FITTING ROOM: Parisian footwear brand Phileo is making its first retail move with the opening of a store on Friday.
The 650-square-foot unit, located 37 Boulevard Beaumarchais at the edge of the Marais district, will also have office space for the brand’s teams.
Behind large street-facing windows framed in pale grey, founder and designer Philéo Landowski gave his first retail outpost, which he designed himself, an intentionally raw character. A tunnel-like entrance leads into an open space with high ceilings bisected by metal beams painted in the same light grey and compressed wood elements.
Stacked visibly behind a partition, the brand’s footwear stock also serves as a feature.
“The idea was to have a space that could offer the maximum flexibility while having a recognizable base,” the designer told WWD. “I had this initial reticence to having a store because I was wary of having something too fixed, where things couldn’t move.”
Shoe inventory forms part of the store decor.
Beyond the retail space, Landowski intends his store to be “a space of full expression for the brand” where he will stage exhibitions and unfurl “scalable collaborations” that extend the Phileo universe.
Taking pride of place for the opening is a reinterpreted version of the DCM Chair, a design by Charles and Ray Eames for Vitra, this time decked in hand-plated silver leaf on the original plywood structure.
The Vitra collaboration stemmed from a conversation several years ago. “When I started preparing the store, I wanted to pursue this idea of going beyond shoes or even clothing,” said Landowski. “It felt appropriate to bring a handmade touch to a super-static, super recognizable, highly industrial object like the DCM.”
Available for preorder until Jan. 17, it is set alongside design objects in an installation in collaboration with the Swiss design company.
Landowski launched the brand in 2019 as a teenager equipped with a 15,000-euro bank loan, a love for sneakers and a knack for entrepreneurship.
In addition to being part of Dover Street Market’s Paris-based brand development program since 2021, he has collaborated with Comme des Garçons, worked as a creative consultant for outdoor specialist Salomon, received a nomination as an accessories finalist at the 2025 ANDAM awards, and snapped up the 2024 Emerging Talent gong at the Footwear News Achievement Awards.
