Business

Meet the new Boss

Macy’s is planning to launch an exclusive clothing line from Hugo Boss next year, The Post has learned.

The new line, whose working name is “White Label,” is expected to include suits, sportswear and accessories for men and women at lower prices than most of the wares currently sold under the Hugo Boss brand, sources said.

The clothing line is the latest high-profile exclusive for Macy’s CEO Terry Lundgren, who last week inked an agreement for Macy’s to become the sole department-store distributor for the Sean John label founded by hip-hop mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs.

Macy’s, which is in talks to launch the new Hugo Boss line in fall 2011, also has recently secured exclusive lines from Tommy Hilfiger and Diesel jeans.

“We are always talking to a wide range of vendors about merchandise plans, including potential exclusives,” a Macy’s spokesman said, declining to comment more specifically.

Hugo Boss officials didn’t respond to phone calls seeking comment.

Sources said the initiative is key to a five-year plan at Hugo Boss, begun last year by CEO Claus-Dietrich Lahrs. Facing a maturing business in Europe, Lahrs wants to double the size of the German fashion house’s US business.

That won’t be easy, partly because Hugo Boss suits are already sold at most of the country’s high-end specialty outlets, including Saks and Nordstrom, as well as the Macy’s-owned Bloomingdale’s.

Brushing off concerns that a lower-priced line could tarnish Hugo Boss’s cachet, Lahrs is “going after Ralph Lauren,” and mimicking the American fashion icon’s strategy of pursuing middle-market shoppers in addition to wealthy ones, according to a source close to the label.

Lahrs “saw what Macy’s has done with Tommy Hilfiger, and told his people he wanted something similar for Hugo Boss,” according to the source.

Hugo Boss, which is part of the debt-ridden Valentino Fashion Group that was purchased in 2007 by British private-equity firm Permira, is likewise under pressure to offset recent losses at the Valentino fashion label.

james.covert@nypost.com