Cartier re-opens impressive new flagship store in Paris at Rue de la Paix

Cartier opened its Parisian flagship in 1899 at 13 Rue de la Paix, steps from Place Vendome. Now, the luxury French Maison has completely renovated and redesigned the iconic flagship store – even the facade has been offered a fresh livery, with the addition of a vertical plant design by Cartier perfumes designer Mathilde Laurent in collaboration with botanical design specialist Studio Mary Lennox.

The building covers an impressive 32,300 square feet spread over six levels, includes 10 salons and myriad comfortable nooks and plush crannies for customers to discover the jeweler’s offering more than the 15,000 square feet dedicated to retail. Also here are the high jewelry workshop and the house archives as well as the Residence, a private space imagined as Cartier’s take on a Parisian apartment, complete with a dining room, large kitchen and winter garden.

The bedrock of this major overhaul, which continues the work initiated with the 2018 revamp of London’s New Bond Street store and pursued in New York’s recently unveiled Mansion. Further cementing this idea of layers is the choice of three Paris-based architect teams, rather than a single signature, for the project.

The journey into the new “13 Paix,” as it is dubbed, starts outside the store, with a kiosk for initial orientation before visitors are handed over to a team of concierges that direct them across the ground floor, home to watches, leather goods and other accessories. It is the first of three floors designed by architectural practice Moinard Bétaille.

Drawing the eyes toward the back is an entirely new atrium topped with a skylight. It mimics the courtyard of a Parisian building. Its proportions and perspectives have been tweaked so the result would look “typically Parisian but in a way which is a bit theatrical” so visitors understand it has been recreated, says Cartier CEO Cyrille Vigneron.

Mirrored windows overlook this courtyard, imagined by Claire Bétaille and Bruno Moinard, as the axis to the store’s six floors. These are as ornamental as they are functional, participating in the store’s Parisian atmosphere while giving staff in the back office the ability to observe the store’s floors.

On a wood panel in one of the ground floor salons, the words of French artist and writer Jean Cocteau, describing the jeweler as “the subtle magician, who dangles slivers of the moon on a thread of sun,” are inscribed on a lacquered wooden panel. In another, it’s the rare books and archives of Louis Cartier that nod to the man who built the house’s reputed style.

The new main staircase leads to the first floor and the former office of Jeanne Toussaint, the house’s head of design between 1933 and 1970, now turned into an eponymous salon overlooking the Rue de la Paix. It is the central feature of the first floor, otherwise turned over to engagement and wedding jewelry.

High jewelry takes pride of place on the second floor, with salons named and decorated according to influences underpinning the Cartier style, from India to flora. There is also the “Inspiration” salon, dedicated to special orders, which are then made in the in-store ateliers.

The third and fourth floors and a segment of the fifth dedicated to the archives have been designed by Larène Barbier Tardrew and Romain Jourdan, of the Studioparisien agency. Customer service takes place on the third floor in a succession of small salons, while a customization bar offers options like engraving. There’s even a space offering creative activities for children.

One floor higher are the high jewelry atelier and its 18 work benches, bathed in natural light both from the interior skylight and the street outside. Topping the house are the archives and, in another part, the Residence designed by architectural whiz kid Laura Gonzales, an intimate space where garlands of glass branches eventually connect with the vegetal decor outside, closing the loop.

Throughout the six stories are works by local artisans and masters of arts, like a stone marquetry panel by Hervé Obligi, with its interlaced wave lifted from a 2014 high jewelry bracelet, or a plaster reproduction of a bird soaring that takes after a Toussaint-designed brooch in the house’s archives. Elsewhere, references become more abstract, like the ground floor’s straw marquetry panel inlaid with glass, a work by Lison de Caune and Jean-Daniel Gary, nodding to Cartier’s spotted panther.

Like the many high-visibility projects from luxury houses that have come to completion on Place Vendôme, Avenue Montaigne or the Champs-Elysées, 13 Paix “contributes to making Paris interesting and to keep the interest of customers from around the world [who] come to see it and to shop [in the city],” he noted.

Beyond the renovation of a single store, historic birthplace as it may be, “13 Paix is a part of a big, significant retail transformation that is projecting Cartier in a new dimension,” said Arnaud Carrez, with stores seen as “a living space — with transactions,” becoming “a place where different communities want to engage” or celebrate personal milestones.

That said, exclusives there will be. In honor of its reopening, 13 Paix will offer two Panthere watches, a “Necessaire à Parfum” set as well as three exceptional limited editions of its Tonneau, Tank Asymétrique and Cloche models, reworked to feature the number 13 at 12 o’clock and the word “Paix” (or peace, after the street name) at 1 o’clock.

The Cartier Tank Aymétrique Platine, a limited edition of 13 pieces featuring the “13” and “Paix” markings at 12 and 1 o’clock.
There will also be a selection from its Traditions range, which spans vintage pieces that have been sourced and restored by Cartier’s specialists, only available on a permanent basis from the three historic stores.

‘From the very beginning, the boutique has been unique because of its universal vocation: its opening in 1899 is associated with the arrival of Louis Cartier at the head of the maison and the establishment of the design studio,’ says Pierre Rainero, director of image, style and heritage at Cartier. ‘As the cradle of major stylistic trends in jewellery, the 13 Paix boutique has always been a source of inspiration for Cartier maisons around the world.’

 

 

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