A few years ago, Mathieu Lebreton, 39, was working for a fashion trade show in New York when he noticed something his French peers were doing during New York Fashion Week.
“Between the shows and the showrooms, they’d go to places like the Met. They’d buy the merch — tees, caps or whatever — and then they’d come back to Paris wearing it very happily,” he said.
Mr. Lebreton, who had previously helped run an agency for influencers and a streetwear magazine in Paris, sensed how much shopping for such items mattered to his colleagues: “It’s what they had their hearts set on,” he said.
What they were doing was bringing home a pandemic-era New York trend labeled “Zizmorcore,” which saw New Yorkers outfitting themselves in clothing and accessories from local spots like Zabar’s or Russ & Daughters to showcase their hometown pride while supporting small business.
Mr. Lebreton was moved to do the same with beloved French establishments. In early 2023, he co-founded GiftShop with fellow Parisians Julien Dô Lê Pham, a creative and restaurateur; Ben Broca, who was working as an executive for a ghost kitchen company; and Mathieu Ripert, who had worked as a machine learning engineer at Instacart. (Mr. Ripert exited this summer.)
While the startup curates — and typically designs, produces and distributes — limited collections of elevated merchandise from a range of French food, beverage and hospitality establishments, Mr. Pham, 41, said merch is a word “that you can’t even translate into French.”
“The closest thing is ‘produits dérivés’ — derivative products,” he added. “But GiftShop prefers ‘souvenir.’ I always tell people that we are way more romantic in our approach.”
(Until November, GiftShop also stocked merchandise from American institutions like Katz’s Deli and the Château Marmont, but now focuses exclusively on French business.)
GiftShop’s first client was Le Bistrot Paul Bert, a classic Parisian restaurant with an au courant aura. Its porcelain plates, which are made in Limoges and bear the name of the bistro on their rims, are sometimes purloined by patrons.
Even so, after GiftShop began offering the plates at a cost of $120 each, Bertrand Auboyneau, the owner of Le Bistrot Paul Bert, said he was “surprised” to hear of orders for sets of 12. The dish ware also sold out at a recent GiftShop pop-up at the department store Le Bon Marché.
This summer, Mr. Auboyneau said he got a call from Bernard Arnault, the chief executive of LVMH, which owns Le Bon Marché, saying, “Your plates are here!” The popularity of such products is “amusing to men our age,” Mr. Auboyneau, 72, explained.
“‘Merch’ is very new,” he added. “Until now, I had never bought a tee shirt in my life!” His 22-year-old daughter, however, is “covered in merch.”
The appeal is “super generational,” said Camille Fournier, the head of marketing for Bertrand Hospitality, which owns Brasserie Lipp, an old-school, left-bank brasserie favored by the fashion set.
Mr. Fournier, 32, said he was quick to agree when GiftShop reached out about designing and distributing merch for Lipp, as its known. They have since released hoodies ($160), white button-downs ($80) and a baseball cap embroidered with a line many will recognize from the menu: “No Salad As a Meal” ($60).
“It is free and totally natural advertising,” Mr. Fournier said. (GiftShop operates on a licensing model; royalties on every sale go to their clients. The company declined to disclose the percentage but said it varies based on the specific deal.)
Apart from the occasional pop-up, most of GiftShop’s sales take place online from abroad. “Our customers so far are almost never French,” Mr. Broca said.
Going forward, “we want the Michelin-starred restaurant and the cool kebab place — not just the clichés,” said Mr. Lebreton, who estimated their current client list includes 20 local establishments. Besides classic institutions like Lipp, the partners are interested in younger spots like the restaurant Clown Bar.
The company hopes to continue making souvenirs that “go beyond the tee shirt,” Mr. Lebreton added. Such offerings currently include limited edition vinyl ($22) for the restaurant Le Verre Volé or temporary tattoos ($3.30) for Folderol, the wine bar and ice cream parlor.
Jessica Yang, who owns and operates Folderol with her husband, Robert Compagnon, said, “I think as long as you make it limited and special, people will take it.” Through GiftShop, Folderol also offers engraved versions of their vintage stainless steel coupes — all of which are found at flea markets.
Mr. Lebreton believes the American concept of merch has historically rubbed the French as somewhat “vulgar or capitaliste,” because wearables emblazoned with business logos can read like ads.
But nostalgia-imbued “memories,” which, after all, is what “souvenirs” means in French?
“We do love souvenirs.”
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