3 questions for . . .

Clarent Dehlouz
Co-founder of the FrenchTrotters brand and stores

Studying photography gave Clarent Dehlouz the opportunity to develop his eye and to meet his future wife, Carole. In 2005, the couple decided to pursue one of their other passions, fashion. They opened FrenchTrotters, a multi-brand boutique, on the rue de Charonne, near the Bastille in Paris. In 2010, they opened a second store in the Marais district. Their ongoing objective is to highlight each brand’s story and particular expertise. At the same time, they began to sell the first designs from their own brand, which has continued to expand ever since.

How do you see the evolution of fashion since opening your first multi-brand store in 2005? Have you noticed a fashion revival, particularly among French brands?
In creating a store like FrenchTrotters, we wanted to offer a multi-brand selection with creative designers and brands in a targeted environment – high quality, somewhere between mainstream and luxury, something that barely existed ten years ago. Today, that market is growing non-stop. The options are endless! And that’s true of French brands as well as international ones. When we started, this was a niche segment, practically unheard of for men, aside from APC. Now there are plenty of choices. Lots of new brands are starting up, both small design houses and larger projects. Competition is growing. For us, given our experience, we’ve earned a certain legitimacy. We’ve introduced numerous brands in our boutiques and our online store. At the outset, there were lots of international brands in this segment, but over time, we’ve observed a rapid expansion among French brands, from Paris and elsewhere. All these brands are entering a vibrant market with a ready clientele.
The newest brands share a common concern for manufacturing – how and under what conditions are their products made, and by whom? They all also want to offer items that are on target for both quality and price.

As a retailer, what do you see as the fundamental elements to consider and promote today?
We like to help people discover brands with a strong identity and solid savoir-faire. We’ve followed Roseanna, AMI, Commune de Paris and Zespa since their early days. We showcased Acne when it made only jeans, but we also carry Macintosh, Barena, Nanamica and Engineered Garments. We try to keep a balance between little-known brands and more developed ones.
We don’t just sell clothing and accessories but also magazines, objects, perfumes and, in our shop in the Marais, furniture. When we started, Colette was the only store in this ‘lifestyle’ niche. Today, I think that there is a return to independence in design and retail, in fashion and the food service industry. We belong to an uninhibited generation that is no longer afraid to live for its passions, to throw itself into them. It is symptomatic of our society.
In ten years of introducing products and brands, we have seen a new clientele develop, one that’s more ‘educated’ and open. They show a real interest in the product, in its origins and its manufacturing background. This enlightened client shares our taste for design, graphics, architecture, and travel. In fact, many of them work in these fields. These are demanding clients looking for quality. Our stores offer them a concept that complements their identity, immersing them in a comprehensive consumer experience. Our clients identify strongly with our stores. The boutique serves as the setting for packaging, which has become a key element. Everything matters: the store’s architecture, its displays, a welcoming reception, music, scents, plants. We change our displays constantly to showcase new products. Our windows are revamped weekly or every two weeks when we launch a project with a brand.

You’ve developed your own brand to the point that you’ll soon open a single-brand store. Why have you made that decision?
Our brand is part of a natural progression. During the first five years of our business, we learned from the brands we sold. We always had an interest in their expertise. We carried out studies on manufacturing and we formed alliances. Creating our own brand was a project we nurtured from the beginning. We found that our clients considered us a brand well before we actually started our line. We studied the idea thoroughly before launching our first products in 2010. At that time, a press article mentioned the launch of our brand, and we immediately received numerous requests from buyers in Japan, the UK, and the US. Still, for the first season we just planned to sell our line in our stores and on our website. We initially agreed to work with the Japanese, which helped us to weather the first three seasons before starting distribution in France and the rest of the world. Now the brand can be found in roughly fifty retailers throughout the world. In our stores, our brand accounts for 50 percent of our product offering, with turnover equally divided between women’s and men’s items. Our collections offer a contemporary style. We mix our Parisian origins and our cosmopolitan influences. We work hard to choose the right cuts, materials, and prints. As the seasons pass our style becomes bolder and more radical, with a stronger commitment to our image. Our next move, over the next season or two, is to open a store in Paris entirely devoted to our brand, in order to strengthen its identity.