About Us
For more than 30 years, Daniel Riedo and Klaus Ritzenhöfer have been gathering beautiful things from all around the world in order to offer a special style: your style.
„It is important to us, to offer you the most luxurious and unique items which will make your life more beautiful.“ — Daniel Riedo
APROPOS The Concept Store unites phantasy and tradition with beauty and art while creating a unique lifestyle: “It is important to us, to offer you the most luxurious and unique items which will make your life more beautiful.” For 30 years now, the two owners Klaus Ritzenhöfer and Daniel Riedo have been remaining faithful to their original credo. By providing exclusive fashion by international designers as well as beauty and interior products, they constantly prove their extraordinary taste for style and beautiful things.
„Each season brings new surprises and each year, there are new designers who fascinate us.“ — Klaus Ritzenhöfer
In 1984, Daniel Riedo and Klaus Ritzenhöfer opened their first store in the small village Gummersbach in Germany. At that time, they were already offering the biggest designer labels, such as Jil Sander, Iceberg, Toni Gard or Armani. In the mid-90s, American labels, such as Donna Karan and Calvin Klein, gained more and more importance. “We wanted to extend our assortment and believed that these brands would be the perfect fit. But the Americans did not want to cooperate with a store located in a city with only 50,000 inhabitants”, Klaus Ritzenhöfer remembers. “The US Labels basically required a move to a bigger city. This is how we ended up in Cologne.”
By now, Daniel Riedo and Klaus Ritzenhöfer own six exclusive APROPOS locations within Germany. Besides two concept stores and one Gucci store in Cologne, one store in Munich, one in Dusseldorf and two in Hamburg complete the luxurious world of APROPOS.
„Shopping should be a journey full of discoveries.“ — Daniel Riedo
The Founders
Daniel Riedo about: Klaus Ritzenhöfer
Together with Henning Korb, Klaus is responsible for the buying of our fashion and accessory labels. Comparing him to myself, I would say that he is rather the objective type. He knows how to deal with the rapid changes in the fashion industry. Thanks to his experience in the business, he perfectly anticipates the potential in a label. He never falls for short living trends. If a collection does not fit to APROPOS and our aesthetics, then it will not be ordered. Klaus is very consequent when it comes to these decisions, which is one of the reasons for our success and our APROPOS DNA. I am more of a sentimental person. It’s great that each of us has his separate work area, but together we create a special blend which has been working for more than 30 years now.
Klaus Ritzenhöfer about: Daniel Riedo
Due to the fact that I am traveling six months a year, Daniel is taking care of the daily business and our staff which, by now, consists of more than 100 employees. He is the person on the spot and knows all about the current incidents in our stores. People like him because of his open and outgoing personality and because of the fact that he always listens to everyone's problems and concerns. In the meantime, he is also responsible for the buying of products that land in our beauty and interior department. All in all, it is quite an exhausting full-time job. Daniel’s style is, compared to mine, more playful; with him, things can be rather imaginative and opulent – a quality which fits perfectly to his department. Especially the niche perfumes are his strength. There is no one better or faster than him when it comes to spotting new trends.