"The men that Aomame and Ayumi had chosen the last time were in their late thirties or forties. Both had full heads of hair, but Aomame was willing to compromise on that point. They said they were with a company that dealt in real estate, but judging from their Hugo Boss suits and Missoni Uomo neckties, they were not just ordinary employees of giant conglomerates like Mitsubishi or Mitsui, whose employees were bound by finicky rules, tradition, and endless meetings, but rather they worked for a more aggressive, flexible company with a cool, foreign-sounding name, a place that looked for individual talent and richly rewarded success. One of the men carried keys to a brand-new Alfa Romeo. Tokyo was short on office space, they said." (360-361)
Murakami, Haruki. Jay Rubin and Philip Gabriel, trans. 1Q84. New York: Vintage International, 2011.
A Hugo Boss suit speaks volumes. Or was it the Uomo tie? Does Western High Fashion signal singularity, aggressiveness, and flexibility, or is it specific brands? I want very badly to know what the Conglomorate Dress Code (in Japan c.1984) comprises, in Murakami's narrative opinion.
Photo credit: Hugo Boss ad from the late 1980s, from here.