A piece of Paris has landed in New York City.
French luxury retailer Printemps officially opened his first American store this week in the city's financial district. The retailer celebrated his opening on Friday, which coincided with the beginning of spring, his homonym.
The 55,000 square foot store covers two floors and has a wide range of goods, which includes clothing, shoes, bags, makeup and more. About 25% of their brands are not available or rare in the United States, such as the Joseph Duclos brand, a French luxury name that made a bag lucid by Taylor Swift, the CEO of Printemps, Jean-Marc Bellaiche, saying.
In an interview with CNBC, Bellaiche said the retailer aims to stand out from other luxury players with the striking architecture of the store; Unique mixture of popular luxury brands and French brands difficult to find; and programming and services, which include beauty and spa treatments and clothing and accessory repairs.
Printemps Group was founded in 1865 and operates 20 departments in France. In comparison with its French stores, the location of the United States has more than one experimental inclination, with rotary goods that resemble emerging stores and food concepts, including a restaurant and a cafeteria with French cakes. Its playful design is inspired by a Parisian apartment, and is located in One Wall Street, a historic art decade skyscraper.
For example, one of the most prominent aspects of the Printemps store is the Red Room. The Art Deco style room was decorated with a roof with red mosaics and golden by Master Muralist Hildreth Meière and completed in 1931. It was previously a reception room and bank hall for the bank of Bank and Irving Bank, and was designated as an interior historical of the preservation commission of the milestones of New York City.
Printemps restored the room and turned it into a “shoe forest” where buyers can search footwear or ask for a glass of wine in a nearby bar.
The store will also include Maison Passerelle, a restaurant restaurant led by Gregory Gourdet, twice Top Chef finalist and three times winner of the James Beard award. It will open in April.
Printemps is opening the US store when luxury expense slows down worldwide. Even some richest consumers have withdrawn discretionary purchases due to inflation and economic uncertainty. In China, a key market for high-end goods, luxury expense has not recovered at pre-pondemic levels.
It is projected that sales in the world luxury industry will grow from 1% to 3% per year until 2027, according to a report last month of the Kearney consulting firm. The report attributed the deceleration to the weakest demand among Chinese consumers, inflationary pressures in the United States and economic uncertainty fueled by commercial interruptions and changes in policies by the Trump administration.
That is a change marked from 2020 to 2021, when worldwide luxury expenditure increased approximately 27%, according to Kearney's report. The worldwide luxury expense in goods and services totaled an estimated $ 500 billion in 2024.
Even so, Brian Ehrig, one of the authors of the report and partner in the practice of Kearney consumer, said that the United States remains an attractive market for luxury brands due to consumer resistance.
“On a relative basis, we have the healthiest economy, if you observe the main economies,” he said. “And then the other thing is that Americans love to buy.”
Ehrig added that other high -end retailers have also doubled investments in large and striking physical stores, such as LVMH-Eneded Tiffany & Co. and Louis Vuitton open new stores in New York City. He said that the experience in person is more critical in a sector where articles come with such high and expectations for personal service.
“There is something special in being in a luxury retail store, about the way they take care of you and make you feel like a VIP when you are there,” he said. “And there is no way to do it online or on an iPhone.”
Other international retailers with lower price points are also expanding and opening more stores in the United States, including Primark and Mango based in Ireland.
For Printemps, the opportunity of the United States became clear, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic, as more Americans visited Paris and arrived at their stores, Bellaiche saying. In terms of sales, Americans are the third largest speakers for Printemps after the French and Chinese, he added. However, Americans are closing the gap, with sales to US customers who triple between 2019 and 2024, he said.
Even with its luxury approach, Laura Lendrum, CEO of Printemps America, said the store is mixed with more accessible items for tourists or aspirational buyers that can go through a cup of coffee or navigate a gift of $ 50.
Here is a look inside the store:
