Inside Printemps, the French luxury store that’s trying to change the U.S. retail scene

[ResidentialBusiness]

In 1865, a new department store opened in Paris called Printemps (which is French for “spring”). The architecture is a stunning Art Deco masterpiece, replete with mosaics, dramatic turrets, and enormous windows with dramatic displays of recent products.

Today, it sits among other iconic Parisian landmarks, like the Galleries Lafayette store and the Opera. But back then, there was nothing nearby except a railway line that only carried cargo. “When we opened our store on Boulevard Haussmann, it was a completely new area,” says Jean-Marc Bellaiche, CEO of Printemps Groupe, the store’s parent company. “It was a bet that this neighborhood would become hot and vibrant. It was a very successful bet.”

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

This week, Printemps is making a bet on another neighborhood in another continent: New York’s Financial District. Over the past few years, the area has gone through a massive revitalization, as apartments, restaurants, and shops have moved in. Printemps is moving into the ground floor of a 50-story residential building at One Wall Street. “Fifteen years ago, it would have been risky to move here, but it’s transforming in a big way,” he says.

Bellaiche says Printemps spent a lot of time thinking about the new dynamics in the Financial District. He points out that the area was once dominated by bankers, but there are many other businesses in the area now, including media, fashion, and technology. “The Spotify headquarters are nearby,” he says. He also finds it appealing that there are many new apartment complexes in the area, and families are moving in. “It makes the area feel much more like a real neighborhood, one that we are now a part of,” he says.

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

Printemps’s flagship store in Paris is a gargantuan 450,000 square foot operation that is spread out across three buildings, and features more than 1,500 brands. Bellaiche, who joined the company in 2020, has been instrumental in helping to think about Printemps’s future. Part of this has involved expanding beyond France to other markets. Printemps opened a Doha, Qatar, in 2022, and this New York store continues this investment in foreign markets.

The New York store is about a tenth the size, and the company wanted to design a store that was somewhat cozier. It has a far smaller, more curated assortment of brands and products that are generally high-end, but that span a range of price points. While you can buy Louboutins in the shoe section, Nike Women is also doing a pop-up, offering affordably priced sneakers. “We thought, what if Printemps had a pied-a-terre in New York,” says Laura Lendrum, CEO of Printemps America. “So we kind of took that idea literally, and designed the store around the concept of an apartment.”

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

The company brought on Laura Gonzalez, a French interior designer, to help design the space. She worked with the Printemps team to create various “rooms,” much like you would have in a home, where you would want to spend time. The “Red Room,” which is a historic space in the One Wall Street building, has been transformed into a walk-in closet for shoes. Beauty products are displayed in a cozy bathroom inspired space with green tiled walls. There’s a cafe and a restaurant inspired by a breakfast nook and a dining room. There are plenty of plush sofas for you to sit on.

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

Designed for discovery

Lendrum—a retail veteran who previously worked for Ralph Lauren, Gucci, and Saint Laurent—says the idea of creating a homey feel was very deliberate. For years, brick and mortar was in decline, even in the realm of high-end department stores. (Barney’s shuttered in 2020, after 97 years in business.) In the post-pandemic world, consumers’ appetites for retail has returned, but Lendrum says they don’t want to feel like the shopping experience is purely transactional.

One way they signal this is by letting the customer choose how they want to spend their time in the store, rather than directing them towards particular sections to make purchases. “In the IKEA model, the store directs you to go from point A to point B to maximize how much you will buy,” says Lendrum. “But here, our designer has made sure there is not a single path through the store. It is all about the poetry of shapes and curves; there are no straight lines. Everything is designed to encourage discovery and wandering.”

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

Lendrum says that the team focused on creating lots of flexible areas which can be transformed from season to season, to keep things interesting for guests. This proved to be a challenge. “In retail, architects don’t like creating flexibility spaces because the lighting and fixtures need to be adapted to the merchandise,” Lendrum says. “But Laura [Gonzalez] was willing to make it work. This means we can convert areas into brand pop-ups, cooking classes, book readings—whatever is interesting for the community.”

[Photo: Gieves Anderson/Printemps New York]

Bellaiche says that the restaurants were another way of making the space less transactional, and more focused on hospitality. Printemps’s Paris flagship has more than 15 dining options, including La Perruche, a rooftop restaurant that has 1,000 seats, 400 of which offer a view of the Eiffel Tower and the Opera. Bellaiche wanted the New York store to be equally known for its dining. Printemps managed to bring on Gregory Gourdet, a James Beard award winning chef who opened the Haitian restaurant Kann in Portland, to develop a range of dining options, which will include fine dining and a café.

As the Financial District keeps booming, and more families move into nearby apartments, Bellaiche hopes people will think of Printemps less as a place to shop for clothes or makeup and more as a regular destination as they go about life. “We hope people will come in for their daily coffee and croissant,” he says. “We love seeing people come into the store every day. It allows us to develop an intimacy with them.”

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