was lifted, Mahéo immediately made the trip from Paris to New York, where he visited the space “to make sure our plan was working well.” He said that with only a few minor modifications, the store was pretty much exactly what he had envisioned, and it was full-steam ahead. They even created a replica of the store in a warehouse in Paris to “make sure the space was functional,” he said. The construction started in early October and Mahéo, his wife, Nina Haverkamp, and Paris-based architect Juliette Rubel, who also worked with the couple on Officine Générale’s stores in Paris and London, worked remotely with the team in New York to design the space. I knew the bulk of our customers were between Tribeca and 30th Street, so it was a logical choice to be downtown.” “I always consider food and beverage,” he said, adding that the street is “very alive. He also likes the bustling restaurant scene in the neighborhood, which draws crowds at night and on the weekends. “I like to be in the middle of the action,” he said. Mahéo said he selected this location because it straddles SoHo and Nolita, the latter of which has become increasingly popular of late. The company is renting the entire building and will use the ground floor for the retail store and the upper levels for a showroom and offices.Īlthough the brand had staff here, they used shared offices or worked from home, but since Officine Générale shows four collections a year for men and women, Mahéo said, “it makes sense to have our own space. But while the travel ban made him unable to visit his adopted city for more than 20 months, he used the opportunity to secure a good deal on the location for his first store outside of Europe. New York is the brand’s biggest market outside of its home country of France and before the pandemic, Mahéo had visited the city at least once a month. “We’ve been working on this for quite a long time now,” Mahéo added.
“Our target was the 11th and we opened at 2:45 p.m.,” he said with a smile. Although the awning and sign had not yet been installed and a key lighting fixture was stuck in Customs, the merchandise was there, so Mahéo welcomed them to shop. On Saturday, Mahéo was inside the 1,800-square-foot shop at 220 Lafayette Street putting the finishing touches on the interior when passers-by wandered in and asked if they were open yet. It’s long been a dream of Pierre Mahéo to open an Officine Générale store in New York - one that has now become reality.