Vive la French – blasé, amorous and unconcerned. We too often think of them drinking their wine, eating their rich desserts, smoking their cigarettes and watching the rest of the world consume itself with stress and politics. Joie de vivre. Perhaps it explains why the French live so long, even with all the Gauloises and truffles.
But the French are always passionate about fashion. And when that sore spot is touched, don’t underestimate the power of Parisians to put down their wine, stub out their cigarettes and get mad.
When Gianfranco Ferré died in June, his obituaries reminded us of that time, 20 years ago, when the Italian designer was named to head the very French House of Dior. “I don’t think that opening the doors to a foreigner – and an Italian – is respecting the spirit of creativity in France,” huffed Pierre Bergé, Yves Saint Laurent’s business partner.
The other thing that always gets under a Frenchman’s skin is any affront to his beloved capital city. So when you have fashion, beauty and Paris itself in the mix, you get angry Parisians, aroused to action. The target is H&M Hennes + Mauritz, the Swedish apparel retailer known for selling fashionable goods at bourgeois prices.
In what the deputy mayor of Paris called “drastic action that was needed,” H&M has been banned from opening a new megastore on the Champs-Élysées. The city government has promised a plan to stop the “banalization” of the Champs-Élysées, to slow the invasion of chain clothing stores and try to preserve what’s left of the street’s once-diverse character.
“We were losing our sense of balance,” said the deputy mayor, who administers the Eighth Arrondissement, which includes the famous boulevard. “We don’t have anything against H&M. It just happens to be the first victim.”
In a sense, the Champs-Élysées – long regarded as the most beautiful avenue on earth – is a victim of its own success. Once, it featured nightclubs, various restaurants, movie theaters and a lot of small boutiques. Most have closed because they can no longer afford the cost of entry. With rents as high as $1.2 million a year for 1000 square feet of space, the Champs-Élysées is the most expensive strip of real estate in Europe, making it impossible for most boutique businesses to even consider setting up shop there.
So chain retailers now dominate the 1.2-mile stretch between Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe. Adidas opened its largest store in the world on the Champs-Élysées last fall. Gap, Benetton, Naf Naf, the Disney Store, Nike, Zara, a Virgin Megastore and Sephora occupy major spaces. Some of those companies are even French.
Toyota, Renault and Peugeot have huge, flashy showrooms. At the other end of the spectrum, low-end fast-food chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Quick do high-volume business.
And things seem only to be getting more expensive. The opening of luxury showpieces like Cartier in 2003, Louis Vuitton’s five-story flagship store in 2005 and the Fouquet’s Barrière hotel last year (the least expensive room is nearly $900 a night) have given the avenue new – but high-rent – glitter.
A study for the city of Paris found that 39 percent of the avenue’s street-front retail space was filled with clothing stores. “The avenue progressively is losing its exceptional and symbolic character,” the study warned, “thus its attractiveness.”
Certainly, H&M, which has nine stores in Paris, had attractiveness in mind when it hired Jean Nouvel, a leading French architect, to design the 37,000-square-foot space that once housed offices of Club Med. Not good enough, apparently. Said the French: “We don’t want your apparel megastore. Take your disposable fashion and get off our beautiful street.
“Got a cigarette?”