To receive the Vogue Business newsletter, sign up here.
It’s a fashion industry open secret that a number of runway pieces never end up hitting stores. For Autumn/Winter 2024, Parisian brand Officine Générale is going against the tide.
“I was radical this season, I said there wouldn’t be any special pieces developed for the show,” says founder, CEO and creative director Pierre Mahéo. He is speaking to Vogue Business from the brand’s design studio in the 6th arrondissement, ahead of its slot on the Paris Fashion Week schedule on Friday. “[For a previous show], we had many requests for pieces that we didn’t produce, that weren’t even in the showroom. It frustrated me so much that I said I’d never do that again.”
It’s all part of efforts to anchor Officine Générale in a “certain reality”, he explains. This extends to its designs: for AW24, expect “muted tones, volume and a quest for reality in the construction of looks and casting”, says Mahéo. Not only does the casting include a range of ages, Mahéo always seeks “characters rather than new faces”, he says.
It’s a strategy that appears to be working. While Mahéo declines to share revenue figures, he says consolidated sales were up 25 per cent globally in 2023. The brand has 200 points of sale and 14 stores — including seven in Paris, one in London and four in the US, three of which opened in 2023. Category expansion is also on the cards this year. But Officine Générale has to navigate an uncertain environment for fashion, with sluggish sales in Europe and the Paris Olympics coming, which could disrupt retail in France.
Mahéo, the grandson of a tailor, launched the menswear brand in 2012, and it quickly became known for its elevated essentials with a very French aesthetic — somewhere between APC and Lemaire. When streetwear took over menswear, Office Générale stood out in a refreshing way with its pared-back style and sober colour palette of grey, navy and black — no logo.
“Officine Générale combines classicism and modernity with a dash of Parisian casualness,” says Serge Carreira, director of emerging brands initiative at Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM). “It’s in tune with the times without trying to be trendy. The main challenge is to maintain a subtle balance between timelessness and modernity.”
Now that the menswear pendulum is swinging the other way, towards more comfortable tailoring, Officine Générale tends to be more in line with the trend. “We are one step ahead, as tailoring is our DNA. Our clients come to us for that,” Mahéo says. “We have seen a change in the last two years. Streetwear was dominant pre-Covid. We have come back to more wearability, more tailoring. Something is happening with a new idea behind how to dress, also in terms of spending: is it reasonable to spend €4,500 on a jacket or €6,000 on a coat?” Mahéo notes.
While many fashion brands generate the bulk of their sales through accessories, until now, Officine Générale has focused solely on ready-to-wear. That’s set to change: last month, the brand launched home fragrance and soap. This month, it unveiled its first handbag, priced at €895 and named June, after the daughter Mahéo has with his wife Nina Mahéo Haverkamp, the brand’s image director. Footwear will follow in 2025.
Categories including womenswear (introduced in 2017) and the new handbag business are slated to be growth drivers this year. Menswear still represents the lion’s share of the brand (60 per cent) but Mahéo expects this balance to change in 2025. “Menswear has increased but womenswear has continued to make quite spectacular progress in recent months,” he says.
Eyeing opportunities in the US
In 2021, Mahéo sold a minority stake in Officine Générale to Untitled Group, a New York-based investment fund, since renamed Cedar Park Capital, which has notably invested in eyewear brand Garrett Leight California Optical and cashmere clothing label Naadam. With the financing, Officine Générale opened its first US store on New York’s Lafayette in December 2021, followed by three more in 2023 (two in Los Angeles and one on Madison, NYC).
Several European brands, including Belgium’s Essentiel Antwerp and Parisian brand Ba&sh, ramped up their US presence with new stores in 2023, undeterred by declining fashion and luxury sales amid inflation and cost of living increases. Experts note that the US luxury market is still 20 per cent above 2019 levels. American consumers appreciate Officine Générale’s quality-price ratio, according to Mahéo. “We had also prepared the ground before opening stores. American customers knew us thanks to partners like Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and our e-shop.”
Still, Officine Générale is taking a more cautious approach this year. “We’ve got plenty of opportunities in the US market now,” says Mahéo. “I was very close to signing for a new shop in San Francisco, but I didn’t do it because I said to myself: we’ve already got three new ones in the US; let’s wait a bit and see how things go.”
This sense of caution — or realism — will shape the wider 2024 strategy. This year will be dedicated to stabilising and consolidating the business, he says. “We’ve just come through two-and-a-half years of heavy investment at our level. So now I think it’s reasonable to take the time to see how the situation evolves before making decisions.”
Comments, questions or feedback? Email us at feedback@voguebusiness.com.
More from this author:
Richemont beats expectations as growth in China and the US offsets Europe’s decline
Pharrell Williams pays tribute to the American Western in third show for Louis Vuitton
