Is This Paris’ Most Beautiful Boutique?

Featuring 23-feet-high mosaics of Emperor Napoleon, a sweeping blood-red staircase and dizzyingly intricate Italian marble floors, Dolce & Gabbana’s Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré store may just be Paris’ most beautiful new boutique.

Dolce & Gabbana are known for their maximalist, over-the-top aesthetic and their new Parisian boutique, which first opened in February 2020, is no exception. Working in tow with luxury architecture and design firm, Carbondale, the two-level Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré boutique in Paris’ 8th arrondissement, is a dazzling display of theatrical luxury and overblown imperial excess—in other words, it’s completely on brand.

Like a modern-day museum of luxury, this boutique is worth checking out—even if you are just window-shopping. Behind the restrained classical Parisian façade, shoppers are first greeted with massive 23-feet-tall mosaics of Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and Joséphine de Beauharnais, which serve as the backdrop for a heaving, sculptural Rouge du Roi marble staircase that looks almost surprisingly weightless. The murals were inspired by the Neoclassical paintings of Baron François Gérard, who was actually made baron by Emperor Napoleon himself in 1809. Marble features prominently throughout, and the walls—frozen sinuous waves of Fior de Bosco marble; Rosa Tea marble; and Rosa Libeccio marble—were carved from single, solid blocks. Obviously influenced by Baroque and Rococo stylings, polish brass, mirror and velvet add to the layer upon layer of rich textures, and the ceilings are a study in restraint in rough concrete.  

This isn’t the first time that Paris-based studio, Carbondale has worked with the Italian fashion powerhouse. In Rome, Carbondale recently worked on Dolce & Gabbana’s Spanish Steps store (Piazza di Spagna), which is dripping in opulence with lavish gold and cardinal-red accents; literal tons of marble (there are fifteen different kinds in the floor alone); and even a memorizing LED digital ceiling fresco. Carbondale has also worked on retails spaces around the world for Louis Vuitton; Tag Heuer; and Longchamp; and also focuses on residential and commercial projects.

The Details:

Paris’ new Dolce & Gabbana store is located at 3/5 Rue Du Faubourg Saint Honoré, with women’s, men’s, accessories and children’s departments, plus made-to-measure services.