Siblings Edouard and Andrea Leret hope to foster community with their graphic crewneck sweaters.

Edouard and Andrea Leret&#39;s cashmere brand was only six months old when the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/travel-living/private-dining-restaurants-coronavirus">coronavirus</a> pandemic hit New York City.&nbsp;&ldquo;This was bigger than our brand,&rdquo; Edouard tells L&rsquo;OFFICIEL. &ldquo;And as New Yorkers we wanted to help other New Yorkers.&rdquo;

<a href="https://leret-leret.com/" target="_blank">Leret Leret</a> partnered with the New York charity <a href="https://www.glwd.org/">God&rsquo;s Love We Deliver</a>, which provides meals to New Yorkers who are unable to shop or cook for themselves&ndash;an especially critical service as the city dealt with the brunt of the America&#39;s&nbsp;initial COVID-19 cases. The brand donated 25 percent&nbsp;of sales to the organization and funded over 8,000 meals, generating support from celebrities like Nicky Hilton, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/pop%20culture/david-beckham-boots-victoria-beckham-instagram">Brooklyn Beckham</a>, and Caroline Vreeland.&nbsp;&ldquo;The whole path has been very organic,&rdquo; Edouard says. &quot;We&rsquo;ve never paid anybody for wearing or posting our sweaters. We never have and I think we never will.&quot;

Born in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/emily-in-paris-lily-collins-fashion-looks-to-copy-chanel">Paris</a> and raised in Venezuela, Edouard and Andrea began working on Leret Leret in 2018 after Edouard was connected with manufacturers in Mongolia while working in Shanghai. The siblings&ndash;who both have backgrounds in fashion&ndash;saw potential in knitting graphics into relaxed unisex cashmere crewnecks for a modern take on the usually-stuffy knitwear staple. Though most cashmere is sourced from Mongolia, it is typically manufactured elsewhere, and the duo opted to team up with a single Mongolian producer to streamline the process. &ldquo;We thought that we could support the whole chain, from the nomadic herder to the finished product,&rdquo; says Edouard.&nbsp;

Instead of following a traditional <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/dries-van-noten-alaia-archive-shop">fashion calendar</a>, Leret Leret releases &quot;editions&quot;&nbsp;in limited quantities, and numbers its designs rather than naming them, with the intention of allowing customers to interpret the&nbsp;graphics however they like. &ldquo;Sweater number one, which has clouds, is inspired by our trip together to Mongolia and the Mongolian sky,&rdquo; Edouard says. &ldquo;We&rsquo;ve had people ask, &lsquo;Oh, is that a The Simpsons sweater?&rsquo; So it&rsquo;s funny to hear everyone&rsquo;s interpretations.&rdquo;

Ultimately, the Lerets want to use their brand to connect with others. &ldquo;The idea is to build a community of people and artists so that once or twice a year we can all come together,&quot; says Edouard. &ldquo;Connecting with people may be the part we enjoy the most about this project.&quot; The siblings recently tapped artist <a href="https://leret-leret.com/blogs/journal/artist-intervention-angelica-hicks" target="_blank">Angelica Hicks</a>&nbsp;for an &ldquo;artist intervention,&rdquo; in which the brand gave Hicks carte blanche to design a crewneck.&nbsp;Edouard hopes this is the first collaboration of many. &quot;Leret Leret has given us a platform to create anything with anybody,&quot; he says.

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French-American Leret Leret is the Celebrity Favorite Cashmere Brand to Watch

L'OFFICIEL USA December 2024 - Julianne Moore Cover

French-American Leret Leret is the Celebrity Favorite Cashmere Brand to Watch

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