PARIS — From runway to retail.
Barely a month after debuting its new store concept as the set for Demna’s spring 2027 show, Gucci has brought the design to its first location: Avenue Montaigne in Paris. From the materials to the fixtures and visual merchandising, the simulated, life-sized flagship erected in a Milanese convention center for the show has been brought to life.
The boutique at number 56 replaces Gucci’s previous unit two doors down and marks the launch of a global rollout, with redesigned locations set to bow in London, Shanghai and Chengdu by yearend.
For Francesca Bellettini, it meant translating Demna’s new vision for Gucci in record time. She was named president and chief executive officer of the Italian house in September 2025, and the designer’s first full collection landed in stores at the beginning of this year.
Parent company Kering had acquired the building in 2023, before forming a joint venture with Ardian that gave the private equity firm a majority stake in a portfolio of prime real estate assets, including the Avenue Montaigne location. When Gucci snagged the space, Bellettini knew she had to move fast.
“We were very confident in what we were doing and given that we had the real estate opportunity to relocate the store, we didn’t want to miss the chance to open Avenue Montaigne,” she said during a walk-through. “It was a very bold move because usually, you don’t introduce your new store concept for the first time in such a prominent place.”
The exterior of the Gucci store on Avenue Montaigne.
Dominique Maitre/WWD
The French capital is a key location for Gucci, which is also building a mega-flagship near Place Vendôme that it hopes to open at the end of next year.
“Everybody comes here. Avenue Montaigne, in particular, is a place where you have locals, but you have also destination customers,” Bellettini underlined. “It gave us the possibility to reach more people than in other locations.”
The stakes are high. Having seen a rapid churn of creative directors in the space of three years, Gucci is using the store to reaffirm its brand identity and telegraph its new design direction amid ongoing turbulence in the luxury sector at large.
Adding an extra layer of complexity, Kering CEO Luca de Meo has ordered the closure of hundreds of underperforming locations worldwide as part of a turnaround plan for the French luxury group, putting the emphasis on bigger, better flagships in key cities.
As a result, Bellettini wanted to ensure the store was the embodiment of brand values that transcend any individual creative director, in a break with previous concepts, which provided little scope for evolution and left much of the store network looking out-of-date.
“What matters most is that this store is designed to endure, as it embodies the brand’s DNA,” she said. “The brand is a fashion brand, of course, but first and foremost a luxury brand, with a lot of Italianità, radiance, warmth and sensuality at its core.”
The women’s ready-to-wear room on the first floor.
Dominique Maitre/WWD
Pick and Mix
The store concept was the fruit of a collaboration between Demna, Bellettini and the retail teams, combining the layout of an Italian Renaissance palazzo, Milanese architectural references and a client experience guided by the notion of discovery.
The four floors, which span almost 16,000 square feet, reflect an era-hopping Italian approach to interior design — similar to the private, ultra-exclusive salon that Aldo Gucci created above the brand’s Fifth Avenue flagship in New York City in the late ’70s.
The store’s interiors evoke by turns the monumental architecture of the 1930s, with rough Ceppo di Gré wall cladding in the spirit of Milanese architect Piero Portaluppi; the opulence of Renaissance interiors, via marble, green stone and bronzite, and the effortless cool of Milanese homes from the ’50s to the ’70s, with glossy metal and wood finishes.
“We wanted to create a dialogue between the different rooms, where you can pick, mix and match, and explore as you like,” Bellettini explained, noting that the materials and natural lighting are designed to cast Demna’s collections in a complimentary light. “Product is the hero, so the architecture should not overshadow the product.”
The early 20th-century building reunites two former boutiques, previously separated by a porch, and a private apartment, which is now home to the second-floor Gucci Appartamento, a salon for private appointments.
The entrance corridor ends in a large-scale bas-relief inspired by Gucci’s classic riding aesthetic, which will be echoed in different stores with themes adapted to each location. Museum-style display cases present past and present iterations of classic styles: think a ladylike top-handle Bamboo bag, alongside a roomy suede Bamboo tote bag.
The entrance of Gucci’s store on Avenue Montaigne.
Dominique Maitre/WWD
The front rooms showcase handbags and luggage, while the rear carries ready-to-wear, silk, eyewear and fragrances, though the layout is designed to be flexible. In future, the spaces can be used for product launches, capsule collections and brand extensions, like the Gucci Racing collection that is under development.
“Personally, I don’t believe in presenting only one category in a room, so everywhere we try to give a sense of lifestyle. This is a newer approach for Gucci, which traditionally organized its stores by category, but we see that it is increasingly becoming the way to organize our stores,” Bellettini noted.
The lower ground floor is dedicated to men’s collections and combines rough wall cladding with a stone-effect ceiling. By contrast, the travertine staircase is all soft edges. “It was important to convey a sense of sensuality, which is also part of Gucci,” Bellettini noted as she ascended to the first-floor women’s department.
The main room there is articulated around a sculptural, 20-foot curved wooden display unit, informally dubbed the Library, which for the opening displayed ready-to-wear on one side, and the recently launched Horsebit Duomo bag on the other.
The next room is dedicated to jewelry, a growing focus for Kering, which plans to detail its strategy for the segment at a Kering Jewelry Day in Paris on Dec. 2. A new round display unit showcases Gucci’s Bamboo watch, while high jewelry is presented by appointment on the upper floor.
Settle In
At the front of the building, customers can amble between a women’s ready-to-wear room, clad in striking red travertine and red-pigmented concrete, and a women’s shoes room, decked out in glossy dark walnut panels, handmade brown ceramic clay tiles and an iron-oxide-effect ceiling.
The women’s shoes room on the first floor.
Dominique Maitre/WWD
“I would like clients to feel completely at ease, as if they were at home, rather than in a stiff or intimidating environment,” Bellettini said.
That sense of hospitality is even more pronounced on the second floor, with its vintage furniture and darkly luxurious decor of green stone, darkened zebrano, walnut and waxed bronzite, and velvet curtains. Though designed like a penthouse apartment, it can be divided into three salons by a movable wall system.
Bellettini has encouraged the store teams to make the space a lively one, whether by hosting dinners or inviting guests who require a more personalized approach. There, they have access to exclusive merchandise, including evening gowns and a new tableware line developed with Ginori 1735 featuring Gucci’s signature Flora print.
The store layout, which is intentionally curated and devoid of price tags, is designed to foster engagement, with uniformed sales staff on hand to pull additional references from the stock rooms located on each floor.
Bellettini believes the Avenue Montaigne boutique will be among its highest revenue earners worldwide, alongside its flagships in New York City, Shanghai and Milan. France accounted for 6 percent of Kering’s revenues in 2025, and Gucci remains the group’s main growth engine.
Going forward, every opening or relocation will feature the new store concept, while other units have been refreshed, including the Milan and New York City boutiques which the brand plans to relocate in the next few years.
Gucci’s Horsebit Duomo handbags on display on the first floor.
Dominique Maitre/WWD
Gucci plans to trim its store network by 30 percent by 2030, though total square meters are set to fall by 25 percent, meaning some of the new locations will be bigger. Kering has shuttered 105 units in the first nine months of the year, including 25 Gucci buildings, putting it ahead of target.
Bellettini sees the value in creating a store design that will stand the test of time, both in terms of cost control and to guarantee flexibility in a rapidly evolving luxury environment.
“Now we need to roll up our sleeves and move as fast as possible, balancing cost and time, to restyle most of our store network,” she said.
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