Fashion & Shopping in Paris
For reasons that elude most of us, Parisians tend to make impeccable fashion sense look like a walk in the park. Even on modest budgets, they generally seem to just know how to pull it all together and come up with enviable and seemingly effortless looks. Call it "je ne sais quoi", if you must.
It's no surprise, then, that the French capital has held onto its reign as the global center of all things style-related. After museums and monuments, shopping alone attracts millions of visitors every year.
While the city is studded with fabulous boutiques and stores, these seven ultra-popular shopping districts in Paris are gold mines for discount-hunters, designer divas, window shoppers, and fashion victims alike.
Avenue Montaigne and the Champs-Elysées
Avenue Montaigne and Avenue des Champs-Elysées form one of the city's most coveted fashion junctures. Avenue Montaigne is fast outstripping Saint Honoré in the arena of chic-cachet, with legendary designers like Chanel and Dior lining the street with flagship boutiques. The Champs-Elysées, for its part, features luxury names (Louis Vuitton) while also being a major spot for shopping in trendy global chains like Zara. Meanwhile, to keep the kids happy, the Disney Store dominates the "Champs" with fun window displays and enough toys to colonize the moon.
Louvre and Tuileries District
The Faubourg Saint-Honoré district is the pulse of Paris design and fashion. Part of the Louvre-Tuileries neighborhood, the Saint-Honoré fashion district is studded with flagship shops from classic designers like Versace, Hermes, and Yves Saint Laurent, but also houses resolutely trendy concept shops such as Colette.
Boulevard Haussmann and the Grands Boulevards
The old Parisian department stores are famous for being worlds unto themselves. Galeries Lafayette and Printemps department stores dominate Boulevard Haussmann with real Belle Epoque grandeur, concentrating top designer collections for men and women, gourmet food shopping, home design, jewelry, and even hardware into a labyrinth of consumer delights. In the winter months, of course, these "grands magasins" are decked out with lights and elaborate decorations for the holiday season, so don't miss checking them out then.
The Marais
The historic Marais quarter is prime stomping ground for shoppers with an eye for the unique and finely-crafted, not to mention antique and art lovers. Try antiques or fine-arts shopping on the Place des Vosges, jewelry, fragrance, and cosmetics shopping at boutiques like Satellite, Diptyque, and MAC on Rue des Francs-Bourgeois, or plunder fashionable chains such as COS on Rue des Rosiers.
