Why Princess Charlene Swears by the Swiss Label Akris
"Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below."
When Indra Nooyi discovered Akris in 2010, four years after she had been named CEO of PepsiCo, she was one of 11 female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Her first purchase was the Akris double-face sheath. She bought the same style in black, navy, and gray, so each dress could be paired with multiple jackets.
“If you look at my closet now, it’s about 65 percent Akris,” says Nooyi, who cherishes the brand’s tailoring, not to mention the boost of confidence the clothes provided to the lone senior-ranking woman in rooms dominated by men. “No longer did I have to feel uncomfortable about the fact that I was a woman or an immigrant. There I was, this elegantly turned-out person. They say clothes make the man. I tell you something: Clothes make a woman too—if they’re the right clothes.”
Women have always been the core constituents of Akris, the Swiss luxury goods label that is marking its centenary with a new book out this month titled, Akris: A Century in Fashion: Selbstverständlich ($85, Lars Müller Publishers), from which this essay is adapted. That word has no English equivalent but it conveys, in the words of designer Albert Kriemler, “the aesthetic ideal of natural self-evidence.” (Among the label's most well-known female clients are Princess Charlene of Monaco, who attended its 100th anniversary show during Paris Fashion Week; First Ladies Michelle Obama and Jill Biden; and Cate Blanchett.)
It was Kriemler’s grandmother Alice Kriemler-Schoch, who opened the first atelier in 1922 at the age of 26, and his mother Ute who cemented lasting relationships with clients and stores. Ute’s memory still looms large.
“Albert Kriemler’s effortlessly dressed, elegant, and sportif mother Ute was always at the heart of the brand, not only in her style but also in her ease and confidence,” says Linda Fargo, senior vice president of fashion at Bergdorf Goodman. “She was Albert’s muse, to be sure, and at the core of his inspiration for many years.”
As she steered her sons Albert and Peter to take over the family business, Ute was key to Akris’s relationship with Bergdorf Goodman, which began in 1988 and continues today. She was the company’s envoy to New York, hosting trunk shows and sales appointments in the ’80s and ’90s. The personal touch of a family-held fashion brand remains a rarity.
“Ute would be there in the sales meeting waiting to greet you. She would walk you through,” says Roopal Patel, fashion director of Saks Fifth Avenue.
When Patel was at Bergdorf Goodman in the early 2000s, word was circulating about the quiet Swiss house. “The rumor was, Albert knew how to cut an incredible jacket.” At a time when other designers were working in pinstripes, black, navy, and charcoal, he was experimenting with saturated jewel tones and changing up the notch on the collar.
Around then, Vanessa Kingori was appointed publisher of British GQ, and she bought her first Akris jacket at the London store. It was a black number with slightly cropped sleeves. As the first woman, the first person of color, and the youngest person ever to hold the role, she wanted to make an impression. She remembers wearing the jacket to her first big meeting as publisher.
“That was a really pivotal moment in my life. When you’re the first and only in a role like that, you have slight impostor syndrome no matter how qualified you are,” she recalls. “That jacket gave me the feeling of holding me up and making me stand taller.” It didn’t make the woman—it did what it was designed to do.
This story appears in the November 2022 issue of Town & Country. SUBSCRIBE NOW
You Might Also Like
