All good stories start with the famous words ‘once upon a time’ and ours is no different! Because our story – describing our rise from a single retail shop to an international fashion and lifestyle corporation – is a bit like a fairy tale. In 1969, Bernd Freier founded a small – in fact minute 25 square-metre – boutique in Würzburg in southern Germany. He called it ‘Sir Oliver’, after the hero of Charles Dickens’ novel Oliver Twist. The ‘Sir’ was added to the name in order to reflect the spirit of the times, and in homage to the London fashion scene; lending the boutique an international flair, as many of the British capital’s most successful gentlemen’s outfitters also featured a ‘Sir’ in their names.

Back in the 1970s, fashion suppliers were frequently unable to deliver the quantities ordered by the retailers, or to deliver them on time. So in 1974, Bernd Freier decided to travel to India to negotiate directly with local textile manufacturers, thereby gaining independence from the wholesalers. As a result of this trip, he managed to have his own range of ‘Madras Check shirts’ manufactured, and these became very popular indeed – and not just on the German fashion market. Owing to a legal dispute, ‘Sir Oliver’ had to be renamed ‘s.Oliver’, and this has remained the brand name to this day. It was registered with the German patent office in Munich in 1979. With hindsight, the enforced name change turned out to be a stroke of luck, as ‘Sir Oliver’ is unlikely to have appealed much to ladies... In 1993, Chaloc GmbH was founded. It was renamed in 2002 and is now the well-known brand ‘comma’. comma now operates autonomously and is completely independent from s.Oliver.
A milestone was achieved in 1998: The opening of the first retail store outside of Germany (in Austria). Shops in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg followed. Over the next few years, the company expanded into Eastern Europe (for example the Czech Republic and Poland), and even as far as India. Within just a few decades, s.Oliver had grown into one of Germany’s – and Europe’s – leading fashion companies. Today, its range of fashion and lifestyle products is available in over 30 countries.
Our history proves that ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’... Are you interested in finding out what else we have got planned? Then join us!