Any discerning luxury brand has a high-profile presence in Paris, including Valentino. The iconic Roman fashion house has had a presence in the French capital for decades with standalone boutiques and shop-in-shops, but decided to up the ante with a new boutique on leafy avenue Montaigne. Actually, Valentino already operated a flagship store further down the road, but moved to new and bigger premises on this highly prestigious shopping artery. Spread across three floors of a 1950s building designed by Canadian architect Antoine Monette (1899-1974) and previously the home of the Canadian embassy, the interior design has been created by Valentino‘s in-house design team. The newest design codes were first introduced in 2022 at a string of new and revamped boutiques across the planet, and now, also in Paris. The various rooms and settings ooze a modern, sensual elegance yet also signal the rich legacy of the house through sophisticated materials, colours and cultural references.

The red elements in the flagship store are reminiscent of the red carpet, a domain Valentino knows very well, and a variety of this hue can be found across the store. Mind you, there’s even an alluring all-red room. Meanwhile, elements of marble, onyx, checkered patterns and abstract geometric patterns are reference to its Roman roots. As said, the settings of the Valentino store are also have a cultured quality, which aligns with its couture traditions, and it’s pitched in by a tightly curated range of fixtures and objects, such as hammered brass showcases by Fabio Santi, ceramic handles by Massimiliano Pipolo and the free and fantastical plaster chandeliers by the Parisian artist Alexandre Roger. The new Valentino flagship store carries the full range of women’s and men’s apparel, accessories, bags, small leather goods, shoes, eyewear and jewellery pieces. In celebration of the store opening, a series of works by Italian artist Gioele Amaro will be exhibited in the store (through Jul 15).