Officine Générale Joins Fray on Madison Avenue
The Paris-based company offers a larger selection of womenswear as well as its first handbag and a new line of home scents.
Officine Générale continues its retail rollout with the opening of a second New York store on Madison Avenue.
The 1,100-square-foot shop at 849 Madison Avenue joins a store on
Lafayette Street in SoHo that opened in December 2021.
The uptown store is the company's fourth in the U.S. — the brand's largest market outside of France. It also operates two units in Los Angeles: one in Palisades Village and another on Sycamore Avenue that opened earlier this year. All told, the Madison Avenue addition brings Officine Générale's global store count to 14 with units in Paris, London, Lyon, Aix-enProvence and other international locations.
Designer and founder Pierre Mahéo and his wife Nina Haverkamp, along with Paris-based architect Juliette Rubel, designed the new store, as they do all of Officine Générale's units worldwide. It features an evolution of the company's original design concept with vintage furniture, such as a black linear Trapeze table by Jean Prouvé, a vintage Formica table, and a selection of vintage wooden chairs. Also featured is a colorful painting by artist Michaël Schouflikir and a few wood and stone sculptures and vintage pottery pieces.
All the racks and shelving units were custom-made locally in hammered steel and oak. And the tiles on the floor are an eye-catching change to the light ash coat floors in other units, as are the concrete walls.
“We are excited to be expanding our presence in the U.S. market,” said Mahéo, “especially in a key location like Madison Avenue in New York City. Since the opening of our first U.S. store in SoHo, it has been a dream of mine to also bring Officine Générale to a strategic uptown location.”
The store, which had a soft opening at the end of October, has performed well since it debuted, Mahéo said. It carries a wide selection of the men's and women's collections along with the Daily Classics line, which is being showcased in specially designed cabinets at the front of the store. Womenswear — a category Mahéo said is doing well and growing — is given more prominence in this store and is merchandised in a separate room. Womenswear accounts for just under 40 percent of Officine Générale's overall sales, he said, with a goal to expand it to 45 percent next year.
“It's important to us to address both neighborhoods,” he said, adding that some of his customers never come uptown and vice versa. In fact, since the store opened, 72 percent of shoppers have been new to the brand.
The store will also serve to introduce the brand's entry into the accessories business. A handbag called the June will make its debut shortly. The leather bag in calf Palmelato leather is manufactured in Tuscany by a family-run business and features a compact, geometric shape with soft angles and complementary lines. A contoured clasp in bronze and gold, features discreet lettering and the inside is comprised of a central compartment in tan suede with two side compartments and a patch pocket. The bag will be available in two sizes and can be worn as a shoulder or crossbody bag.
The store also sells Officine Générale's new Smoky Olive, an “olfactive range” of scented vegetal wax candles made from soy and coconut oil, interior spray and an olive oil soap composed of 95 percent natural ingredients made according to the traditional Marseille technique of cauldron soapmaking. The glass bottle for the spray and the candle container have been glazed with a custom olive tint. All of the products feature a smoky wood scene with top notes of bergamot and ginger; heart notes of iris, patchouli and vetiver and base notes of tobacco, cedar, incense and leather.
Mahéo said while the company has been aggressively adding stores over the past couple of years, he's planning to take some time to assess their performance in 2024. “It will be a transitional phase,” he said. Instead, he has plans to introduce the brand's first true footwear collection and he's searching for a larger space in London
to replace the 500-square-foot unit there now. And he didn't rule out adding more stores if the opportunities arise, especially in his hometown of Paris where he currently operates seven stores. The brand is also carried in 220 wholesale accounts around the world.
Mahéo started Officine Generale in 2012 as an updated, modern brand. In 2021, he sold a minority stake to Untitled Group, a New York-based investment fund founded by Josh Rowan and Adam Freed. They join BPI France, a public investment bank, that invested in the brand in 2015.