EXCLUSIVE: Luxury Eyewear Brand Ahlem Gets First Minority Investor

PARIS — After tapping its first chief executive officer, Ahlem is taking on its first outside investor.

The 10-year-old luxury eyewear company said Wednesday it had received a minority investment from 1686 Partners, a fund launched in 2023 by David Wertheimer with a focus on high-end lifestyle labels.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founder and creative director Ahlem Manai-Platt said the investment cemented a new chapter for the label initiated in January when it named former Thélios executive Enrico Sanavia CEO.

“I’ve always run my business on intuition and after meeting , I knew this would not just be an investor relationship but a partnership of unified vision,” she told WWD. “What is important is leveraging the expertise and network we are forming together to fuel our future perspectives.”

Manai-Platt said the first priority would be the expansion of Ahlem’s retail network, which currently counts four flagships in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York and Paris. In addition to more stores in the U.S., she named London and Milan as initial areas of interest, with Japan and Korea on the cards in a two- to four-year time frame.

To support this development, the company will grow its headcount from 35 to around 50 people, including retail staff for new openings.

Other developments will include bolstering its luxury full-service offer, which includes same-day prescription eyewear and sunglasses as well as on-site eye examination by opticians, and enhance its in-person bespoke experience.

Partnerships with hospitality are also on the cards. For Manai-Platt, this will involve “growing synergies with ambassadors who have been with the brand since the early days,” such as LeBron James, Lewis Hamilton and Natalie Portman.

Launched in 2014 in Los Angeles, the brand manufactures its small-batch collections in France and was a runner-up in the 2017 CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund awards. It introduced a buyback program in 2020 and a bespoke offer in 2024. In addition to its own retail, Ahlem’s wholesale network currently tops 900 doors worldwide.