Aimé Leon Dore

Aimé Leon Dore was founded in 2014 by Teddy Santis, a Queens-born child of Greek immigrants who had run a sneaker boutique on Christopher Street before deciding he could design a complete vision. ALD's first collection was modest — five tees and a hoodie — but the brand quickly distinguished itself with a specific cultural editing voice: New York mid-century jazz, Mediterranean leisure, Greek diner aesthetics, BMW M cars, and the easy elegance that connects a Charles Eames chair to a vintage Champion sweatshirt. The Mulberry Street flagship in Manhattan opened in 2019 and immediately became a destination — partly for the clothes, partly for the café (Cafe Leon Dore) attached to the store, which serves espresso and pastries to a queue of stylish twenty-somethings every Saturday morning. The brand collaborated with New Balance (the famous M990 and M992 reissues), Porsche, BMW, Drake, and the New York Knicks. In 2022 Santis was also tapped to lead New Balance's Made in USA collection. ALD is now generally read as the most successful new American luxury house of its generation — not because it is the largest, but because it has carved out a vocabulary that other labels did not previously occupy, and because it has remained closely held and patient. Less hype, more atmosphere.