PARIS — Les Deux, the Danish menswear brand with the French name, has planted its flag in the Marais. It is the brand’s first flagship outside Scandinavia and is the next step in its global growth ambitions.
France has become one of the brand’s strongest European markets, reflecting both Les Deux’s growing popularity and its ability to bridge casual wear and modern tailoring.
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“We’ve had a lot of success with these Americana sportswear – the old football styles, the rugby and the preppy look,” says managing director Kristoffer Haapanen. “It hits the key consumer, and particularly the French consumer, which we want to target quite well.”
He is one half of the duo behind Les Deux, together with chief brand officer Andreas von der Heide. The two launched the brand in 2011.
Inside the Paris flagship, Les Deux tailors its store presentation to the way men shop – by looks rather than bite.
That approach reflects the brand’s understanding of its core customer base of men aged 25 to 35, many recently 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, like a bomber jacket with coordinating pants for “a cool, younger version of the suit.”
The in-store styling approach means customers can identify a look and snap it up, making it easier for the young consumer to find their 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 about buying pieces, it’s about buying into a style.”
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 college”, 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 that Haapanen said is heavily influenced by 1990s Ralph Lauren — and builds on the preppy collegiate aesthetic that has become central to 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 see 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 generation’s current trend of romanticizing 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 beginning.”
Following the successful Yale collection, collaborations will remain an important part of Les Deux’s growth strategy.
“We’ve been really picky about what we do — it has to make sense for us, it has to make sense for the other brand,” Haapanen said.
Beyond Yale, Haapanen hinted at upcoming collaborations “with both universities and sports teams,” but remained mum on some details. But he teased the upcoming announcement of a partnership with a “famous name”.
The Paris flagship underlines Les Deux’s sustained growth in France, where it has seen double-digit increases for four consecutive years. “France has been particularly good for us,” Haapanen said.
In addition to the new flagship, Les Deux has expanded its French footprint through shops-in-shops at Galeries Lafayette and Citadium, as well as partnerships with Printemps and Reboul. Beyond France, strong sales in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK continue to drive the brand’s European growth.
It recently opened new offices and showrooms in Amsterdam and London, as part of its wider expansion strategy based on building out local teams for a steady, infrastructure-first approach.
The brand entered the US with its spring 2024 collection and has grown exponentially through wholesale. It is now available in 15 Nordstrom and 11 Bloomingdale’s stores in key markets, with more planned, and 100 indie retailers. – For us, it was important that we got exposure in the bigger cities, said Haapanen.
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 New York City, to streamline shipping and reduce delivery times. It also lays the foundation for long-term growth in the US
That measure has taken the bite out of tariffs so far.
“Right now we have a lot of cost savings because we’re moving our distribution directly from our manufacturers to the United States,” he said of the U.S. tariffs. The uncertainty of fluctuating interest rates is harder to deal with, he said, calling for stability.
While Les Deux currently operates from a temporary showroom in New York, they are in the process of transitioning to a permanent location and building out a local team, in preparation for a possible future flagship.
“We like this hybrid of both being able to serve the customer directly and actually being able to showcase our clothes in the environment we create,” he said. “We would love to open stores when there is the right momentum and a local team on the ground.”
The UK has also seen double-digit growth, where it is happening in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.
The brand’s operations are currently 86 percent wholesale, of which 67 percent in physical retail and department stores. Including their DTC sales, Haapanen said it breaks down to roughly 60 percent offline sales.
Despite global economic headwinds, brick-and-mortar retail remains key to Les Deux. “People want that tactile experience,” he added. “People actually buy it when they see it, like nine times out of ten.”
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