Meet the founder of the Beirut brand known for its minimalist monochrome

Joseph Achajian is perhaps his best customer. As the founder of Beirut menswear brand Maison Du Mec (Men's House), Achajian knows the never-ending search for the perfect outfit.

I was addicted to shopping and spent my entire month's salary on clothes. I had to have a new outfit every day, he said. I went through different styles, from flamboyant to preppy, street style and then the biker look, but I always wanted something different from the rest.

His sense of style is no accident, having grown up in Lebanon in a family immersed in the retail industry. My great-grandparents, on both sides, worked in clothing and sewing, primarily in children's clothing, and my mother's family owned the largest children's clothing manufacturing factory in the area.

Surrounded by such expertise, it's no surprise that he and his brother were always impeccably put together as children. Our clothes were always fitted and we weren't allowed to wear T-shirts because they were considered too informal, he laughs.

Despite this, he explains that his dream of studying fashion simply wasn't an option. Growing up Armenian, I didn't have the right. Between my brother and me, one of us had to be an engineer and the other a doctor, he said.

Undeterred, he took a more circuitous route, taking a job as a salesman at a fashion retailer while studying biology at university. He worked his way up the shop floor to visual merchandiser. When I got my master's degree, I was chased by [the Lebanese department store] ABC to be the visual merchandiser, then a few years later, by Harvey Nichols in Riyadh for the same role. I ended up becoming a buyer, attending all the fashion weeks.

When the time came, he felt compelled to create his own brand, and in 2018 he returned to Beirut to launch Maison Du Mec. His years in retail taught him to build it up slowly. We started very small with just tops and pants. And I was very lucky because for my first collection, I was able to present it on ABC and I sold it from home.

Each season, Achajian added new components. He moved to suits, then coats, then shirts. We added shoes and have now become a brand that offers all categories of clothing, shoes, accessories, jewelry, leather goods and even a small collection of candles. It's more of a lifestyle.

La Maison Du Mec is renowned for its clean, minimal aesthetic, with a palette dominated by black and white. Attending New York Fashion Week for years, I learned that you look at the flamboyant guy for five seconds, but you're intrigued by the man in black in the corner, he says.

That's why I created a brand that is purely black and white as men, that's what we want.

He describes the brand’s purpose as intriguing. We want a minimal and different approach, he says. Even though the focus is on tailoring, everything has a unique touch. A dress shirt, for example, is oversized, giving it a touch of street style, while knits are cut into harness-style bibs.

I really started to enrich the men's wardrobe with pieces that you don't find every day, in a very chic way, but with that little side, he says.

The Maison du Mec suit, for its part, is a hybrid between the tuxedo and the tuxedo jacket, belted for a languid and loose cut that is tied at the waist with a belt. The result is casual and incredibly chic.

As someone who has worn a tuxedo since the age of 15, I needed something different, elegant and classy, ​​that I could attend an event in, but that could be worn by anyone in the region.

In 2022, the brand participated in Dubai Fashion Week (then called Arab Fashion Week), sparking a brief flirtation with color and a women's line, although the latter has now been shelved. I discovered that our female customers prefer to wear men's clothing. We have a few evening dresses, but we'll leave it at that.

Despite his desire to incorporate subversion into menswear, he says his clothes are made to be versatile. If you remove the belt, it's a normal suit. Our pants are high waisted Italian cut pants. I don't use Chinese poplin; I use Italian poplin. I don't want people to buy my products, wear them for a season and then throw them away. I want to create versatile pieces that people can wear for years.

From now on, his gaze turns to the international market, with the plan to present at Pitti Uomo, the prestigious men's fashion fair in Florence. Having grown up in Lebanon, he wants to move forward.

I was raised in a civil war, then I witnessed another war, then another war and then the huge explosion, that's a lot for one person to handle in 39 years, but as a Lebanese you learn that you have to stand up. very quickly and start again.

Updated: May 26, 2024, 5:36 a.m.