EXCLUSIVE: Menswear Label Le Père Opens West Coast Flagship

by · WWD
Campaign imagery from Le Père's winter 2024 collection.Courtesy of Le Père

Le Père is bringing its hybrid retail store-events space model to the West Coast.

The two-year-old menswear label is opening its Los Angeles flagship on Tuesday at 8507 Melrose Avenue, roughly a year after it debuted its first store in New York’s Lower East Side. 

“With the continued success of all the artist events that we’ve been doing here in New York, tons of folks have been like, ‘You obviously have a pretty extensive artist network and there’s so many musicians and whatnot based in Los Angeles — are you guys ever going to do anything out there?’” said Abhi Janamanchi, brand director at Le Père. “We just felt like it was the right time for us to have a hub out West given so much of our community and network being out there, and also just the fact that L.A. is such a big cultural center point especially within the music scene.” 

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Janamanchi stated the brand looked at several neighborhoods in Los Angeles, including areas like Silver Lake and Highland Park, which both resembled New York’s Lower East Side, but chose Melrose Avenue because Le Père believed there weren’t any similar brands in the area that could serve potential customers. He also said the brand wanted to be in a more elevated neighborhood.

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Le Père worked with Bond Architecture for the Los Angeles store. The brand previously worked with the architecture firm for the New York flagship. 

Campaign imagery from Le Père’s winter 2024 collection.Courtesy of Le Père

For Los Angeles, Janamanchi said the brand took inspiration from the West Coast for the store’s design, specifically skateparks and theaters. The store is designed heavily in wood and features bleacher-like seating to create a designated performance space. 

“We took a bit of a different approach building these wooden bleacher-like structures that face each other on either side and the middle spaces where you can walk through the performance area,” he said. “It’s nice because it’s a very modular kind of space in that way, and that while the wooden bleachers are set up to face one another, you can also shift them around. It creates this almost theater-like setup that you can see what’s happening in that performance area.” 

Le Père’s commitment to events, performances and community gatherings are being brought over to the Los Angeles store. In New York, the brand has hosted an array of events over the last year, including block parties with musicians like J Balvin and Omar Apollo. 

“We’re really just trying to replicate a lot of the success we’ve had [in New York] and not in just artists events, but I think the goal is to create a communal hub,” Janamanchi said. “We felt like that was missing. A number of people, like between friends and other people that we would meet across creative fields in L.A., they were just like, the retail space here is missing a more community-driven, communal retail store that offers things outside of just like shopping experiences.” 

Campaign imagery from Le Père’s winter 2024 collection.Courtesy of Le Père

In addition to events, Lè Pere’s West Coast flagship will carry its two seasonal collections and its various drops throughout the year. Going forward, the brand is debuting its first candle, handbags and is looking to expand the accessories category. 

Janamanchi said the brand is currently focusing on its two flagships, but is eyeing other markets like Miami, London and South Korea for potential next stores. 

“We don’t see this as a traditional retail approach,” Janamanchi said. “My partner and I don’t come from a retail background. Coming from the music industry, the thing that we knew that we are really good at doing is bringing people together and finding really talented people. We definitely didn’t take a traditional retail approach to the New York store, and we haven’t done that here in L.A. All the people that we’ve hired have come from our own personal communities and are people that have a direct connection to us or the brand.”