French tailoring house Husbands — prized for its nostalgia-tinged, classic menswear by those in the know — is gearing up for expansion.

This fall, the 14-year-old company will double its retail footprint in the French capital when it opens a 2,500-square-foot flagship at Impasse Saint-Claude, which will also incorporate a bookshop and library space.

Its historic Right Bank boutique at 57 Rue de Richelieu will soon go dark, and its smaller storefront at 1 Rue de l’Abbeye on the Left Bank already shut earlier this month.

“We’re at a point where if you come to Husbands on a Saturday, it’s not so nice,” Nicolas Gabard, founder and designer, said diplomatically. “And what we do is hospitality, so you really want to make sure that all the customers who come in to buy the ready-to-wear or have made-to-measure suits made, really get that experience. So we need a much bigger space.”

Revealing the expansion thrust in an exclusive interview, Gabard said its main Right Bank store, which opened in 2018, was conceived when Husbands was mainly making bespoke suits.

“Since then we developed the ready-to-wear, which now accounts for half of our turnover, so we need a new space to showcase the new dimensions of the brand, to explain the narrative behind the collection, the carryovers — and to improve the quality of the hospitality.

“People are coming from all over the world to have the Husbands experience,” he noted.

Meanwhile, the bookstore and library vibes with the brand’s fondness for nostalgia, and stylish figures across the popular culture like Gary Cooper, David Bowie, Dieter Rams, Francis Bacon, Émile Savitry, Steve McQueen or the band members of Suede, who all figure on the brand’s jazzy website.

While elongating suits with slyly sexy ’70s allure are its mainstays, jeans and Chelsea boots with a chunky heel are its current bestsellers.

The retail expansion comes as the brand enjoys rapid growth. Julien Wolff, chief executive officer of Husbands, said the business almost doubled in 2025 and it’s tracking growth of 50 percent this year.

The executive credits the consistency of Gabard’s designs, rooted in classics with a backward glance.

“I think we have a point of view, and that’s what our clients appreciate — something that’s between ’70s and ’90s style. Even when we do jerseys or T-shirts, I think it’s still very us,” he said, summing up the brand as “tailoring recontextualized as a way to express yourself.”

“We don’t have to change the new collection every year, you know. Menswear is all about time,” Gabard concurred.

In direct-to-consumer channels, rtw represents about 60 percent of the business and 40 percent made-to-measure.

Husbands wholesales to about 20 top specialty stores worldwide, including United Arrows and Isetan in Japan, Liberty in London, Voga Shop in Arezzo, Italy, and Maxfield in Los Angeles, where it is planning a pop-up in October.

“I think one of the strengths of what we’ve built over the years is that we’re 80 percent direct-to-consumer business,” Wolff said.

As part of that, the brand also hosts trunk shows around the world, in Asia, Europe and North America. A recent one in New York yielded 200 appointments, suggesting that fashion capital soon might be ready for a Husbands boutique.

“We’re thinking about it,” Wolff said. “What we’ve built in Paris is somewhat of a blueprint.…There’s no reason why one day Husbands couldn’t be in Tokyo, in New York or in L.A.”

Gabard noted that about 20 percent of those appointments were with women, who are exacting customers who often order four different pairs of trousers for each jacket.

“You can address a woman’s needs with menswear,” Gabard remarked.

Indeed, devotees of the brand include model Alexa Chung and stylist Emmanuelle Alt, in addition to musician Jarvis Cocker, actor Omari Douglas, artist Philippe Parreno and art director Peter Saville.

According to Gabard, many top fashion designers in Europe are also clients of Husbands, but he declined to name names.

Ditto for celebrities. “We have many famous people who sign contracts with big houses for the fashion week, but then spend their money on Husbands outfits,” he said with a smile.

Rtw suits are priced from 1,590 euros to 2,150 euros, with jeans at 380 or 390 euros, and shirts from 260 euros for cotton up to 650 euros in silk.

Wolff called the pricing “very intentional. It’s high enough to respect the quality of the fabrics and the people we want to work with, but it’s also attractive to the point where we have the coolest customers. We have the architects, we have the photographers, we have the actors.”

Gabard credits word-of-mouth for its growing customer base, as it does no gifting or product placements, no paid marketing, no advertising and only organic press.

“We have demand from young men and middle-aged men who want dressier outfits, but not too spectacular, not too boring, but something which allows them to be really themselves,” he said. “People are looking for a new uniform, but really personal.”