A few years ago, Mathieu Lebreton, 39, was working for a fashion trade show in New York when he noticed something his French peers were doing during New York Fashion Week.
“Between the shows and the showrooms, they’d go to places like the Met. They’d buy the merch — tees, caps or whatever — and then they’d come back to Paris wearing it very happily,” he said.
Mr. Lebreton, who had previously helped run an agency for influencers and a streetwear magazine in Paris, sensed how much shopping for such items mattered to his colleagues: “It’s what they had their hearts set on,” he said.
What they were doing was bringing home a pandemic-era New York trend labeled “Zizmorcore,” which saw New Yorkers outfitting themselves in clothing and accessories from local spots like Zabar’s or Russ & Daughters to showcase their hometown pride while supporting small business.
Mr. Lebreton was moved to do the same with beloved French establishments. In early 2023, he co-founded GiftShop with fellow Parisians Julien Dô Lê Pham, a creative and restaurateur; Ben Broca, who was working as an executivefor a ghost kitchen company; and Mathieu Ripert, who had worked as a machine learning engineer at Instacart. (Mr. Ripert exited this summer.)
While the startup curates — and typically designs, produces and distributes — limited collections of elevated merchandise from a range of French food, beverage and hospitality establishments, Mr. Pham, 41, said merch is a word “that you can’t even translate into French.”
