Smart enough to look polished, relaxed enough for pretty much anywhere - Les Deux has found a very useful middle ground. The Copenhagen brand combines clean Scandinavian design with preppy influences, laid-back sportswear and just enough detail to keep things interesting.

Born in Copenhagen, Les Deux has grown from a single homemade T-shirt into an international menswear brand. There’s a good story behind it, too, involving a chance meeting, two very different backgrounds and rather a lot of determination. Read on and we’ll fill you in.

Already sold on the Scandi styling? You can skip straight to the good stuff and shop Les Deux at Badger.

Les Deux was founded by Andreas von der Heide and Virgil Nicholas, who came from strikingly different backgrounds. Andreas was a law student from the Copenhagen suburbs, while Virgil had come to Denmark from Congo as a political refugee.

It was precisely those differences that gave them their idea. Andreas has described the friendship as two people from different cultures discovering a strong connection and wanting to demonstrate what they could create together. Neither arrived with the conventional CV for building an international fashion business, and Andreas has said much of what followed was self-taught.

Their starting point was wonderfully straightforward: buy white T-shirts and add military patches. As demand grew, so did the collection, and the contrast between their backgrounds gradually became part of the design language of Les Deux itself - preppy mixed with streetwear, classic with contemporary and smart with casual.

Virgil subsequently left the business, while Andreas remained closely involved as co-founder. The little T-shirt experiment they began in Copenhagen has since developed into an international lifestyle brand with a sizeable team and customers well beyond Denmark.

Image credit: euroman.dk

Les Deux is straightforward about one thing: making new clothing always has an environmental impact. Rather than describing itself as sustainable, the brand talks about reducing that impact and acknowledges that there’s still room for improvement.

Materials are one area where it's been making changes. Les Deux has set targets around increasing its use of what it describes as preferred fibres and materials, including more responsible cotton, and you’ll find recycled fibres in selected styles. At Badger, for example, the Kody Houndstooth Overshirt currently uses a heavyweight fabric made from 50% wool and 50% recycled polyester.

The company has also been working on measuring its environmental impact more systematically. Its published goals include calculating its carbon emissions to establish a baseline, improving visibility beyond its direct suppliers and developing a supplier assessment system. It has also set a goal of using 70% preferred fibres and materials in its products.

There’s a social side to its approach as well. Les Deux requires new and existing suppliers to sign a Code of Conduct covering areas including labour rights, chemicals and animal welfare, and publishes Modern Slavery Statements setting out its approach to risks within the supply chain.

Longevity is part of the conversation, too. Les Deux has previously operated its ReWear resale initiative and publishes a Care & Repair Guide designed to help customers keep clothing in use for longer. That fits rather neatly with the brand's own statement that the most responsible clothes are the ones you already own and wear.

It’s an approach based on gradual improvement rather than claiming to have solved fashion’s environmental challenges. For anyone looking more closely at how their clothes are made, Les Deux publishes its current responsibility commitments and future goals on its website.