From cloth maker to world-famous fashion brand: Lodenfrey is 180 years old

Created: 11/29/2022, 09:58 am

By: Regina Mittermeier

The Lodenhaus fashion house has been a feature of the Munich cityscape for a long time.

In 2022 the company will celebrate its 180th anniversary.

Munich – A huge portion of trust and 250 guilders – Johann Georg Frey got that from his mother when she pushed him out into the world in 1842.

So the then 21-year-old Weber moved out of his parents' house in the village of Klingenstein near Ulm.

With 250 guilders he could have opened a business at home, because that was a lot of money at the time, the equivalent of almost 3000 euros.

The Lodenfrey fashion house on Maffeistrasse in Munich.

© Ralph Peters/Imago

But instead, the Munich Freys wrote fashion history with their water-repellent loden fabrics.

The company is celebrating its 180th birthday this year.

And almost the whole world knows the traditional and designer fashion from Lodenfrey.

Munich: Lodenfrey celebrates its anniversary - for 180 years in the Bavarian capital

And it happened like this: Johann Georg Frey, son of a cloth maker, came to Munich in 1842.

With his mother's money, he rented a place on Adalbertstraße in Maxvorstadt, bought a weaving license and ten looms.

The fabrics that his employees wove were so fine that not only the fashionable people of the then royal city of Munich liked them.

Even Bavaria's King Maximilian II loved clothes from the House of Frey.

Lodenfrey founder Johann Georg Frey came to Munich in 1842.

© Lodenfrey/Marcus Sleep

Business was good and so Frey set up his first shop in 1853.

Every day, many people stood in amazement in front of the large shop windows at Marienplatz.

Nevertheless, Frey continued to tinker - and developed the first water-repellent loden fabric.

His invention was so revolutionary that he promptly won first prize at the Paris World Exhibition in 1855, says Lodenfrey Managing Director Markus Höhn.

Frey's idea marked the beginning of the company's success story.

Fashion company Lodenfrey moved from Marienplatz to Maffeistrasse in 1868

In 1868, Lodenfrey moved from Marienplatz to Maffeistraße near Promenadeplatz.

To sell the fabrics, Frey bought the house at number 7, which is still the parent company today.

And in 1870, Frey founded a factory on Osterwaldstrasse east of the English Garden to manufacture fabrics.

Thanks to the location on the Schwabinger Bach, machines could be operated with hydropower.

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Loden fabric itself was not a new invention, people have been wearing it for thousands of years.

For this purpose, sheep's wool is kneaded and felted into a resistant cloth.

At first, farmers and shepherds used it to protect themselves from wind and weather.

It was only later, in the 19th century, that Sisi's husband Franz Joseph made the loden jacket a fashionable must-have at the Viennese court.

During this time, the international triumph of loden fabric started, thanks to the Freys.

The company is and always has been a family business, with ups and downs.

In the night from April 24th to 25th, 1944, bombs rained down on several company buildings and the house on Maffeistrasse also burned down to the outer walls.

After the Second World War it was painstakingly rebuilt and reopened on September 17, 1949.

Lodenfrey recovered and in the 1990s even top models like Linda Evangelista posed for Lodenfrey.

Markus Höhn has been in charge of the Munich fashion company Lodenfrey since 2002.

© Lodenfrey/Marcus Sleep

Lodenfrey reinvented itself: "Before we had a dusty image"

Markus Höhn has been managing the company since 2002.

“Before, we had a dusty image,” he looks back.

That's why Höhn wanted to bring the house into the modern age with exclusive designer brands.

York-Tom and Ralph-Michael Nagel are descendants of the Freys and majority shareholders.

They stand by Höhn in an advisory capacity.

“We have a diverse range.

It ranges from vintage fashion to special pieces that cannot be found everywhere,” says Ralph-Michael Nagel.

And of course Lodenfrey still sells traditional jackets, reports Markus Höhn.

Lodenfrey does not want to do without this tradition – not even for the next 180 years.

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