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A curated guide to Galeries Lafayette, Printemps and more - Paris’s most iconic shopping centres where fashion, design and culture meet.
Sectors & Markets
10 October, 2025
Table of contents
Paris has long been a global capital of fashion, taste and luxury retail. The city’s great department stores embody a distinctive blend of architecture, cultural ambition, and retail innovation. In many cases, they pioneered practices still ubiquitous in modern retail: fixed prices, merchandising by department, seasonal sales, and immersive in-store experiences.
Over time, these department stores have evolved from pure retail emporia into multi-use destinations: combining boutiques, restaurants, event spaces, food halls, and experimental retail concepts. In an era of e-commerce and experience economy competition, Paris’s grands magasins remain both tourist magnets and benchmarks in curatorial retail.
Below is a structured look at some of the most important departmental stores in Paris - covering their roots, current identity, and what sets each apart today.
Location: 40 Boulevard Haussmann, 9ᵉ arrondissement, Paris
Galeries Lafayette traces its beginnings to 1893, when cousins Théophile Bader and Alphonse Kahn opened a small 70 m² haberdashery at the corner of rue de la Chaussée d’Antin and rue Lafayette.
Over subsequent years they acquired adjacent buildings and expanded aggressively.
The landmark glass dome (“coupole”) and central hall date to 1912, when the complex took on much of the architectural character still admired today.
Its Haussmannian facades and interior light design reflect the 19th- to early 20th-century transformations of Paris boulevards.
Galeries Lafayette carries over 2,000 brands, ranging from luxury fashion houses to emerging designers. In women’s and men’s fashion, shoppers will find Burberry Prorsum, Emporio Armani, Vivienne Westwood, Dsquared², Sandro, Lacoste, and Isabel Marant. Niche labels such as A.P.C., Kowtow and Gauge81 are also part of the curated mix.
The store operates multiple private labels including Galeries Lafayette, Jodhpur (women/children), and Comptoir GL (men).
In beauty, the department features Chanel, Dior, Guerlain, Tom Ford, and Hugo Boss.
Its Gourmet Hall includes gastronomic icons such as Pierre Hermé, Yann Couvreur and Alain Ducasse.
The store also highlights sustainability with Go for Good (ethical fashion) and (Re)Store (resale & vintage).
The stained-glass dome remains one of the most-photographed interiors in Paris retail.
Its windows (especially around Christmas) remain public attractions.
It’s a pioneer among grand magasins in blending sustainability / circular retail strategies.
Location: Boulevard Haussmann, 9ᵉ arrondissement, Paris
Printemps was founded in 1865 by Jules Jaluzot and Jean-Alfred Duclos.
It was among the first to adopt seasonal branding, fixed pricing, and large-scale display windows.
The Haussmann flagship building is listed as a historical monument, recognised for its architectural style and decorative façades.
The store occupies multiple interlinked buildings, organized around departments (women, men, beauty, home).
Printemps spans ~45,000 m² across fashion, beauty, home and gourmet. Its luxury anchors include Prada, Moncler, Miu Miu, Jimmy Choo, Jacquemus and Marc Jacobs.
The store also carries Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Jerome Dreyfuss and Saison 1865 (its private label), offering a spectrum from international powerhouses to French contemporary names.
In footwear and accessories, brands such as Jimmy Choo and Jerome Dreyfuss enhance its luxury edge.
The beauty department features prestige cosmetics and fragrance houses, while Printemps du Goût highlights fine foods and French delicacies, pairing gastronomy with fashion.
The building’s historic ornamentation and listing status make it a visual landmark.
Its experiments in trading past collections, exclusive brands, and food integration are indicative of how department stores reposition.
It retains a somewhat more refined, boutique-adjacent feel compared to the grandeur of Lafayette.
Location: 24 Rue de Sèvres (and neighboring addresses), 7ᵉ arrondissement, Paris
The original store began in 1838 as Au Bon Marché founded by Paul and Justin Videau.
In 1852, Aristide Boucicaut joined and transformed the business, introducing fixed pricing, exchange policies, catalog sales, home delivery, and expanded assortments.
Architect Louis-Auguste Boileau and engineer Alexandre Laplanche contributed to the store’s ironwork design; expansions over time integrated skylights and galleries.
Under LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton ownership, Le Bon Marché positions itself as a curated, design-forward department store. Its fashion floors blend major maisons with emerging labels.
Luxury anchors include Dior, Givenchy, Saint Laurent and Celine.
Contemporary and rising labels such as Jacquemus, Ganni, Rouje, By Far and AMI Paris highlight the store’s focus on new fashion talent.
In accessories and leather goods, Polene (Parisian leather brand) recently gained a key placement, illustrating the store’s strategy of championing French rising stars.
The beauty hall carries luxury houses like Chanel, Guerlain, Hermes Beauty, alongside niche skincare and fragrance lines curated for exclusivity.
Beyond fashion, Le Bon Marché is known for its home décor, lifestyle and design objects, alongside cultural spaces for exhibitions and installations.
The adjacent La Grande Épicerie de Paris adds a gourmet layer, with premium food, wine and delicacies from around the world, reinforcing the store’s dual positioning: fashion + gastronomy.
Its role in the retail history canon is significant - many retail innovations trace back to Boucicaut’s reforms.
The coupling with La Grande Épicerie makes it a unique fashion + gastronomy anchor.
Its selective, art-inflected ambience makes it a preferred destination for shoppers seeking quiet refinement.
Location: 52 Rue de Rivoli, 4ᵉ arrondissement (Marais quarter), Paris
The BHV story begins in 1856, when François-Xavier Ruel opened a small shop near Hôtel de Ville, selling haberdashery and novelty goods.
The store initially bore the name “Bazar Parisien,” then (after imperial changes) “Bazar de l’Hôtel de Ville.”
Under early 20th century renovation, architect Auguste Roy built the central rotunda (completed ~1913) and integrated glass roof elements.
After decades of evolution, BHV was acquired by the Galeries Lafayette group in 1991.
BHV Marais is the most multi-disciplinary of Paris’s grands magasins. Its fashion floors include women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, shoes (sneakers, boots, sandals), bags (sacs à main, cabas, valises), lingerie, sportswear, and a curated second-hand section.
Luxury fashion and accessories are represented with Givenchy, Gucci and Moncler alongside contemporary labels.
In home & design, shoppers can find furniture (canapés, tables, bibliothèques), lighting (suspensions, lampadaires), decoration (miroirs, tapis, rideaux, coussins), as well as kitchen and tableware from brands like Cristel and Lagostina. Bedding, bath linen and garden furniture broaden the lifestyle offer.
The appliances & tech department carries small and large household items (robots multifonctions, lave-linge, réfrigérateurs, caves à vin) and consumer electronics. Notable names include Apple and Bang & Olufsen.
Watches & jewellery are represented by Royal Quartz and other premium maisons.
The beauty hall features skincare, fragrance, hair and body care, including a Green Beauty area under the Go for Good responsible shopping initiative.
Beyond retail, the store hosts pop-ups, artisan workshops, and rooftop garden concepts, tying into the creative and community spirit of the Marais district.
BHV offers a compelling counterpoint to the glitzy grands magasins. With its product mix bridging fashion and functional / design / hardware goods, its embeddedness in the Marais neighbourhood, and active adaptation to concept retail, it serves both locals and niche shoppers. Its reinvention is a case study in how departmental stores can hybridise retail with lifestyle and community.
Its basement hardware / DIY section is a rare feature among major department stores.
The rooftop garden and green architecture interventions provide a fresh urban dimension.
Its acquisitions and restructuring (e.g. 2023 sale of BHV from Lafayette group to SGM) reflect the broader realignment of Paris retail.
Location: 1ᵉ arrondissement (along the Seine near Pont Neuf)
La Samaritaine was founded in 1870 by Ernest Cognacq and later expanded in partnership with his spouse Marie-Louise Cognacq-Jaÿ.
Architect Frantz Jourdain led the transformation of its façades and interiors in the late 19th / early 20th centuries, embracing Art Nouveau and later Art Deco influences.
Over time it grew into a complex of multiple buildings extending toward the Seine.
The original store shut in 2005 due to serious safety concerns (fire risk, regulatory noncompliance).
LVMH Moët Hennessy - Louis Vuitton / DFS undertook an extensive renovation (~€750 million) to reimagine the site as a mixed-use destination combining luxury retail, cultural spaces, restaurants and a hotel.
The reopened department store (in 2021) spans ~20,000 m² and offers ~650 luxury brand concessions.
The complex now includes a Cheval Blanc luxury hotel, social housing, offices and cultural programming.
Following its 2021 reopening, La Samaritaine now features around 650 luxury brands across fashion, beauty, jewellery, watches and lifestyle, curated under the DFS model.
Fashion & Accessories: includes global maisons such as Louis Vuitton (Louis Vuitton Malletier), Chloé, Alexander McQueen, Balenciaga, and Loewe.
Beauty: a strong beauty hall with prestige brands like Dior Beauty, Guerlain, Lancôme, Estée Lauder and niche perfumery labels.
Watches & Jewellery: houses Cartier, Chaumet, TAG Heuer, Piaget and Bulgari.
Wines & Spirits: premium cellars featuring Moët & Chandon, Dom Pérignon and select fine spirits.
Dining and hospitality complete the offer, with multiple restaurants and the integrated Cheval Blanc Paris luxury hotel.
La Samaritaine’s curated brand portfolio positions it as a hybrid luxury destination where heritage architecture meets DFS’s global duty-free luxury expertise. The mix of maisons and niche labels creates a prestige retail stage unique among Paris grands magasins.
It marries historic decorative interiors with futuristic escalators and modern retail fit-outs.
Combining hotel, offices, housing and retail makes it a supra-retail project - less a store than a micro-urban district.
Its reliance on concession/leasing rather than owned retail stock reflects trends in luxury retail real estate.
Cover Image: AugustMan