Fire up the fashion amps. Last week, Parisian rock brand Eleven Paris made its grand entrance into the UK with the opening of its first standalone store, on Londons iconic Carnaby Street and, aptly, London rock royalty including the likes of Daisy Lowe and the Le Bons turned out to welcome it to town.
We decided to launch a store in London because, for us, it is the next logical step in the development of Eleven Paris; we have around 16 stores in France, eight in Paris, and now want to develop our brand internationally, co-founder Dan Cohen told ELLE in an exclusive interview. Eleven Paris is already sold in great multi-brand stores and online, such as the likes of ASOS, Urban Outfitters and Selfridges in the UK, but we think that it's very important to share our spirit, personality and brand image through having our own store.
It's the best way for us to allow our customer to discover our strong identity and the creativity of our collections for both men and women.
Creativity being the operative word, the staffs tongue-in-cheek Carnaby 48 Ts were the talk of the evening, along with frozen cocktail sticks by Icely Done (it was a scorcher) and a DJ set by Boy George.
The store launch marks ten years in the industry for a label that built its name on quirky Ts (for which youll get change from £50) and coolly-cut streetwear, and yelled about it all via ad campaigns starring the likes of Keith Richards, Iggy Pop and Lenny Kravitz (none of whom, sadly, made it to the party).
So where to next?
The growth over the first 10 years has been so crazy it is impossible to say where we will be in 10 years time, mused Cohen. 'However, it's our ambition to have Eleven Paris stores in the key cities in Europe and in the USA - the likes of Berlin, Barcelona, New York
Rock on.
