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This is the fashion turnaround equivalent of just losing weight and calling it fitness. Hugo Boss sold a lot less clothing last quarter and made more money on each piece it did sell, which is a genuine accomplishment and also precisely what a company says when it has stopped growing.

Second-quarter EBIT was €59 million, down from €81 million a year ago, against the €52 million analysts had penciled in. Currency-adjusted sales fell 9% to €905 million, about where everyone expected them.

EMEA is the problem. Sales there fell 13% to €532 million, soft demand in Germany, the UK and France running into thinner store traffic across the Middle East. The Americas were down 1%. Asia-Pacific fell 5%.

Nearly everything else in the release read better. Gross margin rose 200 basis points to 64.9% on sourcing efficiencies, firmer pricing and more full-price selling. Operating expenses came down 4%. Free cash flow before leases was €105 million. Inventories ended the quarter 15% lower than a year ago, which for an apparel company is the number that tells you whether management has its hands on the wheel.

Guidance didn't move: currency-adjusted sales down a mid- to high-single-digit percentage, EBIT between €300 million and €350 million.

And Frasers is still standing there with its €38-a-share offer, which Hugo Boss maintains is too low. Shareholders have until August 13.

"Claim 5 Touchdown" is the name of the plan, and the plan is to be smaller on purpose. Fewer doors, tighter product range, less inventory, fewer markdowns, more money spent defending the brand. The strategy before it chased growth wherever growth was available, which is how a company ends up with warehouses full of stock and a discount habit it can't kick.

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So the margin beat is the entire argument. Daniel Grieder cleared profit forecasts with sales down 9%, which lets him tell investors that demand is bad and the business is fine. In this market that is about as much as any apparel CEO can offer.

Marketing is where it gets uncomfortable. Grieder is cutting costs across the company while still needing to spend real money behind BOSS and HUGO, because pricing power ultimately comes from consumers believing the clothes are worth it. Brand elevation only works if people feel elevated. Otherwise it's fewer discounts with better lighting.

Fashion turnarounds take three or four years. Frasers has given everyone nine days. That's the tension in this whole thing, and it has less to do with strategy than with who gets to be patient with whose money.

Investors have declined to pick a side. The stock barely moved, partly because the Frasers bid puts a floor under it and partly because the operating picture is still a mess. Margin up, inventory down, cash better, brands sharper. Sales still falling, EMEA still deteriorating, HUGO in the middle of a repositioning, BOSS womenswear in the middle of another one, and nobody promising growth until sometime later.

Management has proved it can defend earnings. Growing again without reaching for the discount lever is a different job entirely.

August 13 settles who owns the company. After that it's EMEA, the full-price mix, inventory, cash and whether €300 million to €350 million of EBIT survives contact with the second half.

Hugo Boss has earned itself some credibility. Now it has to sell the turnaround.

What was making it read synthetic, for future reference: every paragraph was two or three sentences long and every one ended on a little punchline, so the rhythm turned metronomic. I also cut the signposting phrases that were welding sections together ("The margin line is where management wants your attention," "Here is the squeeze," "Call it a prove-it story") and let a few paragraphs just deliver information without a joke at the end.