PARIS — Les Deux, the Danish menswear brand with the French name, has planted its flag in the Marais. It’s the brand’s first flagship outside Scandinavia, and is the next step of its global growth ambitions.
France has become one of the brand’s strongest European markets, reflecting both Les Deux’s rising popularity and its ability to bridge casualwear and contemporary tailoring.
“We have had a lot of success with this Americana sportswear — the old football styles, rugby, and preppy looks,” said chief executive officer Kristoffer Haapanen. “That hits the key consumer, and especially the French consumer, that we want to target quite well.”
He’s one half of the duo behind Les Deux, along with chief brand officer Andreas von der Heide. The two launched the brand in 2011.
Inside the Paris flagship, Les Deux is tailoring its in-store presentation to how men shop — by look rather than by piece.
That approach reflects the brand’s understanding of its core customer of men aged 25 to 35, many fresh out of college and just entering their first jobs. They want to look “more dressed up, but not too formal.” This demographic, he said, prefers clothes that move easily between work and leisure, such as a bomber jacket with coordinating trousers for “a cool, younger version of suiting.”
The in-store styling approach means customers can identify a look and snap it up, adding ease for the young consumer finding his sartorial footing.
“Men are less experimental. A lot of guys just want to get something they like, and a whole look inspires them. It’s not buying pieces, but buying into a style.”
Inside Les Deux’s Paris flagship.
For the flagship, Les Deux sought to capture a sense of clubby nostalgia in the architecture, which was designed by its in-house team. The interior is inspired by “classic American colleges,” with a mix of locker-room motifs such as trophies and tennis rackets, with a central basketball hoop. The space is lined with smoked wood — an aesthetic Haapanen said is heavily influenced by 1990s Ralph Lauren — and builds on that preppy collegiate aesthetic that has become a core part of the brand’s identity.
Their successful collaboration with Yale University launched earlier this year has become a creative touchstone. “Being able to visit the school and seeing their environment was such an inspiration for a lot of things that we’re doing now,” Haapanen said of the campus. It also taps into the current trend of the generation to romanticize that era.
While the brand’s design language draws heavily from Americana and preppy style, the appeal is universal, Haapanen believes. “The Americana look has always been appealing,” he said. “It has always been an inspiration for us since the get-go.”
Following the successful Yale collection, collaborations will remain a key part of Les Deux’s growth strategy.
“We’ve been really picky in what we do — it needs to make sense for us, it needs to make sense for the other brand,” Haapanen said.
Beyond Yale, Haapanen hinted at upcoming collaborations “with both universities and sporting teams,” but remained mum on any specifics. However, he teased the upcoming announcement of a partnership with a “household name.”
The Paris flagship underscores Les Deux’s sustained growth in France, where it has seen double-digit increases for four consecutive years. “France has been especially good for us,” Haapanen said.
In addition to the new flagship, Les Deux has expanded its French footprint through shops-in-shop at Galeries Lafayette and Citadium, as well as partnerships with Printemps and Reboul. Beyond France, strong sales in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the U.K. continue to drive the brand’s European growth.
It recently opened new offices and showrooms in Amsterdam and London, as part of its broader expansion strategy that hinges on building out local teams for a steady, infrastructure-first approach.
The brand entered the U.S. with its spring 2024 collection, and has grown exponentially through wholesale. It’s now carried in 15 Nordstrom and 11 Bloomingdale’s stores in key markets, with more planned, and 100 indie retailers. “For us, it was important that in the bigger cities we got exposure,” said Haapanen.
Inside Les Deux’s Paris flagship.
The duo’s love of Americana is not only in the design but now extends to their growth ambitions. Last year Les Deux opened a distribution center just outside of New York City, to streamline shipping and reduce delivery times. It also lays the groundwork for long-term growth in the U.S.
That move has taken the bite out of tariffs so far.
“At the moment, we have a lot of cost savings due to moving our distribution directly from our manufacturers to the U.S.,” he said of the American tariffs. The uncertainty of fluctuating rates is more difficult to grapple with, he said, calling for stability.
While Les Deux currently operates from a temporary showroom in New York, they are in the works to transition to a permanent location and build out a local team, in preparation for an eventual future flagship.
“We like this hybrid between both being able to serve the customer directly and being able to actually showcase our clothing in the environment we create,” he said. “We would love to open stores when there’s the right momentum and a local team on the ground.”
The U.K. has also seen double-digit growth, where it is carried in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.
The brand’s business is currently 86 percent wholesale, with 67 percent of that in physical retail and department stores. Including their DTC sales, Haapanen said it breaks down as roughly 60 percent offline sales.
Despite global economic headwinds, physical retail remains key for Les Deux. “People want to have that tactile experience,” he added. “People actually buy it when they see it, like nine out of 10 times.”
