Restless fashion maverick Rei Kawakubo — forever experimenting with retail formats and innovative design concepts — is moving her Comme des Garçons boutique in Paris into the former location of Burberry’s flagship at 56 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, WWD has learned.
The new four-story location will be roughly 50 percent bigger — and loads more visible — than the previous site, which was tucked into a courtyard off the same tony thoroughfare. For more than 22 years, it has been demarcated solely with a plaque to the side of the courtyard entrance, similar to the ones indicating dental or medical offices — albeit in red Lucite, not brass.
Slated to open in early October, the new Comme des Garçons unit will span about 7,500 square feet and will be considered a bona fide flagship, carrying the complete range of product lines, as seen in Comme’s landmark Aoyama boutique in Tokyo, which was recently refurbished and doubled in size.
Adrian Joffe, president of Comme des Garçons International and chief executive officer of Dover Street Market, confirmed the expansion move and said the new Paris boutique would be conceived and designed by Kawakubo.
The central feature of the current courtyard location is an undulating red fiberglass wave, emanating from the ceiling and the walls, that washes over visitors as they pass through a 160-foot-long entrance corridor.
Burberry, then under creative director Christopher Bailey, opened its flagship at 56 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in December 2011.
Last year, the British brand decamped westward to the Rue Saint-Honoré, which has gained heat in recent years as the likes of Dior, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Loewe, Balenciaga, Acne Studios and others opened high-visibility locations.
The Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré represents the quieter end of the same thoroughfare with a mix of art galleries, embassies, the Élysée Palace and the Bristol Hotel. However, there are still a number of prominent fashion nameplates, including the historical Hermès flagship, Lanvin, Roger Vivier, Tod’s, Bottega Veneta, Chanel and, coming soon, an Alaïa flagship.
Meanwhile, Kawakubo and Joffe plan to break the mold again when a Paris branch of Dover Street Market finally opens in March 2024 in the trendy and bustling Marais district.
It is slated to open in the grand 17th-century town house at 35-37 Rue des Francs Bourgeois that Joffe has operated for the past two years as a kind of cultural center hosting a freewheeling mix of exhibitions, happenings, musical performances, brand installations and retail spaces.
Known as 3537 and currently home to a Dover Street Little Market and an exhibition titled “Trop C’est Trop,” the cultural center is to go dark on July 31 to make way for the necessary renovations.
Joffe is keeping details under wraps, but hinted that he and Kawakubo are recontextualizing the retail emporiums, originally conceived with an atmosphere of “beautiful chaos” mingling various Comme des Garçons lines with luxury and streetwear.
“It’ll be a new kind of Dover Street,” he said, noting that the Paris outpost will coincide with Dover Street Market’s 20th anniversary.
The first location opened in a nondescript office building on Dover Street in London, transforming that formerly desolate corner of Mayfair before moving to bigger digs on Haymarket.
Dover Street Market also operates locations in New York, Los Angeles, Singapore, Tokyo and Beijing, the latter in partnership with Hong Kong retailer I.T.
Comme des Garçons has operated a boutique in Paris since 1982; the original one was located on Rue Etienne Marcel.