Galeries Lafayette set up a huge shop on the Champs-élysées, Chaumet unveils an ephemeral boutique on rue Saint-Honoré and the other news of the day.
Press review
Galeries Lafayette opens on Champs-Elysées
This week we will be able to discover the new Galeries Lafayette store on the Champs-Elysées. It was inaugurated with a great ceremony yesterday, Tuesday 26 March, in the presence of Bruno Le Maire, the Minister of the Economy.
It is an atypical store, built to meet new consumer expectations, a tailor-made selection, a premium offer: the Champs-Elysées store will be unlike any other, promises the Galeries Lafayette management. Located in Virgin Megastore’s former location in the art deco building at 50-52 avenue des Champs-Elysées, the address is highly symbolic.
90 years ago, the co-founder of Galeries Lafayette, Théophile Bader, acquired the Hôtel de Massa located there to establish a store before giving up. Today, it has been done. The project was completely redesigned by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels. It has been designed to become an essential address for Parisians, but especially for tourists who have very high expectations for new shopping experiences.
“Meeting these expectations is our role,” explains Alexandre Liot, the general manager of the store on boulevard Haussmann, who explains that more than 6,000 m2 will be entirely dedicated to fashion, music, books and gastronomy, with the sole objective of making it a store that is resolutely oriented towards the future and that operates all the digital levers to compete with e-commerce retailers. “The department store must modernize, seize new growth opportunities to resist Amazon,” Nicolas Houzé, the group’s general manager, recently told the press. For the occasion, Chanel is in the spotlight in the windows of this new decor. Until April 21, the brand is the surprise guest of the department store.
Chaumet sets up in Saint-Honoré
Since March 22, Maison Chaumet has been located at 392, rue Saint-Honoré, in Paris. A temporary store located a few steps from the emblematic 12, place Vendôme and open during the restoration of the historic address of the House, Chaumet naturally turned to rue Saint-Honoré, where the great houses on the right bank meet.
Decorated in a contemporary spirit, this new store offers visitors a precious setting dedicated to the House’s jewellery and watchmaking creations, where refinement, poetry and naturalism plunge them into the world of Chaumet. Between neon games and contemporary reinterpretation of wheat, a motif at the heart of the House’s symbolic and decorative repertoire, the pop-up store plays with Chaumet’s classic codes, in a hushed atmosphere inspired by the French way of life… From Josephine to Liens and Jardins, all Chaumet’s iconic collections are presented.
Åre Water, the new luxury mineral water arrives in Paris
On the occasion of the event held on March 21, at the Galerie N’oblige, Åre Natural Mineral Water presented its rare, freshly launched product, which is of superior quality: it contains very few nitrites and nitrates and naturally has 84% oxygen.
The water is bottled directly near a well protected underground spring, Åre Källa, filtered by layers of sand and moraine, which were formed during the Ice Age.
It is a certified natural mineral water from one of the few natural mineral water sources in Northern Europe, no elements have been removed or added, with the exception of carbon dioxide in sparkling water, and natural flavours in flavoured products, and it has won three gold medals at the AVPA Gourmet Water Competition in France in 2017 and 2018.
