Saint Laurent‘s new Paris flagship on Avenue Montaigne feels like a grandiose Parisian apartment, the TEFAF Maastricht art fair, a luxury hotel, and the Bourse de Commerce all rolled into one.
Museum-caliber furniture and objects, major artworks from François Pinault’s personal collection, yards of colorful marble and bespoke, mottled carpeting add up to a sumptuous environment reminiscent of the home of a serious collector — and fiercely chic fashion plate.
And that was precisely the intended effect.
“Every detail has been designed to offer a unique experience that reflects Saint Laurent’s savoir-faire and cultural refinement,” said Cédric Charbit, chief executive officer of the Kering-owned fashion house. “We moved from a transactional model to an experiential one, where clients are guests and hosting is a skill.”
In an exclusive interview — his first since assuming the helm of the French house last January — Charbit said the Montaigne unit, the latest iteration of creative director Anthony Vaccarello’s store concept, redefines the retail experience “through a holistic and meticulously crafted environment.”
“We believe that experience drives performance,” he added. “In this space, clients are guests of the maison, where they are welcomed, engaging with the brand through their elective affinities we have in common.”
Expansive seating areas recur throughout the spacious, three-level store, each with a unique atmosphere, culminating with a massive sofa that French design great Charlotte Perriand envisioned in 1967 for the Japanese ambassador’s residence in Paris.
The banquette design, which features a 23-foot-long curving base, was reproduced by Saint Laurent as part of a partnership it struck with Perriand earlier this year to resurrect four rare furniture designs.
Saint Laurent’s recently expanded and revamped Milan boutique on Via Montenapoleone was given a distinct Italian accent, featuring an array of original works by important figures of Italian architecture and design including Gio Ponti, the Scarpa family, Aldo Tura and Gaetano Pesce.
Naturally, the new Paris address showcases masterpieces of French decorative arts and design from the likes of Jacques Adnet, Maurice Dufrène, Süe & Mare, François-Xavier Lalanne, Josef Hoffman and Jean-Michel Frank alongside historic highlights like a Paul Poiret daybed that once belonged to founder Yves Saint Laurent and his longtime business partner Pierre Bergé.
The 12,000-square-foot boutique, spread over three levels, replaces a smaller location further up Avenue Montaigne that opened in 2013.
“Relocating after 12 years is a natural evolution — a reflection of the brand’s growth and its forward-looking ambitions, aligning where we come from with where we are going,” according to Charbit.
Located at No. 35-37, the new Saint Laurent flagship took over a building that previously housed the Embassy of Canada in a prime location directly across the street from Dior’s 30 Avenue Montaigne mega store.
“This flagship is a platform for both immediate and long-term growth, giving us the potential to double our revenues compared to the previous location,” Charbit said, referring to the old address at No. 53. “The store will reinforce Saint Laurent’s presence, brand equity, and desirability across all markets — a core objective in our growth strategy.”
In Charbit’s estimation, the Avenue Montaigne ranks as “one of the world’s most prestigious streets, tied to haute couture and iconic houses that shaped fashion history.”
Indeed, the founder’s couture atelier and salons were located nearby at 5 Avenue Marceau, a site that now houses the Fondation Pierre Bergé – Yves Saint Laurent and a fashion museum.
Saint Laurent’s retail neighbors on Avenue Montaigne include Balenciaga, Chanel, Louis Vuitton, Chloé and Celine, alongside a host of Italian luxury names such as Gucci, Valentino, Prada, Versace, Dolce & Gabbana, Bottega Veneta and Max Mara.
“The flagship format acts as both a commercial engine and a brand equity accelerator, communicating Saint Laurent’s core values of excellence, culture and consistency,” Charbit said.
In his view, flagships such as the new Avenue Montaigne one have a measurable impact “across four dimensions: direct retail performance, brand awareness, halo effect across markets and, most importantly, client engagement.”
“Its strategic role is to act as a catalyst for sustained global momentum rather than a single-point retail driver,” he said in the interview. “It reflects our objective to consolidate Saint Laurent’s presence among the world’s most influential players through a flagship that serves both commercial and strategic purposes. Internationally, it amplifies the brand’s desirability and supports traffic and sales growth across digital and physical channels.”
Saint Laurent’s global store count stood at 317 stores at midyear.
Organic sales at the French brand fell 4 percent in the third quarter, though Saint Laurent remains at the forefront of fashion, claiming the top spot in the latest Lyst hottest brands ranking for the first time, dethroning Miu Miu.
The rise in the Kering-owned brand’s popularity in the quarter was mainly driven by searches for loafers, micro bags and boots on the platform.
Meanwhile, its retail strategy hinges on “prioritizing quality of locations and long-term value creation over volume,” according to Charbit. “Flagship stores enable us to rationalize our presence.”
To be sure, Saint Laurent has been ramping up its retail presence in Paris. Roughly two years ago it opened a flagship at 123 Avenue des Champs-Élysées, debuting Vaccarello’s new design concept blending Brutalist and modernist codes with a host of superb materials.
Earlier this year the designer teamed with Donald Judd Furniture to overhaul the Saint Laurent Rive Droite boutique at 213 Rue Saint-Honoré as a cultural hub, complete with an exhibition space, books, records, stationery and a subterranean Sushi Park restaurant.
Saint Laurent also operates freestanding boutiques at 175 Boulevard Saint-Germain, 10 Place Saint-Sulpice and 9 Rue de Grenelle, the latter dubbed Saint Laurent Babylone and selling mainly books, magazines and other cultural products.
“Saint Laurent is Paris, and Paris is Saint Laurent,” Charbit said, his turn of phrase bringing to mind Malcolm McLaren’s landmark 1994 double album and the song “Jazz Is Paris.”
“Paris is where the maison’s universe comes to life in all its forms, from Anthony’s shows to our historical stores,” Charbit explained. “It therefore remains one of the most strategically important locations, for revenue generation and for what it represents for the brand. Paris is where we express Saint Laurent through commerce, culture and hospitality.”
The Avenue Montaigne flagship showcases all product categories spread across a series of spacious rectangular and circular salons, its three levels connected via two dramatic spiral staircases in dark wood flanking the back part of the store.
It unfurls like an apartment, only here there are shoe salons, ready-to-wear galleries, vast rooms for leather goods and fitting rooms that are as sumptuous as the store, each sheltering museum-quality furniture and thick wool curtains.
Areas for hospitality include an expansive, landscaped terrace on the third floor, appointed with low marble benches and punctuated by an arresting concrete sculpture by Jean-Luc Moulène, on loan from the Pinault collection, which also loaned a large-scale collaged painting by Mark Bradford to hug the main staircase.
The main floor showcases leather goods, along with smatterings of rtw, cueing up the full breadth of the Saint Laurent product universe, which also includes jewelry, high-end home objects, eyewear and fragrances.
Accessories are showcased on tall, wooden cases; in blue and green ceramic niches that wink to the founder’s affection for Marrakech, and on hulking marble shelving units.
The second floor is dedicated to womenswear and accessories, culminating with the so-called “Gallery Montaigne,” a space encompassing a terrace room and a private annex that can be fully privatized.
Finally, the top floor is dedicated to menswear, which Charbit characterized as “one of our key strategic pillars, materializing the brand’s balance between masculine and feminine codes.”
The boutique, which opens to the public Tuesday, showcases selections from the fall 2025 and spring 2026 collections.
Charbit said it will also offer, for the first time, a made-to-order service for rtw, leather goods and shoes.
“This service will focus on our iconic products for both men and women and we will have a room dedicated to Saint Laurent’s tailoring and the iconic ‘Le Smoking,’” he said, the latter term referring to tuxedoes.
“Some of our top clients have no limits when it gets to craft, uniqueness and quality,” he said. “Avenue Montaigne is a home for them. This is a reflection of our commitment to personalization and timeless design.”