PARIS — Anyone who has followed Sir Paul Smith’s recent retail openings — including a furniture and curiosity shop on London’s Albemarle Street — knows the British designer isn’t one for cookie-cutter rollouts.
His newest shop here, at 3 Rue Faubourg Saint-Honoré, underscores his idiosyncratic approach, offering ceramic figurines and vintage toys alongside his own men’s and women’s designs. The 3,000-square-foot, two-level shop is Smith’s first on Paris’ Right Bank (he opened on the Left Bank years ago), and is in close quarters with Gucci, Hermès, Chanel and Lanvin stores.
In that luxury environment, his space looks more whimsical than the competition. “It is [my] first shop in an obviously fashion street for fashion brands,” Smith said.
“The location is fantastic,” the designer continued, adding that he was attracted by the series of rooms (eight in total) that the space afforded. “It suits my idea of individuality, allowing me to design each space with its own character.”
On the ground floor, for instance, shoppers find glass cases brimming with curios (all for sale) and Smith-designed accessories. A sweeping staircase to the second level is hung with scores of pictures and photographs, from kitsch views of Paris to a photo of an English aristocrat asleep on his sofa.
“My passion is individuality,” Smith said. “I strive to make each of my stores special. I hate the idea of ‘the corporate rollout,’ where all of the shops look more or less the same, destroying important streets around the world, making them look all the same and losing the character of the city.”
Underscoring the building’s 19th-century Haussmannian provenance, Smith said he opted to return the facade to its original state.
“After that, the idea was to add my ideas to each room. For instance, one room is very feminine with a boudoir feeling, another is covered in English coins, creating a masculine mood,” he said.
Although the men’s collection — the bulk of Smith’s business — is highlighted in two rooms, the women’s is housed in a single, pale pink room with a corniced ceiling.
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Smith’s shop is the latest addition to the street, which has seen a raft of openings. Dolce & Gabbana launched a men’s store, located next to Smith’s, this year, and Hermès is in the midst of a major expansion of its flagship. Down the street, French sportswear brand Paule Ka just opened and Cacharel christened a unit in the same retail development that welcomed Tommy Hilfiger and Brooks Brothers this fall.
As for Smith, he said the Paris location pointed to more retail expansion. He just inaugurated a shop in Red Square in Moscow, and early next year he has plans to open a shop in Beirut. Smith said he may be scoping more locations in the U.S., where he just opened a second shop in Manhattan.