PARIS — Les Deux, the Danish menswear model with the French identify, has planted its flag within the Marais. It’s the model’s first flagship outdoors Scandinavia, and is the subsequent step of its international development ambitions.
France has develop into one of many model’s strongest European markets, reflecting each Les Deux’s rising reputation and its capacity to bridge casualwear and modern tailoring.
“Now we have had lots of success with this Americana sportswear — the previous soccer kinds, rugby, and preppy seems,” stated chief government officer Kristoffer Haapanen. “That hits the important thing shopper, and particularly the French shopper, that we wish to goal fairly effectively.”
He’s one half of the duo behind Les Deux, together with chief model officer Andreas von der Heide. The 2 launched the model in 2011.
Contained in the Paris flagship, Les Deux is tailoring its in-store presentation to how males store — by look somewhat than by piece.
That strategy displays the model’s understanding of its core buyer of males aged 25 to 35, many contemporary out of faculty and simply coming into their first jobs. They wish to look “extra dressed up, however not too formal.” This demographic, he stated, prefers garments that transfer simply between work and leisure, equivalent to a bomber jacket with coordinating trousers for “a cool, youthful model of suiting.”
The in-store styling strategy means prospects can establish a glance and snap it up, including ease for the younger shopper discovering his sartorial footing.
“Males are much less experimental. A whole lot of guys simply wish to get one thing they like, and a complete look evokes them. It’s not shopping for items, however shopping for into a method.”
Inside Les Deux’s Paris flagship.
For the flagship, Les Deux sought to seize a way of clubby nostalgia within the structure, which was designed by its in-house group. The inside is impressed by “traditional American schools,” with a mixture of locker-room motifs equivalent to trophies and tennis rackets, with a central basketball hoop. The area is lined with smoked wooden — an aesthetic Haapanen stated is closely influenced by Nineties Ralph Lauren — and builds on that preppy collegiate aesthetic that has develop into a core a part of the model’s identification.
Their profitable collaboration with Yale College launched earlier this yr has develop into a artistic touchstone. “Having the ability to go to the varsity and seeing their setting was such an inspiration for lots of issues that we’re doing now,” Haapanen stated of the campus. It additionally faucets into the present pattern of the era to romanticize that period.
Whereas the model’s design language attracts closely from Americana and preppy type, the enchantment is common, Haapanen believes. “The Americana look has at all times been interesting,” he stated. “It has at all times been an inspiration for us for the reason that get-go.”
Following the profitable Yale assortment, collaborations will stay a key a part of Les Deux’s development technique.
“We’ve been actually choosy in what we do — it must make sense for us, it must make sense for the opposite model,” Haapanen stated.
Past Yale, Haapanen hinted at upcoming collaborations “with each universities and sporting groups,” however remained mum on any specifics. Nonetheless, he teased the upcoming announcement of a partnership with a “family identify.”
The Paris flagship underscores Les Deux’s sustained development in France, the place it has seen double-digit will increase for 4 consecutive years. “France has been particularly good for us,” Haapanen stated.
Along with the brand new flagship, Les Deux has expanded its French footprint by means of shops-in-shop at Galeries Lafayette and Citadium, in addition to partnerships with Printemps and Reboul. Past France, sturdy gross sales in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.Okay. proceed to drive the model’s European development.
It just lately opened new places of work and showrooms in Amsterdam and London, as a part of its broader enlargement technique that hinges on constructing out native groups for a gentle, infrastructure-first strategy.
The model entered the U.S. with its spring 2024 assortment, and has grown exponentially by means of wholesale. It’s now carried in 15 Nordstrom and 11 Bloomingdale’s shops in key markets, with extra deliberate, and 100 indie retailers. “For us, it was necessary that within the greater cities we acquired publicity,” stated Haapanen.
Inside Les Deux’s Paris flagship.
The duo’s love of Americana just isn’t solely within the design however now extends to their development ambitions. Final yr Les Deux opened a distribution heart simply outdoors of New York Metropolis, to streamline transport and cut back supply occasions. It additionally lays the groundwork for long-term development within the U.S.
That transfer has taken the chunk out of tariffs thus far.
“In the mean time, we’ve lots of value financial savings as a consequence of shifting our distribution straight from our producers to the U.S.,” he stated of the American tariffs. The uncertainty of fluctuating charges is harder to grapple with, he stated, calling for stability.
Whereas Les Deux at present operates from a brief showroom in New York, they’re within the works to transition to a everlasting location and construct out an area group, in preparation for an eventual future flagship.
“We like this hybrid between each with the ability to serve the shopper straight and with the ability to really showcase our clothes within the setting we create,” he stated. “We might like to open shops when there’s the appropriate momentum and an area group on the bottom.”
The U.Okay. has additionally seen double-digit development, the place it’s carried in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.
The model’s enterprise is at present 86 % wholesale, with 67 % of that in bodily retail and department shops. Together with their DTC gross sales, Haapanen stated it breaks down as roughly 60 % offline gross sales.
Regardless of international financial headwinds, bodily retail stays key for Les Deux. “Individuals wish to have that tactile expertise,” he added. “Individuals really purchase it once they see it, like 9 out of 10 occasions.”
