Feminine Touch
Celine’s latest Paris store features female artists.
Celine is putting the spotlight on women artists with its latest boutique in Paris, its fourth opening in the French capital in as many months.
The store on Rue Duphot, just off Rue Saint-Honoré, carries women's and men's ready-to-wear and accessories. In line with creative director Hedi Slimane's new retail concept, inaugurated in New York City in February, the 3,770-squarefoot space features a mix of his furniture designs, vintage pieces and original art works.
They include a ceramic sculpture by German artist Katinka Bock; a sculpture by Chinese artist Hu Xiaoyuan incorporating materials such as rosewood, ink, raw silk and nails; a wall-mounted sculpture by Canadian artist Georgia Dickie, who often works with found objects, and a work by fellow Canadian Rochelle Goldberg. Rounding out the selection is a man, Brazilian artist Deyson Gilbert.
Walls are covered in stone including Grand Antique marble, a deep black stone with graphic white veining from the South of France, and travertine from Iran, in an overall design that blends elements of Brutalism, Modernism, Bauhaus and Dutch art movement De Stijl.
Among the store's most striking features is a staircase linking the ground floor to the first floor, framed with slats of glass and wood, curving around Bock's sculpture.
In addition to the locations opened since late February in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Milan, Madrid, Dubai, Macau and Bangkok to coincide with the delivery of Slimane's debut ready-to-wear collections, Celine plans to open stores this year in Shanghai and Beijing.
The Rue Duphot boutique is located in one of the French capital's hottest shopping districts, which in the last year has welcomed new or revamped flagships from Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Valentino, Balmain, Marni and Serge Lutens, among others. Saint Laurent will debut its new retail format nearby on Saturday. — JOELLE DIDERICH