It hasn’t been smooth sailing for upscale department stores this past decade, even in a place with a sizeable HNWI demographic – and let’s not forget the millions of splurging visitors each year – like New York City. In an audacious move, a foreign player will make its entry here very shortly. We’re talking Printemps, a storied luxury shopping institution in the retail landscape of Paris and all of France. Mind you, the high-end department store was founded in 1865, and now manages no less than 20 department stores in the homeland. Throughout its history, Printemps has opened a number of stores across the planet, but all closed. Following a previous, much-publicised store opening in Doha three years ago, this is the retailer’s second foray in a foreign retail market in many years.
Aiming to make a splash in the Big Apple‘s highly competitive retail landscape, Printemps has secured top location, albeit one that’s both unlikely and iconic: 55,000 sq.ft. (5,110 sqm.) on the premises of a 1960s Art Deco tower in the city’s Financial District. The French retailer has tapped Laura Gonzalez, an acclaimed designer based in the City of Light, to create a fitting interior design, and given the objective to woo a highly discerning customer base, she has pulled out all the stops. Inspired by Printemps‘ rich legacy, classic materials have been modernised, while new ones were also developed along the way, resulting in a hybrid palette of materials. The settings are undeniably evocative and playful, and gain an additional oomph factor through these materials—traditional oak floors inlaid with natural stone, vintage-looking Art Nouveau tiles flaunting an old Printemps pattern, and faux marble table tops crafted from compressed recycled plastic from the fashion industry.
The new Printemps outpost isn’t so much an upscale department store, but more tightly curated boutique offering alluring merchandise in ten uniquely designed areas. Shoppers enter the premises through an undulating glass entrance on Broadway that opens into the vibrant, multi-coloured marble Playroom, featuring casualwear, gifts and the all-day Café Jalu, named after Printemps founders Jules and Augustine Jaluzot. Within the fully immersive Sneaker Room can be found, crowned by a ceiling-spanning LED screen. One floor up, by way of escalators, the Salon is situated. Here, wood flooring and floral-patterned carpets and textiles, all inspired by original Printemps designs, serves as a backdrop women’s apparel and accessories, while the Salon Vert, a Parisian-inspired raw bar that overlooks Broadway, is adorned with hand-painted tiles.
The men’s section, aptly dubbed La Garçonnière, is marked by monochromatic patterns and textures, featuring pink moiré wallpaper, soft pink curtains and pastel frescoes, all put in contrast with a light beige concrete and resin beauty corridor just beyond it. The Beauty Corridor connects the building’s original Art Deco tower with its newer annex, opening onto Salle de Bain, the beauty and spa area, and its opulent Boudoir. This voluminous space is adorned with moon gold-coloured metal cladding and cracked lacquer screens from the renowned Paris-based Atelier Maury, and presents a mix of evening wear, vintage apparel and fine jewellery alongside displays of haute couture pieces. A pink marble staircase off the Boudoir descends to the ground-level Red Room Bar, featuring a setting with rich red jasper marble and stained-glass, before opening onto the Red Room, a lavishly decorated space with red ombré and gold mosaic, gold-toned metal and glass revolving doors that lead onto Wall Street, which is home to a playful shoe forest.
And given its French roots, good food and drink isn’t something that’s overlooked. On the contrary. Enter Maison Passerelle, the store’s very own dining establishment. Supervised by renowned chef Gregory Gourdet, the restaurant features a menu that explores French cuisine, but one which celebrates connection across cultures through food. This means that French favourites meld with the flavours of West Africa, the Caribbean, and other former French colonies, including Vietnam, and even Québec. As for the setting, it’ll offer a seamless extension from the retail surroundings, and sees a delightful room with hand-painted tiles, stained glass and large scale frescoes. While the quaint Wine Shop, with earthy terracotta floors and rich green marble accents, blends old world and new world in both ambiance and a selection of spirits. Printemps New York will officially open its doors on Fri – Mar 21. © superfuture
Printemps
1 Wall Street (Financial District)
New York, NY 10005
Publishers Note
Just to be clear – superfuture® is a design blog and not a political commentator. No surprise there. The scope of our content has always been global and borderless, however that can often mean covering projects in countries where we will not agree with the politics or actions of those countries. In a world that’s as screwed up as ever right now, the focus of our support is to those designers, architects and other creatives who aim to make the world a more liveable one – as opposed to people that try their hardest to destroy it. So if a project hits our desk and we like it based on its design credentials, we may choose to publish regardless of its location or creators nationality. superfuture® has always been inclusive and hopes for all current wars, aggression, violence, hate and extremism to end.
