No need to search tights or socks there is more

Paolo de Cesare gave Siena the motto of the Marines. "In life should be the choice: to ease still eventually be bad and other difficult, is often to success", said this manager Italian formed in Procter & Gamble. Pattern of the spring of 2006, it is passed across the mirror for the ambitious renovation of the sign that its shareholders, an investment fund, a subsidiary of Deutsche Bank associated the Borletti family, have decided to reposition on a 100 niche fashion and luxury. After the redemption to PPR for almost 1.1 billion euros, the new owners decided to allocate some EUR 300 million over five years to this renovation of the Parisian stores of the sign and its 16 settlements of province.

Started in Lille 2007 - year of the arrival of the Galeries Lafayette in the northern city! -the programme of work focused on those of Lyon and Nancy in 2008. But in Paris, the flagship of the boulevard Haussmann, that transformation was the most spectacular and the most expensive, with EUR 80 million spent $ 30 million for the only restoration of facades and the Rotunda. Entrusted to architects North American the Agency Yabu Pushelberg, known for their accomplishments for Bergdorf Goodman and Tiffany's work revisited the architectural heritage of the spring, with including the breakthrough of a large skylight in the heart of the store and the choice of glass and steel frosted for layout and merchandising.

The end of the hawkers

Nothing has been spared to restore its luster in the listed building: the sign "in the spring" rebuilt to the same by the master glassmakers of Murano, reworked zinc of the dome tiles in place one by one, and the mosaics of the façade exhumed from beneath the layers of paint which hid. The Windows that the public could rediscover in November was free of hawkers stalls. Version Cave of Ali Baba store gave way to the luxury "emporium", reverting to some extent with its past. The spring was the first department store to present the collections of Paul Poiret, to expose the dresses of Yves Saint Laurent and, more recently, to show the work of Alber Elbaz for Lanvin, that of Riccardo Tisci at Givenchy or those of the new talents as Derek Lam, Jérôme Dreyfuss, Aurélie Biderman...

Priority was given to women's fashion and, above all, to Accessories: bags and shoes, watches and jewellery which represent 40 of the surface of the three floors. Particularly successful in the first: Van Cleef & Arpels shops evoking a scene of theatre and that of Chanel with its chimney. For fashion, Paolo de Cesare Deputy the talents of Maria Luisa Poumaillou, shops of rue de Mont-Thabor, in the heart of Paris, have contributed to the emergence of young designers today famous: John Galliano, Martin Margiela, Nicolas Ghesquière, Rick Owens... On the second floor of the brands of luxury, "fashion editor" presents new or recent signatures Gareth Pugh, Haider Ackermann, Manish Arora, Roland Mouret... She also signed a miniligne of clothing within 500 euros. In the third, Maria Luisa and Tancred of Lalun, the Director of purchasing, are engaged in a tight selection of lines bis of creators (MM6 of Margiela, See by Chloé, Vanessa Bruno, star of Isabelle Marant... Athé) and recent Parisian trademarks (The Kooples, CANY, Sandro and other APC or Gérard Darel). A matter of pride: satisfied Manolo Blahnik shoes to sell for the first time in European department store!

New services

This repositioning on the top of the pyramid, operated as Saks Fith Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman in New York or Selfridges in London, other it achieved before. The cheap, which belongs to the giant of the luxury LVMH (owner of the "voices"), played the precursors. And the Galeries Lafayette, the rival of always, mounts him also in range to be in phase with the expectation of Chinese and Indian tourists. In the spring of Haussmann, the turn, initiated by the previous shareholders, was accentuated. No need to search tights or socks: there is more. "Continue to sell have been inconsistent to the potential of the place," believes the pattern, which assumes the risk of a loss of some customers while Relativizing. "Our customers and their expectations were anyway changed." "We receive more foreign and consumer income high", he said. He also observed that "41 of the French with 57 of women have, in the course of the past two years, purchased at a luxury product in a range of prices between 300 and 2,000 euros". The rise in range is accompanied by an offer of extended services: restoration (Cojean, Ladurée), salon de coiffure (Massato), valet, Concierge, private Council of mode and custom shopping rooms as well as implementation of the craftsman watchmaker to change the stack or repair its watches.

Of course the crisis has not helped. But Paolo de Cesare is confident in the relevance of its strategy, validated by the role of capital of fashion in Paris. "It is true that consumers have changed." "They provide more than before the quality of the actual value of what they buy and compare more", he notes.

Far exceeded the format store with variety and the freedom that it offers an asset: "You go much more easily from one brand to another when you enter successively in several shops." "This often allows to discover collections that you would never see otherwise," he notes, adding that represented the major signs of the boulevard Haussmann, in 2008, 31 of the exemptions from tourists ( 16), against 20 for the Champs Elysées, 13 for the avenue Montaigne and only 4 to the place Vendôme.

Find the pictures of the restoration of the Haussmann spring on lesechos.fr/diaporamaslesechos.fr/diaporamas