Just last year a third location was added in Paris – a luxurious Art Deco-style store covering 70,000 square feet on the Champs-Élysées, which became the largest retail on the famous avenue. There are 30 Galeries Lafayette stores across France, as well as eight international locations including Berlin, Beijing and Istanbul. Today the brand has expanded far beyond this one location. Galeries Lafayette – An international brand This was also when they first began illuminating the store front for special events. It was October 1912 when the Galeries Lafayette was first inaugurated as the ‘luxury bazaar’ he dreamed of, with 96 departments and soon a tea room and a rooftop terrace. After just a few years they were able to start expanding the shop, buying up adjacent properties including those on Boulevard Haussmann and Bader’s ideas and ambitions for the site grew with it. Located just across from the Opéra Garnier and near the Saint-Lazare railway station there was plenty of foot traffic and therefore potential customers in the area to make the business successful. The shop was run by Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn, two cousins from Alsace in the north-east of France, who bought the property on the corner of Rue La Fayette and Rue de la Chaussée d’Antin to sell novelty items. Looking at the flamboyant decorations it can be hard to believe that when the store first opened in 1893 it covered just 70m²-around the size of a two- bedroom apartment. You can find out more about this magical story and the sound and light shows that bring the trees to life every 30 minutes here. This year the talented teams from Galeries Lafayette and Bournillat have created a wonderful experience in which window displays along Boulevard Haussmann tell the tale of Nordmann, a Christmas tree from the planet Elato and his visit to Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann. In 2019, the theme was ‘La Ruche de Noël’ (the Christmas hive) with a queen bee topping the fir and her beaded subjects dancing in the air around it. It was part of the ‘Monstrous Christmas’ theme – the mischievous fluffy creatures which sat in the window display that year had run amok and turned the tree on its head. A century later, one of the most well-known Christmas designs is from 2014, when the pink and purple sapin de Noël was installed upside down. Hung from the dome that year was a 23m-high, 1.6-ton aluminium extravaganza with 160 silver baubles. The store was first dressed for the holiday season in 1920 but it was in 1976, two years after the central staircase designed by Louis Majorelle had been removed from the great hall, that a tree was placed in the centre of it. Christmas Decorations at the Galeries Lafayette At this time of year, the store has an especially magical aura with the central dome hosting some magnificent and memorable festive creations that never fail to make a lasting impression. With a cut-stone Haussmann- style exterior and Art Nouveau interiors, a 43m-high dome with Neo-byzantine style stained- glass windows designed by Jacques Gruber, opera-like balconies overlooking the great hall sales floor below – this store is a sight to be seen. More than a shopping centre, this luxurious department store comes into its own in the season of sparkle…Īlong the busy but beautiful Boulevard Haussmann, tourists and shoppers alike flock each day to visit the glamorous Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris.
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