The luxury furniture and design services retailer has opened a seven-storey, 42,000sq ft gallery on Paris’ storied Champs-Élysées, in a space that was formerly occupied by an Abercrombie & Fitch flagship.
Described as a celebration of architecture, design, food and wine, RH Paris is both an immersive – and visually stunning – retail and fine dining experience.
To enter the location, visitors pass through a restored iron gate accented with intricate gold leaf motifs and go down a hedge-lined limestone path that takes them to a “secret” garden where ivy-covered walls and sculpted trees frame the six-meter cast medallion bronze doors marking the official entrance. The garden is home to RH outdoor and lounge furniture.
Juxtaposing the entry is a curved steel and glass structure that houses the freestanding RH Interior Design Studio. A contemporary inlaid brass and white onyx mosaic covers the walls and frames a three-dimensional image of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous Vitruvian Man, which is featured in many existing RH locations and represents the brand’s “design ethos”.
Entering the gallery, visitors pass through the Architecture and Design Bibliotheca, a library that features rare and contemporary books by cultural and architecture masters.
The main retail space is connected by a soaring atrium of floating cast medallion stairs and a glass elevator that appears, then disappears from an invisible shaft atop the rooftop garden. In the centre is a cast bronze caryatid, circa 1870, attributed to French sculptor Louis-Félix Chabaud, who is renowned for his sculptures at the Louvre and the Palais Garnier opera house.
The ground and lower level galleries feature “artistic” installations of furniture, artefacts, antiques and art in a gallery setting. Each floor is dedicated to a different artist, each of whom has created a collection of bespoke works meant to complement the furniture on display.
