Since its start in 2012, so much has happened to BRUT that even its founder, 34-year-old Paul Ben Chemhoun, can hardly keep up. What began as his personal archive became one of Paris’s go-to spots for vintage clothing. Now it’s a full-blown brand with over 40 employees that just opened a New York store, down the street from buzzy local boutique Colbo.
“It’s been absolutely crazy,” Chemhoun says, back in Paris after a couple of weeks in the United States. “Since opening, there’s been a line out front – and it was freezing.” The reason people were willing to queue up at 37 Orchard Street in the ice-caked Lower East Side isn’t hard to guess: BRUT is arriving in New York right as menswear comes down with a case of vintage-feel workwear fever. Its formula of wearable, premium-seeming, classic-yet-modern clothing has “right time, right place” written all over it.
The BRUT collection is huge, containing roughly 250 individual items, often in multiple colors. It has none of the purist reverence or headiness that actual vintage or even vintage repro is known for. “We’re just a bunch of guys making what we want to make,” says Chemhoum. There’s everything from balmacaan coats and Cowichan-style knits to high-waisted chinos and rib tees, all loosely based on historical inspirations. But some references are clearly more modern, as some pieces feel borrowed from the playbook of like-minded, similarly successful labels Bode and Aimé Leon Dore: the hand-knit-looking “Baseball Cardigan” and the preppy-styled “Summit Jacket” are prime examples here.
These kinds of kitchen-sink old-and-new homages reflect BRUT’s loose, playful take on vintage. It’s not about exacting replicas – it’s the look and feel that matters. Yes, attention to quality and detail is there, too. All pieces from the ‘Rework’ line, including the in-demand Barbour jacket, are made in France from high-end materials – in this case dry-waxed cotton from British Millerain. But most styles from the official BRUT line have a different touch: they hit a similar upper-mid price-point ($350-950 for outerwear, $200-300 for pants) but are made elsewhere from fabric blends.
For Chemhoun, opening the store in New York was both a big move and an obvious one. “We’ve always had a lot of American customers, online and in Paris. With tariffs and rising shipping costs, it just made sense for us to be here.” Still, landing across the Atlantic came with a cultural learning curve. At the opening party, the store was draped in a giant U.S. flag that spilled onto the sidewalk – a detail that, judging by the comments on the brand’s IG page, some of those same American customers found to be in poor taste. “It was entirely my fault,” says Chemhoun. “I simply bought a flag that was way too large.”
Chemhoun’s journey with BRUT began as a kid growing up in Lyon, where his father ran a store full of Americana and his grandfather had sold military surplus at flea markets. “Back in the ‘90s, my father and I went looking for vintage every Sunday,” says Chemhoun. “As kids do, I wanted to try something totally different than my father. He was into Americana, so I decided to focus on French workwear.”
That little act of rebellion paid off. Upon moving to Paris, where he first worked as an architect, Chemhoun opened a successful vintage archive filled with antique French pieces. “All the major brands – Dior, Margiela, Louis Vuitton, Lemaire – came in to find interesting shapes, interesting designs.” More than ten years later, the BRUT team is still running it, though much has changed in the meantime. “Today, designers go online for vintage references, and come to us for the really rare pieces,” Chemhoun says.
Having worked closely with designers for a decade, Chemhoun realized around 2021 that he wanted to do his “own thing.” The team split their time between running the Paris store, just north of the Marais, and reworking vintage garments for a modern fit. One early hit was the 1950s French army chinos. They had hundreds in size 36 (XL), which they cut down at the waist and tapered slightly. (There’s even a rumor, happily embraced by BRUT, that David Lynch may have picked one up in the Paris store.) The same silhouette, now produced in China, remains a bestseller.
But the cropped Barbour jacket – a first sample hangs on the wall of the New York store – is probably the best example of BRUT’s way of working. “The classic Barbour silhouettes felt too long, too old-money. So we punked them up, –entirely unlicensed,” says Chemhoun. “Barbour caught wind, reached out, and told us to drop the crown symbol. Still, they were happy to help find the right zippers, linings, and details.” Barbour apparently liked the result so much that it’s now producing a version of the style itself.
Having just returned from New York, Chemhoun is already plotting new plans for BRUT. Now that they’ve quit selling vintage – “everyone’s a dealer these days, so that game is over” – they’re all in on the in-house collection. “We want to open a flagship store in Paris, a place where people can hang out and we can host collaborations.” And the American adventure? New York seems just the beginning. “It’s a big market,” Chemhoun says. “We definitely have a lot more to do there.”
