Why Everyone Loves Lemaire... And You Should Too

Demand for the Paris label Lemaire's androgynous, utilitarian wardrobe has grown ten-fold since 2019 as shoppers turn their back on logo-mania and embrace the brand’s subtle ethos. ‘Reality isn’t a dirty word,’ says co-creative director Christophe Lemaire.

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“For us, reality isn’t a dirty word,” Lemaire says. “We’re interested in everyday life, human relationships, real culture.”

Lemaire put his brand on pause in 2001 when he went to work as artistic director at Lacoste. From 2010 to 2014, he designed womenswear for Hermès while simultaneously relaunching his namesake brand with Tran, his former romantic partner and co-creative director since 2010.

Tran, who came of age in New York City and Paris’ Marais and worked in publishing before transitioning to fashion, infused the brand with a softer, more sensual bent. The brand built a cult following, but after its decade-long hiatus still found itself running contrary to industry forces — this time the rise of influencers, logomania and graphic streetwear designs calibrated to pop on smartphone screens.

But the brand’s vocabulary of oversized, everyday garments, often rendered in rugged canvas and a muted palette of tinted neutrals — anticipated other key fashion super-cycles: the casualisation of luxury, a focus on comfortable garments, gender-fluid design and day-to-night dressing.

“Paris is a complete city where you want to be able to navigate different spaces, be with very different types of people from day to night. Sometimes you want to be able to blend into the crowd,” Tran says.

“They created the ‘nine to nine’ look,” La Samaritaine merchandiser Florian Malfroy says. “It’s sexy, timeless—but still fashion, in a way that’s both camouflaged and visible. Really it’s the perfect Parisian wardrobe.”

Lemaire built a cult following from its original store on Rue de Poitou, but like many designer labels remained small and financially fragile for years. Keeping the brand afloat required reinvesting money from the design duo’s consulting gigs with Uniqlo (they design the Japanese giant’s “U” sub-brand as well as serving as artistic directors of the brand’s R&D centre in Paris).

A 2015 capital injection from France’s Bpi state investment bank, a 2017 distribution deal with South Korean retail behemoth Samsung Group, and a large minority investment from Uniqlo parent company Fast Retailing in 2018 also helped to support the brand.

Then came liftoff: Lemaire’s business surged following the pandemic as customers worldwide burned through savings on designer items. Sales continued to accelerate in 2023 and 2024 as many customers turned their attention to more discreet and accessibly-priced alternatives to luxury mega-brands.

Sales grew ten-fold from less than €10 million in 2019 to over €100 ($103 million) in 2024, as best-sellers like twisted seam pants, bathrobe coats and matte silk blouses continued to fly off the racks, rejoined by a burgeoning leather goods business featuring supple anatomic footwear and quirky bags shaped like seashells and croissants.

A new chief executive, Laetitia Mergui (a former M&A lawyer hired from Chloé), came on in 2022. Mergui worked to accelerate the transition to leather goods, which now account for more than half of the business, as well as spearheading the brand’s expansion into retail.

A flagship store in Paris’ Marais, opened in 2023, has continued to boast a line of fashion pilgrims even as demand sputtered across the broader industry. Last fall, the brand rolled out new flagships in Tokyo and Seoul — converting residential houses into immersive retail destinations — and opened its first boutique in China, in Chengdu. Retail and direct e-commerce now make up more than half of the label’s sales.

Operating margins have risen to around 20 percent, Mergui said, boosted by a full-price sell-through of 80 percent.

Lemaire’s success stands out in a challenging ecosystem for designer start-ups that’s seen outfits including Y/Project, Vampire’s Wife and Mara Hoffman shutter over the past year. The brand’s low-key approach to design and communications — relying principally on word-of-mouth to drive sales — is also a clear differentiator from the only other Paris designer brand to have broken the $100 million threshold in recent years: Jacquemus, which has been propelled by social media-savvy narration and star-studded runway spectacles.

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