Located at 60 Avenue des Champs Elysées, the new Galeries Lafayette store is a luxury temple housing more than 800 brands over four floors, comprising 6,500 square metres in a sumptuous 1930s art deco building. This pleasure palace blends fashion, beauty, accessories and gourmet food to create a smooth retail experience that includes private shoppers, connected hangers that inform you if the product you are trying exists in different sizes (yes, really!) and a selection of niche brands.
The on-site dramatisation is worth a visit to the French capital alone. Some products are displayed on a baggage carousel, lest we had any doubts of its dedication to visitors. Coincidentally, this new Parisian space opened just a few days after a new Galeries Lafayette store in Shanghai, which demonstrates the strength of the Shanghai-Paris connection in terms of retail and luxury.
Cognisant of that axis, and across the Seine in the upscale 7th arrondissement, is the next-gen retail venue Beaupassage, which is also worth a visit. The recently opened space evokes comparable locations in Shanghai in terms of its concept and approach – Columbia Circle and some lanes in the Xingfu Lu neighbourhood, for example. In both cases, it is a closed lane or site renovated around a single identity, mixing works commissioned from contemporary artists, high-end cafes, restaurants and gourmet food boutiques, and a selection of trendy stores. Such an integrated approach is something of a new direction for Paris.
