Colette was a French high fashion, streetwear, and accessory

retail Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

er. The three floor

concept store The retail format (also known as the retail formula) influences the consumer's store choice and addresses the consumer's expectations. At its most basic level, a retail format is a simple marketplace, that is; a location where goods and services are ...

was located in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and contained an exhibition space, bookshop, and a "water bar" serving more than 100 brands of

bottled water Bottled water is drinking water (e.g., well water, distilled water, mineral water, or spring water) packaged in plastic or glass water bottles. Bottled water may be carbonated or not. Sizes range from small single serving bottles to large car ...

. It closed permanently in December 2017. Colette's

logo A logo (abbreviation of logotype; ) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordma ...

was two blue dots.

History

The boutique was founded in 1997 by Colette Roussaux; her daughter, Sarah Andelman, took an active role as

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

and purchasing manager in the store's final years. ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentlema ...

'' called the store "like Kith,

Bergdorf Goodman Bergdorf Goodman Inc. is a luxury department store based on Fifth Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York. The company was founded in 1899 by Herman Bergdorf and was later owned and managed by Edwin Goodman, and later his son, Andrew Goodman. To ...

, and

Opening Ceremony An opening ceremony, grand opening, or ribbon-cutting ceremony marks the official opening of a newly-constructed location or the start of an event.

all rolled into one." The store did €32 million in sales

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

in 2016,Jian DeLeon
Fashion Industry Insiders React to colette Shutting Its Doors
highsnobiety.com 2017/07/13 with

e-commerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...

accounting for 25% of revenue. In December 2005,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

described Colette as“the trendiest store in the world”.

Brands

The shop was known for stocking the first collections of fashion brands and designers that became famous later such as

Jeremy Scott Jeremy Scott (born August 8, 1975) is an American fashion designer. He is the creative director of the fashion house Moschino and the sole owner of his namesake label. Since launching his brand in Paris in 1997, Scott has built a reputation as ...

Raf Simons Raf Jan Simons (; born 12 January 1968) is a Belgian fashion designer. Beginning in furniture design, Simons launched his own menswear label in 1995. He was creative director at Jil Sander (2005–2012), Christian Dior (2012–2015), and Calvin K ...

Proenza Schouler Proenza Schouler is a womenswear and accessories brand founded in 2002 by designers Jack McCollough and Lazaro Hernandez. Based in New York City, Proenza Schouler is derived from maiden names of the two designers' mothers: Proenza is the maiden ...

, Rodarte,

Mary Katrantzou Mary Katrantzou (born 29 January 1983) is a Greek fashion designer who lives and works in London. Early life Mary Katrantzou was born in Athens, Greece to an interior design mother and a father who trained in textile engineering. Katrantzou m ...

Sacai Sacai (stylized in lowercase) is a Japanese luxury fashion brand founded by Chitose Abe (née Chitose Sakai) in 1999. ''Vogue'' magazine has cited Sacai as influential in breaking down the dichotomy between casual and formal clothing. History Ab ...

, Simone Rocha,

Christopher Kane Christopher John Kane (born 26 July 1982) is a Scottish fashion designer based in London. Biography Kane was born as the youngest of five children in Newarthill, North Lanarkshire, to an engineer and draughtsman father and housewife mother. K ...

and Olympia Le Tan.

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, actress, and businesswoman. Born in Saint Michael and raised in Bridgetown, Barbados, Rihanna auditioned for American record producer Evan Rogers who invited her to the ...

and

Pharrell Williams Pharrell Lanscilo Williams (; born April 5, 1973) is an American record producer, rapper, singer, and songwriter. Alongside close colleague Chad Hugo, he formed the hip hop and R&B production duo the Neptunes in the early 1990s, with whom he ...

, among others, have been hosted by Colette in

pop-up shop Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to catch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

Reputation

Karl Lagerfeld Karl Otto Lagerfeld (; 10 September 1933 – 19 February 2019) was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer. He was known as the creative director of the French fashion house Chanel, a position held from 1983 ...

said of Colette: "It’s the only shop where I go because they have things no one else has. I buy watches, telephones, jewellery there - everything really. They have invented a formula that you can’t copy easily, because there is only one Colette and her and Sarah are 200 percent involved."

Closure

In July 2017, it announced its impending closure in December 2017.Scarlett Conlon
Colette Paris To Close Its Doors
''Vogue'', 12 July 2017 Osman Ahmed of ''Business of Fashion'' called it "the end of an era".Osman Ahmed
The End of an Era: Colette to Close Its Doors: Colette, the Parisian boutique and longstanding temple of cool, is closing down after 20 years. Saint Laurent is currently in discussions to take over its Rue Saint-Honoré location.
''Business of Fashion'' JULY 12, 2017 Sarah Andelman said they chose to close the business rather than sell it because "it was like a baby for us" and "if someone else ran it, it would not be the same."Elizabeth Paton and Vanessa Friedman

''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' July 12, 2017 Today (summer 2022) there is a boutique of "Saint Laurent - Rive Droite".https://www.ysl.com/en-fr/storelocator/paris-ruesainthonor%C3%A9-rivedroite

References

External links