PARIS — A year after its first New York City pop-up, Parisian shoe label Nomasei is back in town for a week, as it presses forward with its direct-to-consumer strategy and gears up for its first funding round.

Until Monday, the brand is taking over a 450-square-foot space at 251 Elizabeth Street in NoLIta.

It will showcase 14 of its 29 models and offer by-appointment customization workshops for its bestselling Nono loafer and Sonics derbies. There will also be dance classes with Kalon, a Parisian fitness brand created by professional dancers.

“We didn’t think twice about it,” Marine Braquet, who cofounded the brand with footwear designer Paule Tenaillon, told WWD and FN. “Last year, we came on a whim after our Paris pop-up…we were expecting visibility, to be talked about and actually, we sold loads.”

New York was also a no-brainer because it’s where it all started for the brand.

An introduction to the press in November 2019 netted immediate e-commerce sales but Nomasei was waylaid by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, four months in.

When business picked up again in early 2021, the U.S. emerged as the top market.

It continues to account for 50 percent of the French company’s sales, far ahead of the 30 percent share of its home market of France and the U.K.’s 10 percent. (The rest is scattered around the world, from Scandinavia to Australia.)

In addition to an appearance on Netflix’s hit show “Emily in Paris,” the French brand has been worn by real-life bold-face names like Bella and Gigi Hadid, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kidman, Sarah Jessica Parker and Pamela Anderson over the years.

But for Tenaillon, who serves as Nomasei’s creative director, the reason for this quene-around-the-block moment that saw 200 pairs, for around $75,000, fly out of the door in a matter of days with a short-notice announcement all came down to “visibility with a product that’s affordable.”

Prices in the U.S. range from $595 for its Nono loafer and up to $1,095 for over-the-knee boots, after a 15 percent price increase on Aug. 1 due to tariffs on European goods.

Offering luxury-level footwear comfortable enough to be danced in at prices that their friends could stomach is the idea that had Braquet and Tenaillon pack in positions at Chloé to strike out on their own.

WIth respective track records spanning two decades at the likes of Chanel, Dior, Givenchy, Jil Sander and Louis Vuitton, they also had non-negotiable ideals of fair and sustainable practices.

The first is built into the moniker of the brand. Nomasei plays on the syllables of “sei mani,” which means six hands in Italian.

“It’s the idea that no one works alone, because in the houses, throughout our career, it’s often one [person] who is seen like a rock star and all the rest barely get a thank you,” Tenaillon said.

Having long rued a situation where factories ended up squeezed for delays and prices, the two founders decided to make theirs, located in the Italian town of Montopoli in Tuscany, a partner in the brand to the tune of a 15 percent stake.  

Seasonless styles, made from high-end materials sourced where possible from existing stocks, and the use of preorders to right-size production were also par for the course. The brand even displays its footwear’s repairability index, in partnership with Paris-based cobbler Galoche & Patin, to encourage repairs and reuse over new purchases.

Almost six years in the brand — and four years of activity, given the pandemic, Braquet pointed out — Nomasei now sells around 7,000 pairs a year, with around three months’ worth of inventory produced on top of that.

Coming up next is a pop-up in London in Notting Hill, starting Nov. 19. Its customization service, which are with Tenaillon, currently available only at its by-appointment Paris showroom and during pop-ups is also slated to roll out on the website in 2026.

Returning to New York also comes at a key moment for Braquet and Tenaillon.

At the tail-end of August, the company paid off the debt it had incurred during the pandemic, when its Italian factory opened them a line of credit to keep things flowing, and restructured in 2023 through a friends-and-family funding.

Then there was profitability. Despite double- and sometimes triple-digit year-on-year growth, and repeat customers accounting for 37 percent of the business every month, the break even point remained elusive.

Sharp cuts in marketing expenses and the launch of an affiliate program in the U.S. in 2024 yielded results, particularly as sales remained apace with last year in the first half of 2025. The company became profitable — “and most importantly, we continued to acquire new clients,” Braquet said.

Now the Parisian brand is ready for its next step: raising funds to fuel growth.

By early next year, the founders hope to have locked a “one-plus-ten” amount.

“That means 1 million [euros] today to install our fundamentals, show what we’re capable of — being profitable, generating growth and meeting our performance indicators,” Braquet said. “And then 10 [million] in two years to really accelerate.”

A new chapter that could include adding a permanent brick-and-mortar component to Nomasei’s DTC strategy.