During our Europe trip, on July 15th, we spent the afternoon in the Le Marais neighborhood to tour the space of Apolis Paris’ retail partner Merci and interview their menswear style director, Marcel Lassance. Marcel was born in Paris and started as a fabric designer in 1971. Two years later he opened his first store in 1973. He has since become a leader in French menswear with his collection Marcel Lassance. Furthermore, Marcel spends a portion of his time as a freelance designer and in 2010 he met the owners of Merci, Bernard and Marie-France Cohen, and they commissioned him to help with a few design projects & eventually develop their mens business. Marcel has a unique retail perspective for Paris’ menswear community and humored us while we recorded our conversation over lunch their in-store restaurant, La Cantine de Merci. We asked Marcel the following four questions to help all of us better understand the life of an entrepreneur in Paris which we first previewed over at Style.com:

With a couple decades of retail experience, what would you predict the brick and mortar retail environment will look like 10 years from now?

Merci’s concept is very new and quite unique & of course it is also due to the space, which has been polished quite a bit since the founders first found the building. Overall you step into the right retail environment and there are so many underestimated elements that make people feel welcome. The Merci space is very open with multiple levels and it’s considered a destination, not just a shop. People come for an hour to see what is Merci’s opinion of the best within home, menswear, womenswear, vintage & culinary; and during their visit we think we allow people to have fun. Visitors don’t feel any obligation to buy, like you may feel when you are in a normal shop. Ultimately, the ambiance and the overall way a space is designed has to be friendly and in the end people will naturally buy something. In my opinion this philosophy of retail will be important for years to come.

What tips would you give an aspiring entrepreneur?

Most importantly you have to have a point of view, because when you have a point of view everything is clear. You know what to do, you know what to buy, you know how you want to sell, you know who you want to sell to and you know the team you need to help execute your point of view. There are quite a few great retailers in Paris with successful points of views that are very different than Merci, and we love these differences. It really comes down to the simple understanding that if you want to open a shop to just open a shop that’s not going to do it, you have to have a clear point of view and hopefully the customers follow.

How do you stay excited about your daily work?

I am very curious. I am curious in the music field, I am curious with books, with photography, and overall it’s a form of reflection and a way of life. All of this leads my daily decisions from what I wear, what I eat, how I spend my time, and it naturally builds a lifestyle and attitude. So all together I believe you can find inspiration in everything. It just depends on how you are focused. If you’re lucky enough to understand what you’re good at, it makes getting inspired a lot easier. A music composer walks out onto the street and hears things that you and I would never pick up. A photographer walks into a room and is able to capture an angle that we would never see. To conclude, if you know your unique skill, you are able to stay inspired and motivated because you truly enjoy your daily work.

What is unique about creating a relevant experience for the Le Marais neighborhood?

In my opinion the drive in Paris’ Le Marais neighborhood is very artistic. As I have mentioned, people think of Merci as a space, not just a shop. They’ll come by for food, grab a book, or to meet up with a friend. From our experience, what resonates most with people in Paris is that they rarely come to our store thinking they need a new pair of pants or a shirt. With this retail climate in mind, I don’t buy like a regular shop buys. I only buy a product that is love at first sight, a product that jumps out at you. I am constantly looking for unique brands, some that are well known and some that are new and emerging. If people only saw brands they do not recognize they would be confused, but when they see a notable brand next to a new brand it creates a unique and authentic representation of menswear.

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