DIOR has recently opened a new store in New York city at Fifth Avenue and the southeast corner of 59th Street, which will be in operation for approximately 2 years. The Fifth Avenue store replaces temporarily the DIOR flagship store on 57th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenues, which is undergoing renovations, though a section of the first floor will stay open for business during the project.
The two-level, 6,480-square-foot space is inspired by Dior’s Champs-Élysées flagship in Paris, capturing several of the same elements and motifs, most noticeably a high Cannage pattern wood dome, rising about 20 feet high, right in the center as shoppers enter off Fifth Avenue.
Cannage is an emblem of the Christian Dior Maison, evoking the Napoleon III-style canework chairs on which Christian Dior liked to seat guests at his shows. The pattern style is also evident on the Fifth Avenue store’s Versailles parquet oak and polished concrete flooring, on the windows, and with the lighting on the exterior of the building rigged with a lightbox.
“A temporary store can be a temporary store, or it can be an occasion. I believe in the fact that you need to exploit every chance you are given, or every chance you create for yourself, to represent a part of the brand or to further build the equity of the brand,” said Pietro Beccari, chairman and CEO of Christian Dior Couture.
On 57th Street, “We will more than double the size, and probably we’ll add one floor to it,” Beccari said. The store there will expand into the neighboring Fendi boutique, following the Italian brand’s move to the Fuller building.
But for now, it’s clear Beccari is pleased with the provisional store on Fifth Avenue, and its location right next to Apple and its pedestrian plaza. The Dior space previously housed a temporary Cartier store.
“The square is very beautiful, so we are very happy to have this location for the next two years,” Beccari said. “It’s going to be replacing the business, but especially, we will use it to give maybe a new facet of Dior for New Yorkers, which they do not yet know.” On 57th Street, “We don’t have such a space for accessories such as fashion jewelry, hats, bracelets, sunglasses and belts, and I think in this store, you will see more of that,” the CEO said.
WWD toured Dior’s Fifth Avenue store, along with a bevy of visual, store design and public relations personnel.
The store feels compartmentalized, rather than being wide open, thereby providing a sense of discovery and intimacy walking through, yet there’s a degree of spaciousness achieved by the high ceilings with cove lighting, and the prevailing shades of off-white, beige and light blue. Custom-upholstered sofas and armchairs lend a residential feel.
Along with the Cannage dome, the Fifth Avenue store replicates the ABCDior personalization service for monogramming and detailing with charms for a customized look and the machinery to turn around an order in a day. Both, said Beccari, “are very important topics for us that are very visible and very well represented there.”
Women’s categories include leather goods, then footwear, followed by ready-to-wear and fine jewelry and timepieces. Dior Maison is displayed in the personalization area, and exotics are displayed on the lower level, where there are also two VIP salons with fitting rooms.
Men’s on the right side of the store follows the same progression of categories as shoppers walk through, though there are no timepieces or jewelry in that area. Metal display shelves projecting from the walls are as high as 9 feet and set against decorative plaster walls. There is also backlit paneling, and 10-foot high sneaker walls, one in the men’s and another on the women’s side.
Tall sliding doors provide privacy in fine jewelry to the rear of the main floor, and downstairs, in the VIP salons where there is artwork by Kim Bartelt. The stairwells are adorned with an artisanal plaster panelled wall. The men’s and women’s windows draw inspiration from the sets of Dior’s winter show, with the women’s window created in partnership with French artist Eva Jospin.
Dior pre-launched its fall 2021 collection at the Monday opening of the Fifth Avenue store, while some other Dior boutiques in the U.S. will launch the collection on Thursday. The global launch is set for July 29. While a cocktail is planned, the brand expects to host a larger celebration to coincide with the opening of the “Christian Dior: Designer of Dreams”exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum on Sept. 10.
“That’s going to be a major event for Dior, and I hope for the city as well,” Beccari said. The first major New York show dedicated to Dior since the 1996 retrospective at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it will highlight the historic links between the house and the U.S.
Christian Dior established a presence in New York the year after founding his fashion house in 1947 and was embraced by the U.S. press from the start. It was Harper’s Bazaar editor in chief Carmel Snow, who famously dubbed his first designs “the New Look.”
A few months later, Neiman Marcus gave Dior its “Oscar” Award for Distinguished Service in the Field of Fashion, prompting the designer to embark on a trip through the U.S. that led to the opening of the Christian Dior New York branch on Fifth Avenue in 1948.
