PARIS – With a French name, Danish menswear brand Les Deux has set up its flag in the Marais. This is the brand’s first flagship outside of Scandinavia and is the next step towards global growth.
France has become one of the brand’s strongest European markets, reflecting Les Deux’s growing popularity and ability to combine casual wear with contemporary tailoring.
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“We’ve had a lot of success with this Americana sportswear, with old football styles, rugby and the look,” said CEO Kristoffer Haapanen. “It hurts the core consumer, and especially the French consumer, which we want to target quite well.”
He is one half of the duo behind Les Deux, along with Chief Brand Officer Andreas von der Heide. They both launched the brand in 2011.
Inside the Paris flagship, Les Deux adapts its in-store presentation to the way men shop – by looks, not pieces.
This approach reflects the brand’s understanding of its core customers, 25-35-year-old men, many of whom are fresh out of college and just entering the workforce. They want to look “dressed up, but not too formal.” This demographic, he says, prefers clothes that easily transition from work to leisure, such as a jacket with matching pants for a “cool, younger version of a suit.”
The in-store approach to styling means that customers can identify and refine the look, making it easier for the young consumer to find their footing.
“Men are less experimental. A lot of guys just want to get what they like and the whole look inspires them. It’s not about buying the pieces, it’s about buying the style.”
For the flagship, Les Deux aimed to capture a sense of club nostalgia in the architecture created 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 that Haapanen says was heavily influenced by 1990s Ralph Lauren, and builds on that sophisticated 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 test. “Being able to visit the school and see its environment was such an inspiration for a lot of the things we’re doing now,” Haapanen said of the campus. It also includes the current generation’s tendency to romanticize that era.
While the brand’s design language leans heavily on Americana and preppy, the appeal is universal, Haapanen believes. “The Americana look has always been attractive,” he said. “It’s always inspired us from the beginning.
Following the success of the Yale collection, collaboration will remain a key part of Les Deux’s growth strategy.
“We’ve been very selective about what we do — it has to make sense for us, it has to make sense for the other brand,” Haapanen said.
In addition to Yale, Haapanen hinted at future collaborations “with both universities and sports teams,” but remained mum on any specifics. But he teased an upcoming announcement of a partnership with a “household name.”
The Paris flagship highlights Les Deux’s sustained growth in France, where it has seen double-digit growth for four consecutive years. “France was especially good for us,” Haapanen said.
In addition to the new flagship, Les Deux has expanded its French footprint through Galeries Lafayette and Citadium stores, as well as collaborations with Printemps and Reboul. In addition to France, strong sales in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and the UK continue to drive the brand’s growth in Europe.
It recently opened new offices and showrooms in Amsterdam and London as part of a broader expansion strategy that relies on building local teams to create a sustainable, infrastructure-first approach.
The brand entered the US in 2024. spring collection and grew exponentially through wholesale. It is now sold in 15 Nordstrom and 11 Bloomingdale’s stores in major markets, with more planned, and 100 independent retailers. “It was important for us to be shown in the bigger cities,” Haapanen said.
The duo’s love of Americana goes beyond design, but now extends to their ambitions for growth. Last year, Les Deux opened a distribution center just outside of New York to streamline shipping and reduce delivery times. It also sets the stage for long-term growth in the US
The move has so far eliminated tariffs.
“Right now, we’re saving a lot of costs because we’re going to move distribution directly from our manufacturers to the U.S.,” he said of the American tariffs. The uncertainty of fluctuating interest rates is harder to deal with, he said, calling for stability.
Although Les Deux currently operates out of a temporary showroom in New York, they are preparing to move to a permanent location and assemble a local team in preparation for their upcoming flagship.
“We love this hybrid between being able to serve customers directly and actually showcase our clothes in an environment that we create,” he said. “We would like to open stores when there is the right momentum and the local team.”
It also saw double-digit growth in the UK, where it is carried in Harvey Nichols and Selfridges.
The brand’s business is currently 86 percent wholesale and 67 percent physical retail and department stores. Including their DTC sales, Haapanen said offline sales account for about 60 percent.
Despite the headwinds of the global economy, brick-and-mortar retail remains central to Les Deux. “People want to have that tactile experience,” he added. “People actually buy it when they see it, like nine times out of 10.”
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