Can a French Department Store Make Wall Street Très Chic?

New York Times

22-03-2025

Printemps, a French department store that just opened its first American outpost in Lower Manhattan, is aiming to do what few stores of its ilk have lately done in that area: stay in business.
The store at 1 Wall Street, about a five-minute walk from The New York Stock Exchange, is in a part of Manhattan that has recently had a poor track record with luxury retail emporiums. That may be why a marketing campaign emphasizes that it is 'not a department store.'
Saks Fifth Avenue's store in the Brookfield Place mall was open for little more than two years before it closed in 2019. A South Street Seaport location of 10 Corso Como, the Milanese concept store beloved for its selection of clothes, art, furniture and books, came and went even faster: It closed in 2020, about 18 months after it opened.
Printemps's arrival stateside comes at time when department stores, once a bedrock of the American shopping experience, have also been closing at a rapid clip across the country.
In February 2024, Macy's announced that it would shutter about 150 locations over a three-year period (while opening some 15 new locations of Bloomingdale's, which Macy's also owns). In December, Neiman Marcus, one of the country's most illustrious names in retail, was acquired by the company that also owns Saks Fifth Avenue. Soon after came announcements that certain Saks and Neiman Marcus locations were closing.
Printemps — the French word for spring — is hoping to buck these trends by offering New Yorkers and tourists a two-story bazaar with Murano light fixtures, mosaic walls, spa treatment pods, bars and restaurants, marble and parquet floors, exhibits of archival haute couture and Champagne to go.
Browsing the store's maze of corridors — which are filled with French goods like Jacquemus handbags, Avène thermal water spray, Courrèges minidresses, Carel Mary Janes, vintage Yves Saint Laurent suits and Embryolisse moisturizer — can feel like a decadent Easter egg hunt.
'The French have good taste, they know what's beautiful — they have the level of sophistication,' Jean-Marc Bellaiche, the global chief executive of Printemps, said at a party for the store's opening on Thursday night.
About a quarter of the brands it carries are not sold elsewhere in the United States, he added. But the store's hospitality will have a distinctly American flavor: 'Americans are better when it comes to saying, 'Welcome,'' Mr. Bellaiche said. 'They are warmer. The French are a bit aloof.'
The store's offerings are a reason he thinks it will succeed. Mr. Bellaiche did not consider opening it in another part of New York, he said.
The actress Katie Holmes, who, along with the actress Parker Posey, was among the party's most notable guests, said she thought Printemps had the type of allure to become a shopping destination. 'It has this museum quality to it,' said Ms. Holmes, 46. 'It feels like something to do; it's more entertaining than anything.'
Coco Baudelle, 35, a filmmaker in Manhattan who worked at a department store as a teenager, described Printemps as more inviting than its peers. 'It doesn't have the neon bright lights that put you in the mind-set that you are there to shop and receive the sales pitch,' she said, calling the space 'warm.'
Ms. Baudelle added that places like the nearby office tower known as the WSA Building have brought new buzz to the financial district. 'So many brands and young people are there,' she said of the building, where Ms. Baudelle had been just before the Printemps party. 'It's relevant and exciting.'
Some have characterized Printemps as filling a gap that has existed in New York's retail landscape since the closure of Barneys New York in 2020. Kelly Bensimon, 56, a former model and star of 'The Real Housewives of New York City,' said as much at the party, as have publications like Air Mail on social media.
Founded in Paris in 1865, Printemps has 19 locations in France that include an outlet in Giverny and a Tudor-style corner store in the seaside town of Deauville. Its flagship store on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris is a network of three buildings containing products from some 3,000 brands. There is also a location in Doha, Qatar.
The company was started around the same time as other famous French stores like Le Bon Marché (1852) and La Samaritaine (1870), both of which, like Printemps, catered to the country's growing bourgeoisie.
'Being French and having an exotic appeal,' might help Printemps succeed, said Hunter Abrams, a 33-year-old photographer in Manhattan. 'There's nothing filling that in-between of fashionable things that are also wearable and maybe push the boundary a bit.'
But Mx. Abrams wondered how recent economic events could affect the store's prospects. 'We are in a very precarious financial situation and it does feel like we are on the edge of a cliff,' Mx. Abrams said. 'So who knows. I want it to work.'