Is there any point to shops? Alexander Brenninkmeijer certainly doesn't think so. "They're empty most of the time," he says. "Such a waste of space and money." Of course, as head designer of Clemens en August - the exclusive, shopless fashion label - he would say that. After all, his whole business ethos is based on the idea that you don't need any fixed premises or stockists to be a successful fashion designer.

Instead, Alexander has devised a touring schedule for his label, which means that his collection stops for just three days, twice a year, in a selection of hand-picked cities. Beyond that, you won't find it sold anywhere else in the world.

Next Wednesday, this high fashion roadshow, a favourite of actor James McAvoy and model Lily Cole, will touch down for the first time in Scotland, at the Lighthouse in Glasgow. "I think Glasgow has become a very interesting city," says Alexander. "When you hear people talk about big cities in Europe like Berlin and Paris, Glasgow is the next one they mention in their conversation. There's definitely a buzz about the place at the moment."

If there's a buzz about Glasgow at the moment, there's an audible collective humming about the Munich-based label Clemens en August. With beautifully constructed and well designed clothes, this curious creation is rapidly gaining cult status among those in the know. To add to the exclusivity of it all, each design is produced in limited batches and every garment is given an individual number, so that the customer can be sure they're not buying something that has been mass produced.

"It's about creating something that has accessible exclusivity," explains Alexander. "People, if they are informed enough, can find out about us by signing on to the website. Then we will inform them of when the clothes will be in their area and they can go to the sales. We also get business by word of mouth and we've grown more and more each year, in every city we go to that way."

While his retail ideas are interesting enough, it's the quality of Alexander's clothes that is really fuelling his label's popularity.

Men's simple suits and coats mingle with expertly made satin skirts and puff-sleeved blouses in the womenswear collection. These are the kind of clothes that whisper, rather than shout, about their sartorial greatness - a huge part of why they have become so popular in the past two years.

Clemens en August is bringing its spring-summer collection to Glasgow next week, so expect to see plenty of white shirts, sharp suiting for men and a few pops of colour in the form of skirts and jackets. However, as design numbers are limited, and the collection is on sale for only three days, unless you get to the Lighthouse early you might see only a few empty rails.

Although some might brand a touring fashion collection eccentric - or, as one bright observer put it, "just like the circus, except with better outfits" - it's a shrewd business model that has certainly worked for fashion-savvy Alexander. He was born into the C&A dynasty, set up by Dutch brothers Clemens and August Brenninkmeijer in 1841, so you could argue that fashion is most definitely in his blood.

Indeed, his first label, Kostas Murkudis, which appeared at the pret-a-porter collections in Paris each year, was an international success and stocked in some of the most exclusive stores in the world - Harvey Nichols and Browns to name but two. However, mounting overheads and soaring price tags forced him to make the tough decision to turn away from catwalk fashion and set up Clemens en August - deliberately named after his ancestors, but in no way connected to C&A - two years ago.

It's a decision he doesn't regret at all, he explains. "I don't miss being involved in the fashion world closely," he says. "I had a great time with them, but now that it's just us we can go where and do what we want. It also means I can sell the clothes at a better price rather than having to succumb to a store's mark-up, so it's better for the customers. It's a great position to be in."

The whistlestop touring schedule might sound like a clever selling trick, but the reality is a lot more innocent than that. Indeed, the company never advertises; instead it prefers that future customers find out about the label through word of mouth or fashion blogs.

While some might - and have - criticised Alexander for practising elitist fashion, the fact is he's just a designer doing things in his own imaginative way. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. Quite the opposite. With high streets becoming more homogenised by the day, we ought to be celebrating this somewhat leftfield approach to retail, not berating it.

This year the Clemens en August spring-summer tour includes destinations such as Berlin, New York, Zurich, London and Vienna - not bad for a label that started off in Munich just two years ago. While Alexander doesn't expect the clothes to be instantly popular with residents in each city, he now has repeat customers in several locations who come to his events to stock up their wardrobe each year.

"We have people who wait for us to come," he explains. "They might have seen other dresses or jackets in another shop, but they will wait for us to come and see what we bring, because they like our clothes so much. It's nice that people are basing their decisions on us.

"I never expect a city to be instantly popular; it can take a few years for word to spread and people to find out about us. But we've found that once the word is out, it gets busier every time we come."

With popularity for the Clemens en August label growing, does Alexander think he will ever give in and put down retail roots somewhere? "If I sell as much as I have done in Berlin in the past few days in every city, then I can't possibly see the need to have a shop," he offers. "I like that exclusivity thing that touring gives us - we're like that seasonal vegetable that comes around once a year that you look forward to.

"If you had that vegetable all year round you'd soon get bored and move on to something else. I don't want that to happen to our clothes."

Other retail pioneers

VOYAGE
Owned by an Italian family, the Mazzillis, this London boutique specialised in high-end but casual pieces such as knitted cardigans and velvet skirts. It was one of the most exclusive stores in the world - not the kind of shop you could just walk into. Even Madonna reportedly got no reply when she knocked on the door.

As a result of such eccentricity, its clothes became cult items but the business went into liquidation in 2002.

COMME DES GARCONS
Rei Kawakubo, head designer of Comme des Garcons, pioneered the idea of short-lived guerrilla stores, one of which opened in a warehouse in the Yorkhill district of Glasgow in 2006, and closed as planned in early 2007.

Unlike Clemens en August's whirlwind visits, these stores are designed to exist in one retail space for a maximum of a year. They have appeared everywhere from Berlin to LA, often in abandoned warehouses and galleries, and Comme des Garcons is always on the lookout for new locations.

TOPSHOP
The high-street giant was a pioneer of online shopping - and its limited editions and designers' ranges made its website one of the hottest on the internet.

ZARA
Spanish retailer Zara, which has branches in Glasgow, Edinburgh and East Kilbride, has mastered the art of quickfire shopping. Its local stock changes weekly, if not daily, ensuring shoppers always have something new to look at.

FIFI & ALLY
The Glasgow-based store made the bold decision to place cafe tables right next to its expensive clothing rails. This tactic has seen morning coffee breaks turn into impressive shopping sprees.

DOVER STREET MARKET
The London-based retail space, also owned by Commes des Garcons, has collaborated with artists and designers to create a unique retail space, and is just one of the stores that has specialised in on-line clubs that customers can use to secure themselves limited-edition pieces.