Alfred Dunhill

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Alfred Dunhill, Ltd. is a British luxury goods company named after its founder , which is now part of the Swiss Richemont group.

Dunhill started an exclusive tobacco shop in London in 1907 and expanded the dunhill range over the years. The tobacco division - and with it the Dunhill cigarette brand - was spun off to British American Tobacco in 1967 . Under the brand name dunhill London , high-priced leather goods , clothing , shoes , accessories , glasses , perfume , writing implements , lighters and watches are now offered for men through an international network of their own boutiques and upscale retailers .

history

Alfred Dunhill (1872–1959) joined his father's saddlery business in London in 1887 as an apprentice , took it over in 1893 and, from 1904, initially developed a car accessories company, Dunhill Motorities , under the motto: "Everything for the car but the motor" ( for example: "Everything for the car except the engine"). In 1907 he gave up the auto accessories business and opened a tobacco shop in Duke Street, London, not far from Oxford Street . The range included exclusive tobacco blends in the upper price segment. In 1910 Dunhill became a manufacturer of tobacco pipes . A Dunhill store was opened in Paris as early as 1924 . In 1927 Dunhill launched the first lighter, dunhill Unique , that could be operated with one hand. In the same year a Dunhill branch opened in New York .

In 1929, Alfred Dunhill retired and handed the business over to his son, Alfred Henry Dunhill (1898–1971), who had been with the company since 1912. In 1934, the company launched a men's grooming line, Dunhill's Fragrances for Men , with shaving and scented lotions. From 1963, the tobacco range was supplemented by the in-house cigarette brand Dunhill . In 1954, Alfred Henry Dunhill's book The Gentle Art of Smoking was published , which is still a standard work on tobacco consumption today (German: The noble art of smoking , Munich 1971). In the 1960s, the company expanded into the Asian market with its own stores in Hong Kong and Tokyo . The company's tobacco business (cigarettes, cigars, pipe tobacco) was sold in 1967 and is now part of British American Tobacco, with the exception of the pipe production that remained in the group.

In 1977 the Hamburg stationery company Montblanc was bought up. In 1985, Dunhill took over the French women's fashion brand Chloé . The men's fashion brand Hackett London was added in 1991. In 1992, Dunhill bought the fashion brand Karl Lagerfeld . In 1993 the Dunhill Holding was merged with Cartier and renamed Groupe Vendôme , the main shareholder of which was the Swiss Richemont Group founded in 1988. In 1998, Richemont took over 100% of Groupe Vendôme. Montblanc and Chloé are still part of the Richemont Group, along with other brands. The Karl Lagerfeld brand was sold in 1997 and Hackett London was sold to the Spanish Torreal group in 2005.

Although selected items from the men's clothing sector, such as leather jackets and vests, were part of the Dunhill portfolio from the start, a complete men's collection was not launched until the 1977/78 autumn / winter season. It was headed from 2008 to 2010 by British fashion designer Kim Jones and presented during the international fashion weeks in Paris. A design team then took care of the drafts. For a few seasons in the early 2010s, dunhill was present with men's fashion at London Fashion Week . British actor Jude Law was the campaign face for dunhill menswear from 2007. In 2013, John Ray, a former Gucci designer from Scotland, was hired as chief designer at dunhill. Ray left dunhill in early 2016. In early 2017, the new dunhill CEO, Andrew Maag, who had been poached by Burberry , brought former Burberry designer Mark Weston to dunhill as the new creative director. The company does not make clothing for women.

As of 2017 there were around 70 Alfred Dunhill stores worldwide, including boutiques in London, Canary Wharf , Auchterarder , Paris, Milan, Egypt, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, China, Dubai, Guam, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Macao, Malaysia, Monaco, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan and Belarus also have shops-in-shops at Harrods , Selfridges and Galeries Lafayette and outlets in Bicester , Marne -La-Vallée, New York , China and Hong Kong. In addition, maintains dunhill in Mayfair , Central (Hong Kong) , Huangpu and Ginza large-scale flagship stores , all in the style of a gentlemen's club are designed, in part, Spa , Restaurant and Bar include and by the company as homes are called.

Sponsorship

Dunhill also made a name for itself as a sponsor of golf tournaments : from 1985 to 2000 the Alfred Dunhill Cup was held, which has been called the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship since 2001 and takes place annually in St. Andrews .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Alfred Dunhill: Creative boss Kim Jones leaves , textilwirtschaft.de, September 13, 2010