Gallery Lafayette Presents Major New Store in Paris

French department store opened “Retail lab” – a new store in an art deco bank on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

The space is designed to function as something more than just a store – Galeries Lafayette views it as a hybrid retail model that will be used for fashion shows, brand events, and other activities.

This move will be a first for the brand, which began when Theophile Bader and Alphonse Caen started to selling fashion items from their haberdashery shop on La Fayette in 1895. Now it is the essential luxury department store in the city, with branches throughout France and the world.

“By opening on the Champs-Élysées, our group is not only writing a new chapter in its entrepreneurial and family history, but it is also fulfilling its founder’s dream,” stated Philippe Houze, executive chairman of the Galeries Lafayette Group.
“A dream expressed nearly 100 years ago on the corner of the Champs and Rue La Boetie, wherein 1927 Theophile Bader planned to build a venue offering something midway between retail, services, and entertainment,” he continued. “Almost 90 years later, we are delighted to pursue his grand design with a store concept that is both historic and disruptive.”

The reconstruction included the dismantling of drywall, painted black, which darkened most of the interiors of the building, freeing up space for the new focus – the central atrium filled with light, fixed next to the massive marble columns. A rich material palette is complemented by ring-shaped showcases that wrap columns made of perforated metal sheets with golden hues.

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Dressing rooms are covered in thick pink fabric, while “magic carpets” that dip up and down from the floor help showcase different shoes. Products in other areas are inside tall stacks of hollow boxes, and mannequin stands are clad in the reflective mirror.

A large staircase in the atrium, which can serve as a chess seating for events in the store, leads to three more floors, where jewelry, exclusive sneakers, and items from novice designers are on display.

A restaurant called Oursin and a Parisian food court offer shoppers a place to relax and rejuvenate. They can also drink coffee at Citron, a cafe with a lemon tree created by fashion designer Simon Porte, a restaurant Oursin and a Parisian food court gives shoppers a place to relax and recharge. They can also take a coffee at Citron – a lemon tree-filled cafe created by fashion designer Simon Porte Jacquemus.

Visitors can then exit the store by a lighted walkway.