It’s a vogue business open secret that numerous runway items by no means find yourself hitting shops. For Autumn/Winter 2024, Parisian model Officine Générale goes towards the tide.
“I used to be radical this season, I stated there wouldn’t be any particular items developed for the present,” says founder, CEO and inventive director Pierre Mahéo. He’s chatting with Vogue Enterprise from the model’s design studio within the sixth arrondissement, forward of its slot on the Paris Style Week schedule on Friday. “[For a previous show], we had many requests for items that we didn’t produce, that weren’t even within the showroom. It annoyed me a lot that I stated I’d by no means do this once more.”
It’s all a part of efforts to anchor Officine Générale in a “sure actuality”, he explains. This extends to its designs: for AW24, anticipate “muted tones, quantity and a quest for actuality within the building of seems and casting”, says Mahéo. Not solely does the casting embody a variety of ages, Mahéo at all times seeks “characters quite than new faces”, he says.
It’s a technique that seems to be working. Whereas Mahéo declines to share income figures, he says consolidated gross sales had been up 25 per cent globally in 2023. The model has 200 factors of sale and 14 shops — together with seven in Paris, one in London and 4 within the US, three of which opened in 2023. Class growth can be on the playing cards this yr. However Officine Générale has to navigate an unsure surroundings for vogue, with sluggish gross sales in Europe and the Paris Olympics coming, which might disrupt retail in France.
Mahéo, the grandson of a tailor, launched the menswear model in 2012, and it shortly grew to become recognized for its elevated necessities with a really French aesthetic — someplace between APC and Lemaire. When streetwear took over menswear, Workplace Générale stood out in a refreshing approach with its pared-back type and sober color palette of gray, navy and black — no emblem.
Pierre Mahéo taking his bow on the model’s final present, for SS24.
Picture: Officine Générale
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“Officine Générale combines classicism and modernity with a touch of Parisian casualness,” says Serge Carreira, director of rising manufacturers initiative at Fédération de la Haute Couture et de la Mode (FHCM). “It’s in tune with the occasions with out making an attempt to be stylish. The primary problem is to take care of a refined steadiness between timelessness and modernity.”
Now that the menswear pendulum is swinging the opposite approach, in the direction of extra snug tailoring, Officine Générale tends to be extra consistent with the pattern. “We’re one step forward, as tailoring is our DNA. Our shoppers come to us for that,” Mahéo says. “Now we have seen a change within the final two years. Streetwear was dominant pre-Covid. Now we have come again to extra wearability, extra tailoring. One thing is going on with a brand new concept behind how one can costume, additionally by way of spending: is it affordable to spend €4,500 on a jacket or €6,000 on a coat?” Mahéo notes.
Whereas many vogue manufacturers generate the majority of their gross sales via equipment, till now, Officine Générale has centered solely on ready-to-wear. That’s set to alter: final month, the model launched dwelling perfume and cleaning soap. This month, it unveiled its first purse, priced at €895 and named June, after the daughter Mahéo has together with his spouse Nina Mahéo Haverkamp, the model’s picture director. Footwear will comply with in 2025.
Classes together with womenswear (launched in 2017) and the brand new purse enterprise are slated to be progress drivers this yr. Menswear nonetheless represents the lion’s share of the model (60 per cent) however Mahéo expects this steadiness to alter in 2025. “Menswear has elevated however womenswear has continued to make fairly spectacular progress in latest months,” he says.
SS24.
Images: Officine Générale
Eyeing alternatives within the US
In 2021, Mahéo bought a minority stake in Officine Générale to Untitled Group, a New York-based funding fund, since renamed Cedar Park Capital, which has notably invested in eyewear model Garrett Leight California Optical and cashmere clothes label Naadam. With the financing, Officine Générale opened its first US retailer on New York’s Lafayette in December 2021, adopted by three extra in 2023 (two in Los Angeles and one on Madison, NYC).
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A number of European manufacturers, together with Belgium’s Essentiel Antwerp and Parisian model Ba&sh, ramped up their US presence with new shops in 2023, undeterred by declining vogue and luxurious gross sales amid inflation and value of dwelling will increase. Specialists word that the US luxurious market remains to be 20 per cent above 2019 ranges. American customers respect Officine Générale’s quality-price ratio, in accordance with Mahéo. “We had additionally ready the bottom earlier than opening shops. American clients knew us due to companions like Bloomingdale’s, Saks Fifth Avenue and our e-shop.”
Nonetheless, Officine Générale is taking a extra cautious method this yr. “We’ve acquired loads of alternatives within the US market now,” says Mahéo. “I used to be very near signing for a brand new store in San Francisco, however I didn’t do it as a result of I stated to myself: we’ve already acquired three new ones within the US; let’s wait a bit and see how issues go.”
This sense of warning — or realism — will form the broader 2024 technique. This yr shall be devoted to stabilising and consolidating the enterprise, he says. “We’ve simply come via two-and-a-half years of heavy funding at our degree. So now I believe it’s affordable to take the time to see how the scenario evolves earlier than making choices.”
