How can you compete on something entirely different?
Attach a business: Thomson Travel in the U.K. sells cheap airline tickets and tours. It can afford to because it does not depend on these sales for profits. It makes its profits by funneling its customers into Thomson Travel Charter Airlines airplanes. What related high-margin business can you attach to your lower-margin core?
Rapid-fire innovation: Trying to simply run faster than your competition is not a strategy I usually recommend, but if you really are swifter, it can work. When Lee Pillsbury was part of the top team leading Marriott hotels, they conducted a massive study to identify the most important factors that drive a business traveler’s hotel decisions--speed of room service, the risk of the hotel giving away your room if you check in late, speed of checkout, etc. They then filled a pipeline of strategies to address each factor and unleashed a stream of innovations on the competition--30-minute room-service guarantee, late check-in guarantee, etc. By the time the competition could copy one innovation, Marriott was already pulling the trigger on the next. Do this long and fast enough and eventually the competition will give in. What are your next 10 innovations?
Change the basis of pricing: Xerox grew to dominate the copying business not just by offering great technology, but because at a time when the competition was pricing per machine, Xerox was offering a service priced per copy. Redbox is doing the same in the supposedly now-dead DVD market: pricing per day rather than per rental. Fill in the blanks: “My competition charges $_____ per ______” (e.g., $3 per rental)." Then replace the blanks with something different.
Economists may tell you that every industry will eventually mature into a low-margin, commodity environment. But don’t believe them. If you are willing to resist the pull of consensus, and have the courage to be extraordinary, you can continue to thrive profitably.
COMMENTARY: Commoditization is a very real threat to every organization and it is comparatively straight forward to identify the early warning signs, which include:
Increasing competition.
Prevalence of me-too products and services.
A belief that all suppliers are fundamentally the same.
The decreasing desire on the customer’s part to look at new options or features.
An increasing preference for customers to select on the basis of price and little else.
A reluctance for customers to pay for anything they consider unnecessary.
Increasing pressures on margins.
Strong brands might help to insulate the organization from some of the worst impacts of commodization, but as we have seen in the past with organizations such as IBM, HP, Xerox, even the strongest and most dominant organizations come under threat from time to time. Even for those organizations which operate within a safe sector, such as energy for example, commoditization is still an issue they have to address, especially in terms of their non-core activities.
At its extreme, commoditization leaves the leaders of corporations with a very simple and stark choice: do we allow ourselves to become commoditized and hence do our best to survive, or do we do our best to avoid it? Of course for some, the former may be the only choice open to them andfor many it will probably be a mix of both. Naturally, there is a strategic choice involved as some organizations can be considered to be driving commoditization. In doing so they are gaining first mover advantage. Take easy Everything, which has a range of companies under its umbrella which are initiating a wave of commoditization in a number of sectors, most notably easyJet, but also cinemas, car hire, cruise liners and hotel accommodation.
As the zone of commoditization continues to expand, organizations must do everything they can to ensure they can compete without either destroying the value they offer to their customers or going out of business because their underlying costs are just too high to compete with the leaner more efficient companies which are emerging from India, China, South America and Asia.These companies are able to lower their prices without destroying their business.
Cost is one of the biggest drivers of commodization. The company with the lowest production costs, assuming quality being about the same among competitors, has generated first-mover advantages for itself by simply competing on price. If its competitors cannot compete on the basis of price, they are in danger of going out of business.
The Internet has been a powerful force driving commodization. Consumers can no surf the Net and compare features and prices. Shoppers can scan bar codes or QR codes to locate the lowest price and store that carries the same item or comparable items. They can even obtain product reviews right on their smartphone.
In my opinion, business sectors that are already in commodization or ripe for commodization include cellular phones, desktop computers, tablets, mobile apps, software, digital cameras, portable music players, HD televisions, and digital music. The highend smartphone, sector is particularly susceptible as more competitors enter the market, and companies match feature-for-feature. The Apple iPhone is already feeling pricing pressures, as iOS loses lost its market share dominance to Android-based smartphones. The iPad is also under attack as Barnes & Noble, Amazon.com, Samsung and others enter the tablet market.
Courtesy of an article dated November 14, 2011 reporting in Fast Company
We are often asked what role social networking plays in the lives of Affluent Americans—are they on Facebook? Twitter? If so, how much time do Affluents spend on these sites? Generally speaking, those who ask are skeptical—surely the Affluent, they figure, are too busy or too old-school to spend much time with online social networks. Our data suggest that Affluents have been socially networking with gusto for several years, and that this is one of many areas where popular notions of Affluent lives are shaped by stereotypes and misconceptions.
Our 2011 survey reveals that fully 60% of Affluents report having visited Facebook in the past 30 days, spending an average of 4.9 hours a week on the site.Our September 2011 Affluent Barometer further reveals that 60% of Affluent Facebook users report visiting the site about once per day or more.
Twitter reaches many fewer Affluents—about 10% in a given month—but for longer periods of time, with the average Twitter users spending over 6 hours a week on the site.
Among younger Affluents, the enthusiasm for online social networking is even more pronounced. Among Affluent Millennials (those aged 18-29), 84% used Facebook in the past 30 days, averaging 7.5 hours per week. One-in-four Affluent Millennials use Twitter, for an average of more than 8 hours per week.
Among adults aged 18+ living in households with at least $100,000 in annual household income.
Of course, Facebook and Twitter aren’t the only names in the social networking world. More than half of Affluents visit YouTube each month. Fourteen percent visit LinkedIn. And there are significant segments of Affluents using photo-sharing sites, dating sites, class reunion sites, and so on.
It is hard to overstate how fully social media becomes intertwined into the lives of some of its users. Among Affluents, 32% agree “I usually check e-mail or Facebook within 30 minutes of waking up in the morning”—a figure that rises to 50% among Affluent Millennials. And in an era where anyone can create and disseminate content, the lines continue to blur between social and traditional media for the Affluent. Many Facebook users have told us it is increasingly becoming a source for information and links to stories from mainstream media. And on Twitter, only about 5% tweet in a given week (15% among Affluent Millennials), with the rest being consumers of content, rather than producers.
Of course, it is important to put online social networking in context with offline social networking. Nearly two-thirds of Affluents do some online social networking in a given week using traditional social media websites (Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn and Twitter), but 92% also do “offline” social networking by telephone, and 86% also do so with actual in-person, face-to-face conversations.
A similar story about the prevalence of offline social networking also emerges across generations. Affluent Seniors—the 5.2 million Affluents 65 or older—may lag in their Facebook usage, but they are far more likely to engage in a variety of “offline” social, political, civic and non-profit activities. Affluent Seniors are, for example, more likely to vote, belong to a golf or country club, and serve on a charitable board of directors. And while seniors may lag in their number of LinkedIn contacts, they are more likely to have a variety of business relationships, such as a relationship with a financial advisor.
When we’re asked if the Affluent are “into” social networking, our answer is a clear “yes.” The desire to “socially network” is not as young as Mark Zuckerberg—it is in fact as old as humanity itself. So it should come as no surprise that new ways of connecting appeal to a population that is almost-universally online (our survey finds that 98% of Affluents are online). But those in advertising and media must realize that the dynamics of social networking are deceptively complex, including a mix of online and offline activities that differ substantially across generational and other segments.
COMMENTARY: Very interesting statistics regarding social networking among affluents making $100,000+ per year. Once you hit 65 years of age, the sight and fingers go. No more time to social network online.
Courtesy of an article dated November 16, 2011 appearing in MediaPost Publications Engage:Affluent
An exclusive tour of the back rooms and ateliers of the celebrated French fashion house illustrates why Hermès is the coveted jewel that LVMH's Bernard Arnault wants for his crown.
Read Pierre-Alexis Dumas, the creative director of Hermès, is sitting in his office at the company's 131-year-old seat on the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in Paris, talking about what it's like to run the most respected major luxury brand in the world.
Pierre-Alexis Dumas, Hermes creative director
The lean, formal 44-year-old and sixth-generation descendant of the company's founder says,
"My job is to keep the strong creativity of Hermès alive. To nourish the rigor and the vision . . . to make these values vibrate. This, is the force of Hermès."
Hermès's Paris headquarters, overlooking the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
The rooftop of Hermès's Paris headquarters, overlooking the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré.
To give you an idea what it's like inside a Hermes store, here's an excellent video;
An visiting American tourist, using a hidden spycam, gives us a different view from inside Hermes flagshop store in Paris. Notice that all the handbags are locked. How dare the French insinuate that customers are thieves:
Those values—the dedication to rigor, vision and creativity—are what set Hermès apart from its competitors, what company executives mean when they talk about the "culture of Hermès."
Handbags - In a world of assembly-line, made-in-China handbags, Hermès still employs artisans in France to sew each of its famous Kellys and Birkins, one by one, by hand.
Scarves - While most of its competitors buy rolls of prefab twill from China to print their silk scarves, Hermès weaves its own in Lyon from silk raised on its farm in the mountains of Brazil.
Perfumes - While most of its competitors subcontract perfume creation to big laboratories that also make food flavors and detergent scents, Hermès has an in-house nose who concocts each new perfume in his lab in his home near Grasse, the world's perfume capital in the South of France.
This attention to detail and dedication to integrity have made Hermès an enduring success:
Year 2010 - Last year, sales rose 25.4 percent, to 2.4 billion euros (approximately $3.41 billion at current exchange rates), over 2009.
Year 2009 - At the height of the financial crisis, when most major brands took a beating due to a drop in sales in the luxury sector, and several well-known companies went bankrupt, Hermès posted not only an increase but grew 8.5 percent in 2009; operating income was up 3.1 percent for 2009.
Year 2008 - Sales were up 8.6 percent over 2007.
Today, luxury fashion is a $200-billion-a-year industry, mostly made up of publicly traded corporations. The leader is LVMH–Moët Hennessey Louis Vuitton, a group of more than 60 major brands including Givenchy, Fendi, Guerlain and Moët & Chandon that rang up a staggering 20.3 billion euros ($28.9 billion) in sales in 2010. It is owned and run by 62-year-old French businessman Bernard Arnault, the fourth-richest man in the world according to Forbes, with an estimated net worth of $41 billion. Arnault has spent the past two decades collecting these "star brands," as he likes to call them. Some were friendly acquisitions; many were not. His most recent—the purchase of the long-for-sale Italian jeweler Bulgari from the Bulgari family last March—was a straightforward business deal and everyone involved was happy with the result.
His other recent major investment is not going as well. Last October, LVMH announced that it had quietly accumulated 17.1 percent of Hermès's stock (it eventually acquired a little over 20 percent); it was later revealed that the company did this through cash-settle equity swaps, a practice sometimes used by hedge funds to wage a hostile takeover of publicly traded companies without disclosure. Hermès sees the moves as a full-frontal attack and its executives are doing what they can to defend the house.
Hermès's CEO, Patrick Thomas, the first nonfamily member to run the 174-year-old company, told me over lunch in the company's dining room at the Faubourg Saint-Honoré headquarters in June.
"Hermès and LVMH are at the two extremes of the culture and industry of luxury. We are artisans and creative. We try to produce the most beautiful products in this industry. The artisans put their heart and soul in the bag and when the client buys it, they buy a bit of the ethic of Hermès. For six generations, the same family has run Hermès. That has given this company something no other company has. Our combat with LVMH is not an economic fight, it's a cultural fight. We try to do poetry and we get excellent economic results. We must protect that."
To understand what Pierre-Alexis and Patrick Thomas are talking about and what Arnault is coveting, you must visit the company's main leather workshop in the Paris suburb of Pantin. There, approximately 340 artisans handcraft leather goods the same way it has been done for more than a century.
Hermès was founded in 1837 by French harness maker Thierry Hermès, a purveyor to royal houses throughout Europe. His grandson Émile-Maurice modernized the company, enlisting his friends Louis Renault and Ettore Bugatti to make trunks for cars, commissioning decorator Jean-Michel Frank to design furniture, introducing belts and couture, and expanding the retail network to fashionable resorts such as Deauville and Cannes.
Émile-Maurice had three daughters who married well, creating three new branches of the family: Guerrand, Puech and Dumas; a fourth died young. In the late 1930s, his son-in-law Robert Dumas suggested the company expand its racing silks into scarves and neckties, and Dumas designed several himself. In the 1950s, he took over the company from Émile-Maurice and ran it respectably for three decades. It was Dumas's dynamic fourth son, Jean-Louis, however, who turned the company into the luxury powerhouse it is today.
In 1978, at the age of 40, Jean-Louis Dumas was named CEO and creative director, and with the help of his cousins Patrick Guerrand and Bertrand Puech, he shook up the old house:
Kelly Handbag - He relaunched the Kelly handbag in jazzy colors and designed a bag to sexy British actress Jane Birkin's specs, naming it for her.
Retail Stores - There were hip ad campaigns, shiny new stores—many designed by his Greek-born architect wife, Rena, and her firm, RDAI.
Acquisitions - A slew of acquisitions, including Puiforcat silversmiths, Saint Louis crystal and John Lobb shoes.
Hermes Women's Wear - In 2004, Dumas hired French bad-boy designer Jean Paul Gaultier to do Hermès women's wear (he had bought 35 percent of Gaultier's namesake brand in 1999).
The association of avant-garde Gaultier and staid Dumas seemed strange on the surface, but the two were good friends who worked well together. After Dumas's death of Parkinson's disease last year at the age of 72, Gaultier left Hermès, and was replaced by French designer Christophe Lemaire. Hermès recently sold its stake in Gaultier's company to the Spanish beauty and fashion group Puig.
Most important, after witnessing Arnault's drawn-out boardroom battle with the Vuitton family in the late '80s for control of LVMH—which Arnault eventually won—Dumas made two moves to protect Hermès from a similar takeover attempt by a nonfamily member. First, in 1989, he created a partner company called Émile Hermès SARL to represent the family shareholders and that would be in charge of hiring management and deciding the strategy of the company. Second, in 1993, Dumas listed 20 percent of Hermès on the French stock market; later he listed about 8 percent more. These publicly traded shares had no management power; they are the shares that LVMH purchased.
Ever since, Hermès has flourished, primarily due to the relentless demand for its leather goods, which are considered by the fashion cognoscenti to be the best of the best. The favorites are the Kelly, which starts at $8,450, and the Birkin, at $8,850. Despite their substantial price tag, Hermès bags are not only coveted but collected: Victoria Beckham is said to have more than 100 Birkins, worth more than $2 million.
COO Axel Dumas, in an Hermes suit, photographed in the leather-goods studio in Pantin
The construction of an Hermès bag begins with the leather men, who inspect and cut each skin by hand. Axel Dumas, Pierre-Alexis's cousin and chief operating officer of the company, during a tour of the workshop in June says.
"The quality is in the eye and the hand of the artisan. That's what so delicate—it's person by person."
Axel Dumas is the 40-year-old son of Olivier, the eldest of the five Dumas brothers. Altogether, nine members of the Hermès family work for the company:
Pierre-Alexis Dumas - Creative director
Axel Dumas - Leather goods production
Bertrand Puech - Uncle of Pierre-Alexis and Axel
Etienne Puech - Bertrand's son and area manager for the watch division
Amélie Puech - Bertrand's daughter and assistant for Hermès's saddle division
Guillaume de Seynes - A cousin and executive vice president
Julie Guerrand - A cousin and director of corporate development
Pascale Mussard - A cousin and head of the petit h, a division of one-of-a-kind objects made from rejects
Maria Schaeffer - Sister and artistic coordinator for special orders.
Several others have served on the supervisory board.
Axel began at Hermès as an intern at 14 "to learn how to sew," he says with a laugh, adding that he wasn't very good at it. At 18, he did a turn in the press office. After graduating from Sciences Po in Paris, he worked for Paribas bank for two years in Beijing and six years in New York. Then, he says,
"Jean-Louis Dumas asked me if I wanted to join Hermès and I said yes, and he asked me what I wanted to do and I said anything but finance. So he put me in finance."
A year later, he was promoted to commercial director for stores in France. Then he spent two years as general director of jewelry and two years as general director for leather. Last May, he was named COO in charge of all métiers (the artisanal divisions) and the retail network. As he tours the studio, he greets everyone by name and shakes their hands. He says,
"All this, all these artisans—this is our backbone."
He stops at a worktable and looks in amazement at the skin the man is working on: a mustard-hued Porosus, a crocodile from Australia. It will be used to make a Kelly 35—a Kelly bag that measures 35 centimeters at its base. Axel explains.
"This is something we have been waiting two years for. We needed to find a skin light enough to dye it such a light color. Sometimes someone will order a bag made of rare leather like this and they must wait until we find the skin."
He is quick to point out that the retail price of a bag is not based on its rarity.
"One-of-a-kind you could put any price. It's not the desirability that determines the price. It is the production cost."
Each artisan is given all the pieces he needs to build the handbag from beginning to end, including zippers, locks, hardware, lining, leather string for piping. The artisans work on three or four at a time—same model, same color—and all are made by hand, inside out; only the zipper and the inside pocket are sewed by machine.
Hermes handbag maker stiching a handbag strap
For the hand-sewing, the artisans use a classic saddle stitch that has been employed at Hermès since the 19th century: They take two needles—each on an end of a piece of waxed thread long enough to sew the entire seam—stick one needle through in one direction, the other through the other direction, and tug the stitch tight. The seams are hammered flat and the edges are shaved, sanded and polished with wax until they look like a single piece of leather.
Here's a video of a Hermes saddlemaker demonstrating Hermes classic saddle stitch:
The hardware is attached in a method called "pearling": They put a small nail through a corner hole on the back of the clasp, the leather and the front clasp, clip off all but a millimeter or so, take an awl with a concave tip and tap the bit of nail with a hammer gently in a circle until it is round like a tiny pearl. If done correctly, the pearls will hold the two pieces of metal together forever. The bag is then turned right side out and ironed into shape. Atelier head Lionel Prudhomme says.
"It's really a métier of tradition. When people ask me, 'In your 30 years at Hermès, what has changed?' I say, 'Nothing.' People change, but not the technique."
Some things have changed in Hermès silk production since it began 74 years ago, but not much. Originally Robert Dumas held the design meetings for the Carrés Hermès—the house's famous 90-by-90-centimeter silk scarves—in an office just above what is now the glove department in the Faubourg Saint-Honoré store. Today the silk studio is down the hall, but the meetings are conducted by Pierre-Alexis just as they were by his grandfather and his father. He explains during a silk design meeting one recent morning.
"We use the same weights to hold the paper drawing flat and we still always look at them on the floor, because my grandfather said an Hermès silk scarf should be seen from a man's height. Looking down gives you a sense of composition, which is the strength of an Hermès scarf."
Hermes silk scarves being made the old-fashioned way
Hermes makes all their silk scarfs from their own silk grown in Brazil
Below is a great video demonstrating Hermes' screen printing process used in making their world class scarves. Colors are applied in layers. Darkest colors first then lightest.
Below is an excellent video demontrating how scarfmakers hand roll and stitch the edges of each Hermes scarf.
Pierre-Alexis joined the Hermès group in 1992, after earning a degree in visual arts from Brown University. He worked on the creative committee for Saint Louis crystal and Puiforcat silver for a year, then became head of Hermès in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. After five years, he moved to London to run the U.K. division. In 2002, he became director of silks, and in 2005, he was named creative director for all of Hermès, upon his father's retirement. "My father never told me he wanted me to be creative director," Pierre-Alexis says. "I had to fight for it and prove by the results of my work that I was worth it."
Pierre-Alexis Dumas on a chaise longue designed by his mother, Rena, for the Pippa collection.
When you meet Pierre-Alexis, you see immediately that, while loving his job, he feels the weight of carrying on this 174-year-old company. He is not buoyant and sparkling like his father; he is calm, considerate and deeply respectful. Pierre-Alexis says thoughtfully,
"While working, we connect with those who are gone—the dead. I worked with my father, and he died a year ago—and as I work, I find him, and have a dialogue with him, even if he is not here anymore."
Each Hermes silk scarf is a beautiful and wonderous work of art
While Pierre-Alexis oversees and signs off on all creations at Hermès, the silk department is obviously his favorite assignment. He is completely engaged with the design team and taken with the work at hand—analyzing the drawings spread out on the floor, judging their colors, the balance and depth and force of the images. Usually it takes several passes to get a design right. He says,
"I know the artists, their hands and what they are capable of doing and we are there to help them get it right. It is very rare that a design is right the first time."
Most Hermès scarves are designed by illustrators, but recently Pierre-Alexis sought out an artist named Antoine Tzapoff, whose paintings of American Indians he greatly admired. Though Hermès rarely works with artists—they generally use too many colors to reproduce on a scarf—he asked Tzapoff to design one. Tzapoff submitted a stunning portrait of an Apache warrior. Pierre-Alexis fell in love with the painting, called "Cosmogonie Apache," and sent it to Lyon to have it transformed into a scarf.
Antoine Tzapoff's portrait of an Apache warrior was used for Hermes' "Cosmogonie Apache" silk scarf
When the painting arrived at Marcel Gandit, the 70-year-old silk-engraving company owned by Hermès since 2004, an engraving drawer named Nadine Rabilloud, who has worked there for 33 years, studied it for two days to figure out how to tackle it. Eventually, she identified 80 colors, then edited down to 60, and then to 45—the preferred maximum for the Hermès silk printing process. There are 15 colors for the face alone.
Rabilloud reproduced the face by hand on 90-by-90-centimeter plastic slides with a fountain pen and India ink while two colleagues worked on the background and border. Altogether the trio would spend 2,000 hours reconstructing the painting as a drawing.
Once a design's slides are completed, each is projected onto a sheet of polyester stretched across a 90-by-90-centimeter steel frame. In the old days, these screens were made of silk pulled tightly across wood frames; later, they were nylon, like that of American parachutes from World War II, on metal frames. The screens are loaded onto an automatic printing machine and are run down 150-meter-long tables—the world's longest—covered in silk twill. Layer upon layer of color is applied, darkest to lightest. Each color "pass" takes 15 to 20 minutes—the more ink, the more time—so "Cosmogonie Apache," with its 45 color passes, took approximately 15 hours to print. The silk printing presses run 24 hours, five days a week.
When the ink is dry, the scarves are put in a steam bath to "fix" the colors; washed several times until the fabric is soft; dried; applied with a film fixative to give them a shine and protect the colors; and sent to a workshop where the hems are hand-rolled and hand-stitched. Hermès does 20 new designs a year, 10 for fall-winter and 10 for spring-summer. Each has eight to 10 color variations. Today, a Carré Hermès retails for $385. When the scarves arrive in the shops, they are stored in smart glass cases and dramatically unfurled one after another across countertops by salesclerks for each discerning customer to see, touch and try out. This is yet another tradition that is part of the "culture of Hermès."
LVMH has insisted that it has "no intention of launching a tender offer, taking control of Hermès, nor seeking board representation" and Arnault has described his move as friendly. LVMH's vice chairman, Pierre Godé, told WSJ in late July:
"LVMH's approach is pacific and Mr. Arnault does not envision launching a takeover bid on Hermès."
Hermès executives are skeptical and have branded Arnault an unwanted aggressor. Pierre-Alexis told WSJ. that he "disapproves" of Arnault's purchase. Pierre-Alexis's uncle Hermès Chairman Bertrand Puech told the French daily Le Figaro,
"With friends like these, who needs enemies?"
And Hermès's 63-year-old CEO Patrick Thomas said in a press conference in March,
"If you want to seduce a beautiful woman, you don't start by raping her from behind."
The Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF), the French stock market regulatory authority, has been looking into how LVMH surreptitiously accumulated such a large stake—in France, a company must state when it crosses a 5 percent threshold. LVMH maintains it met all regulatory compliances. Godé says.
"LVMH is entirely confident of the outcome of this investigation."
As a defense measure, the Hermès family has placed 51 percent of the 72 percent of their stake in a holding company that cannot be sold to outsiders. Says Patrick Albaladejo, executive vice president for strategic development and image and close advisor to Thomas,
"It is a message to Bernard Arnault that it will be useless to pursue a takeover attempt because the family has relinquished its right to sell."
Not all family members are wholly behind the maneuver. Nicolas Puech, cousin of Jean-Louis Dumas and brother of Bertrand Puech and the largest family shareholder, with 6 percent of the company, told the Journal du Dimanche in March,
"The major inconvenience in locking up our shares in a holding company would be to deprive the family shareholders of their individual power of control on the management of the company. The freedom of each shareholder is the best way to guarantee our unity in the long run."
He added that he saw no reason why LVMH and Hermès couldn't work together,
"If it is to the advantage of our company and the company maintains its free will."
He has opted out of the holding company. Thomas says,
"Nicolas doesn't plan to sell any shares, and if he did, he would sell them to the family."
A lawsuit has been filed questioning the legality of Hermès's new holding company and the French court of appeals is expected to announce its decision on the case September 15. Thomas isn't worried. He says.
"The public ministry said there is no reason Hermès cannot create the holding company, and the AMF approved it. We are more than confident that we will win."
In addition to legal maneuvers, Thomas says that LVMH is still "working on the family to try to convince them to sell." Godé calls this accusation "pure fantasy." Whoever is right, Thomas is still not concerned.
"What LVMH has forgotten is: A. The family is Protestant, and Protestants have a very different approach to money than the Catholics, and B. The family is interested in the continuity of the business. There was a rumor recently that Arnault would launch a takeover bid at a price that the family cannot resist. The thing is, he can launch a takeover bid tomorrow at 400 euros per share (approximately double the current trading value) and he will not get one share from the family, in my opinion. It's not a matter of money. It's a matter of family pride and the pride of being the sixth generation, and now the seventh."
Godé also calls this rumor "pure fantasy and without foundation." Thomas says with confidence,
"The risk of Arnault taking over is zero. In 30 years, I don't know, but for the moment, zero."
He continues.
"Hermès is a unique business model, completely different from LVMH—that's why the two can't mix. It would kill Hermès. You would keep the brand and keep the name, but Hermès would be dead."
The reason, he believes, is quite simple: "Hermès is a human experience."
COMMENTARY: I have a newfound respect for Hermes beautiful silk scarves and leather handbags after researching the company. Let's hope that Albert Arnault from LVMH never has an opportunity to acquire Hermes. Thomas is right, if LVMH should ever acquire Hermes, the artisanship and culture would be lost forever.
Here's a look at the back rooms and ateliers of the world famous House of Hermes showing how its craftsmen and artisans create those wonderful and beautiful silk scarves and leather handbags:
Yes, it's wildly expensive and requires patience, but Latour just might be the world's best red
When Frédéric Engerer was a university student in Paris, he would drive once a month to Burgundy. He tolod me recently.
"For a young man in his 20s, Burgundy was less intimidating, and you can get appointments more easily."
Bordeaux, with its grand chateaux and wealthy absentee owners, is much more formal and daunting. The first time that Mr. Engerer ever set foot on the hallowed ground of Bordeaux first growth Château Latour was after François Pinault offered him the job of managing the estate.
Mr. Engerer said.
"Latour had always been a mystical estate for me, but I honestly didn't dare ask for an appointment at Latour in those days."
Frederic Engerer, Chateau Latour
The hiring of Mr. Engerer to run one of the world's most fabled domains caused almost as much comment as Mr. Pinault's purchase of the property in 1993. Mr. Pinault, one of Europe's most successful and wealthy businessmen, acquired Latour from Allied Lyons. At the time he was hired, Mr. Engerer was working as a management consultant in Paris, after a previous stint in advertising.
The Bordelaise were understandably baffled by the appointment, which came about at the recommendation of Mr. Pinault's son, François-Henri, who had gone to university with Mr. Engerer. In fact, Mr. Engerer grew up in a family of wine merchants from the Languedoc-Roussillon and spent his summers working in his grandfather's cellar. Even as his business career flourished, most of his free time revolved around his love of wine. He opened a wine bar in Paris. Getting the call from Mr. Pinault was basically the equivalent of an aspiring rapper getting tapped to record a track with Jay-Z. Latour is, by anyone's reckoning, one of the greatest domains on the planet.
Latour was named for a tower, or castle, which was built on the property in the 14th century and razed more than a century later at the end of the Hundred Years' War (the catchy title by which that 116-year conflict is remembered). The three-story "tower" that stands on the property today and graces the wine label is actually a pigeonniere, or dovecote, built in 1625—and is not, as is commonly imagined, the tower that gave the estate its name.Latour would presumably be called Latour even if it produced a dainty, delicate wine, but this not the case: Latour is a massive wine that can seem entirely unassailable in its youth, a wine that seems to measure its age in geologic time. A Latour from a good year can take 30 years to show its charms, and when it does so its virtues are almost inevitably described with adjectives that skew toward the masculine end of the spectrum: robust, powerful, massive. I've never seen the word "pretty" in a tasting note on Latour.
Mr. Engerer told me when we first met. (I agree—I don't think it's an easy woman—I think it's a man.)
"Latour is not an easy woman. It requires patience. It doesn't give much up at an early age. It's a long runner."
There is, in other words, something terribly anachronistic about Latour; it's the antithesis of instant gratification. If that doesn't scare you, consider this: It's forbiddingly expensive, as are all of the first-growth Bordeaux. New levels of insanity—over $1,000 a bottle—were reached with the release of futures for all the 2009 and 2010 vintages.
Even Mr. Engerer—whose boss can't be all that sad about this situation—seems a little chastened by what has happened to the price of Latour. He said.
"My first en primeur campaign was with the '94 vintage, which we sold [wholesale] for €28 [$39] a bottle. Now we sell the wines at €500 a bottle."
True, massive capital investment has been made since Mr. Pinault took over. The new winery is spectacular. And production of the grand vin has been cut drastically to improve quality. None of this would matter if not for the situation and composition of the vineyard land.
The main vineyard occupies a rise above the Gironde estuary and is comprised of a thick layer of gravel, providing excellent drainage, over a bed of clay. Lafite and Mouton sit on sand. I can't begin to explain the interaction of roots and soil—and I don't know that anyone can, except to say that the superb drainage means Latour is good even in rainy vintages—but I can assert with confidence that Latour's unique terroir creates a unique wine.
Over the years the wine has retained its signature character no matter who has made it. It has an unparalleled ability to age and to develop. The 1961, which I tried recently with Mr. Engerer, is one of the greatest I have ever tasted, a Beethoven's Ninth of a wine, and still on its way up. The 1982, for me the wine of the vintage, is still a baby. And they are clearly siblings, remarkably similar in their aromatics and their flavor profiles, despite being made by different teams, 20 years apart. The wines are incredibly powerful but nuanced; every sip or sniff seems to yield something new. Even in a poor vintage, like 1964, which I also tasted with Mr. Engerer, Latour is similarly complex though not as powerful or concentrated. I think if Latour were an actor it would be Gregory Peck; the '61 would be Mr. Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird," the '64 would be the actor in "Beloved Infidel."
Is any of this relevant to the average wine lover, as opposed to the wealthy collector? It is, I think, in several ways. Just as developments in Formula One race cars eventually inform the engineering of the cars the rest of us drive every day, just as haute couture trickles down to the wardrobes of those who have never attended a fashion show, the no-expense-spared aesthetic of Latour under Mr. Pinault serves as an inspiration for wine makers in Bordeaux and the world over. And Latour is the ultimate exemplar of a wine that improves with age. Unlike, say, Screaming Eagle, a Napa Valley cult Cabernet that costs just as much in most vintages, Latour has a proven history; you know that the 2010 vintage, when you or your heirs pop the cork 30 years from now, will be spectacular.
1995 Château Latour, $595 - One of the rare Latours drinking well before its 20th birthday. Cedar and tobacco on the nose; voluptuous in body, with some underlying tannin. Half the price of the 2005.
2003 Les Forts de Latour, $250 - The '03 Latour is one of the greatest modern Bordeaux and the estate's "second wine," a sibling of the grand vin, is also brilliant. Young, dense and rich, but well-balanced, with a blast of crème de cassis and mineral undertones.
2008 Domaine d'Eugénie Vosne-Romanée, $59 - Mr. Pinault bought the Domaine René Engel in 2006 and rechristened it Domaine D'Eugénie; this is the team's second vintage from this fabled piece of Burgundy. Very full-bodied for a village level wine, with spicy highlights and a long finish.
2008 Domaine de Fontbonau Côtes du Rhône, $26 - Mr. Engerer acquired this property in the southern Rhône with his friend Jérôme Malet. The Grenache-Syrah blend reminds me of a fine Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but it's lighter on its feet and livelier. Kind of like Babar in a tutu.
1996 Château Latour, $695 - Even greater than the '95, though not as charming today. Toasted tobacco nose; very dense earthy/mineral quality underneath the black-currant fruit. Still young.
COMMENTARY: Château Latour is a French wine estate, rated as a First Growth under the 1855 Bordeaux Classification.
Latour lies at the very southeastern tip of the commune of Pauillac in the Medoc region to the north-west of Bordeaux, at its border with Sait=Julien, and only a few hundred metres from the banks of the Gironde estuary.
The estate produces three red wines in all. In addition to its Grand vin, Latour has also produced the second wine Les Forts de Latour since 1966, and a third wine, simply named Pauillac, has been released every year since 1990. An imperiale (six-litre bottle) of Château Latour sold for £135,000 in 2011.
History
The site has been occupied since at least 1331 when Tor à Saint-Lambert was built by Gaucelme de Castillon, and the estate dating to at least 1378. A garrison fort was built 300 metres from the estuary to guard against attack during the Hundred Years' War. The tower, the name mutating with time to La Tour en Saint-Mambert and Saint-Maubert, gave its name to the estate around the fortress and was in English hands until the Battle of Castillon in 1453, and its complete destruction by the forces of the King of France. The original tower no longer exists, but in the 1620's a circular tower (La Tour de Saint-Lambert) was built on the estate and though it is actually designed as a pigeon roost, it remains a strong symbol of the vineyard. Though two centuries apart, this building is said to have been constructed using the original edifice.
Vines have existed on the site since the 14th century, and Latour's wine received some early recognition, discussed as early as in the 16th century in Essays by Mongaigne. Near the end of the 16th century, the estate's several smallholdings had been accumulated by the de Mullet family into one property.
From 1670 began a lineage of connected family ownership not broken until 1963, when the estate was acquired by the de Chavannes family, and passed by marriage to the de Clauzel family in 1677. When Alexandre de Ségur married Marie-Thérèse de Clauzel, Latour became a part of his vast property, to which he also added Chateau Lafite in 1716, just prior to his death. In 1718 his son Nicolas-Alexandre de Segur added Chateau Mouton and Chateau Calon-Segur to his holdings and began producing wines of great quality. The widespread reputation of Latour emerged at the beginning of the 18th century when its status was established on export markets such as England, alongside chateaux Lafite, Margaux and Pontac.
With the death of Nicolas-Alexandre Ségur in 1755 the estate was divided among four daughters, three of whom inherited Latour in 1760,and with absent landlords, Latour was managed by a regisseur charged with efficient administration and thorough correspondence with the owners. Receiving more care than under the late owner whose favourite had been Lafite, Latour improved in the later half of the century, and later became a favourite of Thomas Jefferson, then minister to France, when he categorised La Tour de Ségur as a vineyard of first quality in 1787.
With the onset of the French Revolutin, the property became divided. The Comte de Ségur-Cabanac fled France and his portion was auctioned off by the state in 1794, passing through several owners. The estate was not reunited until 1841, when the family succeeded in a plot to put the estate up for sale, and eventually emerged after an auction having regained the 20% shares owned by négociants Barton, Guestier and Johnston. The Société Civile de Château Latour was formed in 1842, exclusive to the family, who then had become shareholders.
Ahead of the International Exhibition in Paris, the selection of Latour as one of the four First Growths in the Classification of 1855 consolidated its reputation, and ensured its high prices. The present château was completed in 1864.
Modern History
In 1963 the estate finally left the Ségur family, then named de Beaumont, when the heirs sold three-quarters of the Château Latour shares to the British interests of the Pearson Group under control of Lord Cowdray, with shares owned by Harvey's of Bristol. Henri Martin and Jean-Paul Gardère were appointed as managers which brought about substantial innovations.Investments were made in research, vineyards were expanded by acquisition and replanting, the chai was extended and Latour became the first of the first growths to modernise their whole production, replacing the old oak fermenting vats with stainless steel temperature-controlled vats. The second wine with fruit from younger vines was initiated, and fruit for the grand vin was decided to come exclusively from the vineyards shown on the plan of the domain from 1759. Martin and Gardère formally resigned from the Conseil d'Administration in 1987, ending a 24-year era.
In 1989 Latour was purchased by Allied Lyons for around £110 million, but in 1993 returned to French ownership when bought by businessman Francois Pinaul for £86 million when it became part of his holding company Groupe Artemis.
In December 2008 it was reported that the investment bank Lazard was offering the estate for sale. The Sunday Times speculated that among the interested parties were wine mogul Bernard Magrez, with actors Gerard Depardieu and Carole Bouque, in a transaction which would bring one of the five first growths under the control of a resident Bordelais for the first time in several decades.
Production
The estate has 78 hectares (190 acres) of vineyard, of which a 47-hectare (120-acre) portion near the château is named l'Enclos, where fruit exclusive to the grand vin is grown. The composition of grape varieties is 80% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot, and 2% of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
The grand vin Chateau Latour, typically a blend of 75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, with the remainder Petit Verdot and Cabernet Franc, normally has an annual production of 18,000 cases. The second wine Les Forts de Latour, typically 70% Cabernet Sauvignon and 30% Merlot, has an average annual production of 11,000 cases.
The Grand Cru Classe of the 1855 Bordeaux Classification are considered the best of the best because of their rich history and record of consistency. The Pauillac commune of Bordeaux is considered one of the greatest wine growing communes of the Bordeaux.
The First Growths (Premiers Crus) are considered the top classification and include:
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