Just over a decade after its launch, Officine Générale has become synonymous with IRL Parisian style all over the world, most recently on Madison Avenue, where the brand just opened its fourth US store.
Arguably, the label captures the covetable, polished nonchalance of a cultivated and discreetly affluent Left Bank denizen better than any other similarly positioned brand out there. But it’s not just about elevated essentials; it’s also about attitude.
“I wanted to really reflect on what we were going to present and how because it’s important to stay very down-to-earth and keep things real,” Pierre Mahéo offered backstage before the show. Last December, he said, a business trip took him to some of his favorite cities—Seoul to Tokyo, LA, and New York. “When I got back, I told my wife, Nina, about the energy and all the things I loved in those places,” he said. “But at the same time, going away made me appreciate how lucky I am to live here.”
Inspired by the colors of the streets in the French capital and his morning café ritual, Mahéo set about putting together “characters and silhouettes that you might pass in the street who make you turn around to take a second look.”
That might be the perfectly cut peacoat or a mackintosh that falls just so with a matte finish that catches the light in a certain way; trousers cut slim or wide for men or with a nod to the ’90s for women; the right shades of chocolate in wool, cotton, cashmere, or fresco fabric; or a three-ply herringbone that the designer said he made to suit any wearer. On that note, a fledgling line of sharply cut bags looked strong too.
Officine Générale is booming because it covers pretty much all the classics of a wardrobe that’s neither overthought nor timed to trends. The magic of the French touch is that Mahéo manages to do that without getting boring.
