What a journey for a brand from Marseille inspired by the American lifestyle! Founded in 2005 by Michaël Azoulay in the south of France, American Vintage now has almost 700 employees and 1,500 sales outlets worldwide.
The brand has emerged from the pandemic “fortified” and ready to face today’s uncertain and inflationary world. She relies on basics that are given a casual and relaxed feel. American Vintage is already very well established in Europe and is now targeting the USA. Michael Azoulay speaks to FashionUnited about this endeavor and his other projects.
FashionUnited: American Vintage is already very well established in Europe. You recently decided to enter the American market. A daring undertaking considering that many French brands that have been inspired by America have not managed to make this “change of perspective”.
Michaël Azoulay: Yes, that’s right. 60% of our sales are now made in Europe outside of France, in Germany, Switzerland and Austria, the Benelux countries, the UK and to a lesser extent Spain and Italy. And during the pandemic, we opened our first store in New York in 2021. Daring, that’s right, the American market scares me a lot. It is a graveyard for many European companies. But we remain cautious. Our approach is not systematically planned, we take it easy. In retail, we aim to open about ten stores within two years, in New York but also in Boston and Austin, for example. In the B2B area, we have two showrooms in New York and Los Angeles and are happy with the start so far.
However, our strategy is primarily to consolidate what we already have: Europe and with it what we started in North America. Then we will develop markets where we see potential for American Vintage: Israel, the Emirates, Singapore and others.
You’re growing, despite the successive crises, how do you deal with that?
After the end of the pandemic, which still grips the Chinese market, came the war in Ukraine and its economic consequences: inflation, energy crisis, rising commodity prices. As for the increase in raw material prices, we have been forced to reconsider our sourcing, buy larger quantities to have more inventory, which gives us stability. Regarding delivery times, which have been a problem for a while, I would say things are starting to ease up.
The pandemic has taught us a lot and shown us and others the ability to resilience. In our corporate culture, we know how to deal with emergencies. We are responsive and flexible. We have introduced the digitization of the enterprise on a large scale, access to important information is everywhere and in real time. Teams have a 360-degree view, allowing for better advance planning. I have also chosen to take on many of the management tasks directly. We are a great company that includes all professions internally: logistics, supply chain and merchandising. The fundamentals of the business are with us. That’s important and that’s why we’re also able to train our teams ourselves, both at headquarters and in the stores. We employ a lot of young people and development is part of the company’s DNA and its strength. I know what I’m talking about as I’m completely self-taught myself. People prove themselves in practice.
What are your next plans in terms of products?
Despite everything, trust returns. Compared to 2019, we are on course for growth in all of our sales channels. We are very pleased with the launch of our children’s line in October, which we have positioned in a selection of around 40 great points of sale across Europe, premium boutiques and concept stores. This line is like a focus of our DNA and we used the fact that it’s new to design it almost entirely sustainable as we built the processes from scratch. In general, this is an area where we are developing. Today, 15 to 20 percent of our adult collections meet the most important CSR imperatives in the fashion industry.
While women make up the vast majority of our sales, we are increasing the importance of men, who account for 10 to 15 percent of our sales. We are opening menswear stores, the most recent ones are in London and Bordeaux. Copenhagen and our boutique in Cannes, which has been renovated and has a men’s fashion outlet in addition to the women’s department, are also planned.
Where are you positioned in the market? What is your level and your added value
We’re closer to an Inditex than a luxury fashion house, but our beautiful materials – we remain very puristic about materials – our fine details, like the frayed collars, the feel of our clothes makes the difference. And we have a very agile supply chain that allows us to make daily deliveries to our points of sale.
This article was similarly published on FashionUnited.fr. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ