Aimé Leon Dore, a Queens-based, LVMH-funded lifestyle label, isn’t just a New York institution as of June 3. Thanks to its first international flagship store on Broadwick Street in London’s Soho neighborhood, ALD is now a global brand.
Understandable, given ALD’s highly approachable semi-sporty, semi-tailored menswear is an easy sell for everyone from New York’s post-workwear downtown gentlemen to London’s footy enthusiasts, fellas with a specific predisposition toward especially wearable clobber.
Aimé Leon Dore’s latest New Balance collaboration, a Made in UK (of course) 991 accompanied by an assortment of easy athleisure, was also unveiled to the crowds at the London flagship store’s opening.
Fleece outerwear, tracksuits, sweatsuits, bicycle hats, nylon shorts, and football scarves are all here, and they’re all launching on June 3 to coincide with the inauguration of the new ALD shop.
If you can’t make it to New York or London to shop in person, the New Balance collaboration will be available on Aimé Leon Dore’s website.
Shoppers can relax in a sumptuous lounge designed by Sarita Posada Interiors inside Aimé Leon Dore’s two-story London flagship store.
There’s antique artwork, retro furniture, a full line of seasonal ALD apparel, and, of course, a walnut-paneled, marble-floored café with a Greek-inspired snack menu, coffee, and pastries, which is catnip for twenty-somethings with the kind of spare time required to browse an ALD store.
If they’re the top of the loafing crop, they might be invited to the private room on the boutique’s second floor, where ALD VIPs can sip tipples from the bar while nodding along to a “selected” vinyl selection, according to the press release (naturally).
It’s a banner day for Aimé Leon Dore, who hasn’t slowed down the pace of its instant-sell-out seasonal drops with the upcoming New Balance 990v2 sneakers (and possibly more 650Rsand 550s).
The London store is a good IRL experience for British fans, as it has all of the same things that draw people to the original Aimé Leon Dore flagship, except it’s not in the UK’s capital.