What’s New?

SEE SHOES

The first shoe collection from Chloé’s junior line, See by Chloé, taps into a young, fun and carefree zeitgeist—although the prices remain quite grownup. Designed for summer but actually available in stores since late December, the innovative but ultra-wearable collection includes ballerina flats, platform heels, suede moccasins and funky “jelly” shoes for the beach.

See by Chloé 54/56 rue du Faubourg St Honoré, 8th, 01.44.94.33.00.

HOT WAX

Cire Trudon, a venerable candlemaking business that began dipping its wicks in 1643, became the official wax supplier to the royal court in 1713, fashioning scented candles for Marie Antoinette and later for Napoleon. In recent years, though, while the fashion world raved about Diptyque, Cire Trudon kept a somewhat lower profile, providing classic candles for Parisian churches instead. But in 2007 the brand underwent a major revamp at the hands of renegade stylist and self-designated “serial entrepreneur” Ramdane Touhami, who redesigned the boutique and supervised the creation of twelve new fragrances, including Carmelite (“the scent of old stone walls in the shade of cloisters and convents”) and Revolution (smelling like “hot and crusty bread”). Trudon’s new candles caused a big buzz, and fashionistas flocked. The latest Trudon craze is a special boxed set of Odeurs Spatiales—candles inspired by recent NASA research, wafting the galactic aromas of Space, Mars and the Moon around your humble earthly abode.

Cire Trudon 78 rue de Seine, 6th, 01.43.26.46.50.

NOSE NEWS

Frédéric Malle, grandson of Serge Heftler, the legendary founder of Dior Perfumes, invented his own fragrance career as a perfume “editor”, “publishing” the enticingly complex personal creations of some of the world’s top noses, considered too difficult or too expensive for the mass market. His latest: Dans Tes Bras, created by Maurice Roucel, the famous nose behind Gucci’s Envy, Guerlain’s Insolence and Malle’s own best-seller Musc Ravageur. Roucel’s sensual new mix of the woody synthetic cashmeran, clove, sandalwood and patchouli, with notes of violet and jasmine, attempts to “capture the deep and lasting odor of warm skin”.

Editions de Parfums Frédéric Malle 37 rue de Grenelle, 7th, 01.42.22.76.40; also at 21 rue du Mont Thabor, 1st; 140 ave Victor Hugo, 16th.

SHOJI YOHJI

Moving in the other direction, designer Yohji Yamamoto has just opened a fabulous new flagship store in the heart of Paris couture country, on the Right Bank street made famous by Coco Chanel. It’s yet another minimalist white cube of an emporium, but this one covers 6,500 square feet on three full stories, with womenswear and jewelry upstairs and sharp-looking menswear in the basement. The highlight is the ground floor gallery, where key pieces from the current collection appear to float on mannequins suspended in thin air. Playing hard to get, the storefront windows are covered with flocks of birdlike shapes in folded shoji-screen paper, allowing passersby only a tantalizing glimpse of the clothes inside. The effect is deliberately cold and bare, but it’s one of the hottest new shopping spots in town.

Yohji Yamamoto 4 rue Cambon, 1st, 01.40.20.00.71.

SIGNATURE SACKS

Speaking of Chanel, the couture house’s newly launched Unlimited Collection of accessories strikes a perfect balance between style and function with glamorous lacquered grey canvas bags suitably embossed for fashionable flaunting: Coco Chanel, 31 rue Cambon, Paris. Designed for modern women on the go, the bags offer a trendy alternative to Chanel’s signature quilted handbags.

Chanel 31 rue Cambon, 1st, 01.42.86.26.00.

GOGO KAWAKUBO

Comme des Garçons designer Rei Kawakubo made a recent foray into the world of fast fashion, designing a capsule collection for the worldwide chain store H&M. Now the cult Japanese designer has launched her own version of quick fashion-to-go, opening two trendy Parisian “pocket” boutiques, one in the Marais and one in Montmartre. The tiny, all-white minimalist spaces are designed to function as corner shops where the local bobo (bourgeois bohemian) community can drop in to pick up tee shirts, knitwear, leather goods and Comme des Garçon’s extraordinary perfumes, which smell of everything from nail varnish to laundry drying in the wind.

Comme des Garçons 31 rue Debelleyme, 3rd, 01.42.72.15.12; and 17 rue La Vieuville, 18th.

Originally published in the January 2009 issue of France Today.

See our complete Paris shopping guide

View What’s New? in a larger map