Alaïa has elevated its presence in Paris by opening a flagship store on one of the city’s most prestigious luxury shopping streets. The 500-square-metre store is located just opposite Lanvin and not far from Hermès and Cartier, at 15 rue du Faubourg-Saint-Honoré, one of the world’s premier luxury shopping destinations, giving a huge visibility boost to the Richemont-owned label.

The address, called ‘Le 15 Faubourg’, emphatically completes Alaïa’s Parisian retail presence, which also includes two long-standing stores on rue de Moussy and rue de Marignan. “Each [store] shows a different facet of the house, while preserving the confidential, familial spirit that characterises it,” Alaïa said in a press release, underlining that this new opening “also means the realisation of Azzedine Alaïa‘s dream of having a store on this legendary street.”

The store’s interiors have been designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa – the renowned Japanese architects who founded the SANAA agency – in collaboration with Pieter Mulier, Alaïa’s creative director since 2021. The idea was to create an innovative experiential venue, reflecting the label’s key values with its warm, confidential and uncluttered atmosphere, while mirroring Alaïa’s style via the central concept of a “second skin.”

The interiors feel like a cocoon, and are inspired by some of Alaïa’s signature silhouettes, with their soft, sculptural shapes. The ground floor is home to four transparent tubular rooms bathed in a pinkish light, each dedicated to a different range of clothes and accessories. A spiral staircase leads upstairs, where the label is exhibiting some of its models in a space that can morph into a private lounge, while the mezzanine is home to the Café Sant Ambroeus.

The whole ambiance has an ultra-minimalist feel, and the clothes are exhibited like artworks. The atmosphere is soft, almost ethereal, thanks to the use of plush materials such as the pale pink carpeting, the curving glass walls, the well-calibrated lighting, and a palette of muted hues, a reference to Alaïa’s typical colour range.

Designer furniture selected by Mulier completes the layout, for example a Ron Arad table, the Mollo armchairs by Philippe Malouin, and sculptures by US artist Diamond Stingily.
 
In 2017, Swiss luxury group Richemont paid €170 million to buy this 10-storey building dating back to the 19th century, home to a long-established Lanvin boutique until 2021. The building’s renovation work lasted almost three years.