After a two-year renovation, Dior reopens its historic 30 Montaigne flagship in Paris, now extended into the scope of culture, art, and hospitality, featuring a museum, restaurant, hotel suite, and salon.
Shortly after joining Dior in February 2018, chairman and CEO Pietro Beccari set out on an ambitious task of renovating the French luxury house’s Avenue Montaigne flagship. The Maison, which first opened its doors in 1946, has housed the luxury fashion house’s collections for seventy-five years. Christian Dior’s top-selling boutique then closed in 2019 for a complete makeover.
The LVMH-backed Maison acquired six adjacent historic buildings and combined them into a hub of the neo-classical facade and modern virtue, awash in a chic palette of white and cream, offering a wholly integrated Dior universe. The project, unfolding over 10,000 sqm, is designed by New York-based interior architect and luxury retail’s go-to designer, Peter Marino.
Besides offering ready-to-wear, accessories, homeware, and beauty products ingrained with Dior’s savoir-faire, the flagship abounds with grandiose details such as a luminous sculpture by Paul Cocksedge suspended in an airy atrium that emulates Christian Dior’s illustrations falling from his desk.
An adjoining museum recites the label’s history through the lens of its revered creative directors, such as Yves Saint Laurent and John Galliano, while French culinary breakout star Jean Imbert helms the on-site eateries. The reinvention, also known as the Iconic Realm of Dreams, even has an outdoor garden atrium and a standalone hotel room that allows guests exclusive 24/7 access to everything Dior.
The expansive new Dior Galerie has been more than four years in the making. It follows the journey of the fashion house since its genesis in 1947 and was inspired by the successful moving Dior exhibitions which have travelled the world in recent years. Including pieces from various collections and scenography by Nathalie Crinière, the museum displays fashion’s evolution on social trends and how society reflects movements in fashion.
Featuring a series of themed spaces and archive pieces (a lot of which were originally on sale in the 30 Montaigne boutique), the collection is staged in the same rooms where Christian Dior worked and held his earliest couture shows. The exhibition also includes a space dedicated to ‘Stars in Dior’, which features clothes modelled by the house’s ambassadors throughout the years, including Natalie Portman, Charlize Theron and Jennifer Lawrence.
“More than a reopening, 30 Montaigne is a total reinvention and a living symbol of our DNA: the birth of a realm like no other in the world, where dreams are given free reign and a new, unprecedented page in the history of Dior, fashion – and Paris – can be written,”
says Pietro Becari (Chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture)
The revamped Dior flagship is the latest in real estate investments by luxury conglomerate LVMH in Paris, including luxury hotels, Cheval Blanc and Bvlgari Hotel, and Fendi’s pop-up cafes. With a revival in physical retail post-pandemic, LVMH’s strategy of making ambitious forays into experiential retail remains crucial for brick-and-mortar businesses looking to evade an evolving retail landscape shifting towards e-commerce.
Experience the magic of Dior at 30 Avenue Montaigne, 75008, Paris.