Aime Leon Dore - What the Hell is Going On? - Topic of the day 2/19/25
Not long ago it seemed like you couldn't walk outside without getting smacked in the face with Aime Leon Dore. Their lookbooks were incredible, there was that Derek Guy article about George Costanza, and the brand aesthetic was so sought after that if you couldn't afford it, you were trying to copy it. But over the last 12-18 months it seems the brand has fallen out of favor. Lookbooks aren't hitting as hard, and there's fewer and fewer items in each collection that seem 'worth it.' Which begs the question: what the hell is going on?
110 Replies
just a heads up, no matter how well discourse or conversation goes here i am not changing my stance on ALD out of principle
uh but as a serious response, i wasnt there to be excited about ALD in the first place, but mostly consumer culture surrounding it has turned me off. pricing seems really egregious for what it is, and the entire idea of it being a cafe for sophisticated fellas is just so eyeroll worthy to me
i just think the branding outpaced the clothes in the worst way possible
I remember seeing more people in fear of God (1) than ALD (0) :FollowerShrug:
i wanted to go to the ALD store one time and they asked me to sign up for the digital waitlist so i walked away
funnily enough though i own two ALD pieces
the 550s and a fitted
Things do not stay new forever. Brands hit hard because they find the magical combo of good items, styling, and timing. After that its a tightrope walk of keeping things just the same enough to keep their customers happy and just different enough to keep people coming back. It seems impossible. I feel like ALD had a strong 5 years, but the zeitgeist shifted so now they arent as much of a force presently. I think it makes more sense for them to stick to making clothes for their customer base than to keep chasing the zeitgeist.
Doesn't LVMH now own a little bit of ALD? š¤
I think the people changed and ALD didnt!
I think 5 years is a solid effort for staying in the hype machine. Peter do got like 1. Gucci got about 5 as well.
I think the main thing is the price really, I was in the store and it was wild how much they wanted for some stuff
Like I would buy some pieces from them but the price is just way too much
FWIW ALD had two more good years after Noah fell off
Now Noah just makes J Crew for people too tech illiterate for Todd Snyder
My name is Noah so I cannot ever wear Noah, whenever I did people ALWAYS commented "why are you wearing your own name"
Brb gonna get a t shirt with my name on it
I have the same problem my name is polo ralph lauren
Nice to meet you Mr. Polo
But this is the thing with Norse projects/Robert Geller vs Acne/Our Legacy where the former stagnated and dropped out of the cultural sphere and the latter evolved and became bigger
Hi Polo, I am Sam
Damn this is a bar
Yeah i think its a line that has to be walked elegantly and i definitely have no idea how to do it best
I just donāt think ALD has a core customer base now though since it was always based on hype
Victims of their own success IMO. 5-6 years ago this conceit that u could wear a baseball hat n sneakers with a blazer or whatever. was pretty refreshing post-street wear post pandemic yada yada but now thatās just kind of a given
Those customers are off to the next big thing
3 reactions and I'll change my discord display name to Polo Ralph Lauren :LambHehe:
ALD still hits for me the way supreme does. some cool bits here and there but im not tryin to grab an entire season.
I think weeg & char kinda nailed it tho, ALDs hype peak was right place right time and lasted relatively long.
Their footwear still hits for me
Idk if this is 300 good but I love it https://noahny.com/products/bow-loafer
Bow Loafer - Noah
Made in Portugal. 100% leather upper and lining. Leather laces. Classic leather outsole with rubber heel reinforcement. Debossed logo on footbed
Anyway
I have no real sources to back this up but it seems to me the brand vision is less focused than it once was
Like in 2021-2022 when ALD first hit my radar the brand aesthetic was very dialed in to āprep/ivy with sneakers and baseball hatsā
And I feel like as theyāve evolved over the last few years they havenāt really found a good cohesive direction to go from there
The collections and lookbooks feel very all over the place
I see that and especially with what carrion said it seems less focus they have the more itās kinda a they drop a few bangers every season and a lot of ehhh stuff vs damn I want to own this whole lookbook.
Also feels like they arenāt fleshing out their ideas enough in some cases when it comes to lookbooks
These are both good concepts that are not well executed
As opposed to something like this which is a very āald thing to doā thatās also very very well executed
Inb4 seth roasts me again
I'm with art as the other big ALD fan
Yeah, I feel like ALD kinda got genericised in that a lot of it now is clothing mainstream meaning they lost their core identity.
ALD fans are broadly completely unable to style ALD as well lmao
https://www.instagram.com/aimeleondad?igsh=ZXhsZ3dweGowaDZu
https://www.instagram.com/harandoesthings?igsh=MW9sdGF3c3lsODN1Nw==
yeah I mean like. These guys seem very sweet
Zach (@aimeleondad) ā¢ Instagram profile
36K Followers, 1,344 Following, 1,511 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Zach (@aimeleondad)
Haran (@harandoesthings) ā¢ Instagram profile
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Haran rocks
But youāve got a lot of the online menswear space doing this kind of thing now right. Which is great. They look great.
ALD I think really opened up a world we had lost
I def feel like ALD has set the zeitgeist and is struggling to differentiate themselves rn
My whole thing with ALD is that all of the looks I like I (for the most part) can replicate without buying ALD clothes
So why would I
Yeah itās hard to keep justifying that price point
When youāre not the only ones doing this thing anymore
Idk we shoulda waited for the lookbook that is inevitably coming out within the next week
Imo
Good timing - I literally just bought a (second-hand) ALD work jacket, first piece from them. Agree it feels like the brand was hotter in the last couple of years than right now, so for the price I paid this thing feels pretty good - substantial and heavy-duty with a couple of nice details. And certainly seen other nice things from them in the past, but nothing that's made me race to buy items full-price. I think the overall presentation, styling, worldview etc. is stronger than each individual item of clothing itself.
A point outside the clothes themselves: they spearheaded/popularised the 'in-environment' product pic, something now done by countless brands, which combined with the cafe made it very clear they want to sell you a specific world or have buyers see themselves as a specific type of person.
I wrote this totd like two weeks ago lmao
I still don't think anyone really does the clothes like ALD
The differentiator of the actual clothes, behind the styling, is they always have details you can't find elsewhere ime
And if anything that's what they lost
Yeah smiles is correct
yea maybe they shouldve done the supreme route and made their logo a big deal
The concepts can be imitated but the clothes themselves not so much
Like you can replicate the style but the actual details were always niche
Which is why you see me and smiles have such vastly different takes on the brand in our fits
Wore ALD today lol
But yes I think they have a few different visions too within the brand
Will never forgive them for not releasing that suede fireman jacket
I feel like that globe motif was more common in their early stuff?
i think so but idk how well that translates to other items
shit vs fart
thanks ice spice
jk jk
ALD just kinda ran out of runaway and I think they kinda grew too fast and are messy behind the scenes
I think thereās only so many ways you can freak ivy and not have it look like shit
And so when they ran out of ways theyāve struggled to pivot
i think the style hype just has died down. They did a LOT better than noah
i said this at the beginning of the thread and no one gave me my kudos </3
Itās crazy how we cannot talk about this brand without at least three mfs saying āzeitgeistā
I mean they were the crown jewel of streetwear in like 2019-2022 so they were influential in the streetwear zeitgeist
Maybe the innovation in that sphere is finished, like classical physics, and they are trying to find their quantum
In this sense it feels like in some ways they stopped experimenting because it was profitable to sell that 2019 aesthetic
all of the ald clothes ive handled and worn feel not good not as good as i want them to
except for like the brand collabed stuff that is being made to the collabed-with-brand's standard and not ald
Lud, every item doesnāt feel good to you haha
no!
i like acne!
Oh wait
you didn't!
Who didnāt like acne
Was it me
I like acne though and I think the quality is fine
mirror meme etc
LMAO
but uhhh idk yea, i can see it having a supreme-shaped timeline of tapering off in popularity as it becomes more and more of a meme
and then going back up assuming they continue making the same stuff forever
Buy Acne Studios 1981 in Cold Grey
:LambHey:
i'm actually looking for 1996 in a washed black haha but good rec
yea fwiw it's mostly "timeless" since it draws from historical ivy and prep influences
I cannot believe that acne stands for associated computer nerds enterprise or whatever, who let them do that
thats a backronym
did this thread get hijacked to post about acne
They switched from MiUSA to made overseas a few years ago and raised prices... I think they saw the brand blew up and made the decision to milk it as much as they could before the fashion crowd moved on to something else
Their retail strategy was also odd, I feel like their 'exclusivity' was something that would hinder them in europe for example
You can't buy ALD anywhere so a bunch of ALD like brands started popping up and people just bought those
Maybe :FollowerShrug:
I also think that ALD was trying to do something in a couple of years that took ralph lauren decades. for the diehard fan this might seem incohesive/inconsistent
like there's the ivy stuff, then theres sportswear, streetwear but also some tailoring etc. ALD was getting copied left and right but in the last couple of seasons failed to introduce something novel to keep us engaged
what would something like that be? maybe a double down on a certain style or direction instead of pursuing a more horizontal approach to styles
I am sure that they will surprise us with something this season, like a collaboration, new store, activation or capsule collection that will make them regain their relevancy for a short while
i would not be so sure!
styling/lifestyle based brand vs product based brand
sure but to the outside world ALD is very much a 'product', with the brand/product being american clothes
I don't know if I explain it well enough when I put it like that
it could be a similar situation with ERL & Dior
(which was not great, admittedly)
what "american lifestyles" has ALD not done yet? gorp? boating/nautica?
I'm not american thats not for me to answer
Same here
idt they need or want to pursue a new/different lifestyle or aesthetic
They just need a solid season tbh
there's a weird self-seriousness to ALD that was a reason i didn't like the brand and i think that contributes to the fall off
looking around to make sure everyone sees how cool your lookbook is
very very carefully blasting the perfect 90s hip hop track out of your meticulously restored porsche 911
yes it becomes a bit formulaic
if everything is already known to be as of good taste
on the flip side i have affection for supreme for being like yeah this shit is dumb but we're having fun
i feel the same way
they sometimes surprise with collabs as well, for example the bless one that just got announced
is weird
and cool
but all ALD collabs are 'oh yeah that makes perfect sense'
ALD was honestly my least favorite store I stopped in in NYC. The car was cool but that's kinda it
I think what put me off was truly how pretentious the entire experience felt. I visited bespoke tailors that were wonderful and so welcoming and nice and ALD just felt like The Worst Guys you know hanging out.
Meanwhile Supreme had branded pimple patches and thumb tacks for posters that are just so fun.
Maybe thatās what drew me to the brand
ik this is at least half bit but I don't think it used to be that way
like i said: self serious
have some damn fun!!!
in a way, a spotless restored porsche 911 that just sits in a shop to be looked at is the perfect avatar for ALD
One point I will make, and I don't think this is necessarily connected to the rise or fall of their popularity, is it well a lot of people compare their clothes to Ralph lauren, the quality of all the pieces I have touched is significantly lower than that. A lot of their stuff feels a bit cheap to the touch.
Agree with the comments above. Supreme and even Palace lack that self-seriousness which makes them more approachable. Maybe thatās because those are both Skateboarding companies whereas ALD is not. ALDs clothes are cool but iāve never bought anything because itās so pricey, and Iād rather thrift Polo to Shrimps point above. whereas i will spend money on unique Supreme and Palace pieces here and there (mostly accessories and hats but still)
ALD definitely has a cool thing going on and could maybe even become a contemporary classic if they stay in their lane and continue down their path instead of changing it up too often and losing what made them cool. Stussy is a good example of just like, doing what they do
aw, that's a shame, but at least polo is fairly easy to find thrifted, meanwhile i've not seen any ALD irl, like i said earlier
i would look at their website but
u should look at their lookbooks. its like if prl was more expensive harder to get and better to look at
https://www.aimeleondore.com/blogs/news/spring-summer-2025-campaign
they also released a video showing a bit of their new season stuff
AimeĢ Leon Dore (@aimeleondore) ā¢ Instagram profile
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and their insta is showing some of the new season's pieces
@Sam
that lvmh money getting put to good use
flying the team out to eat food in sweats and drive boats
the dream
An apron over tailoring theyāve done it again
Maybe Iām a dork but I think this is cute