Kith is opening its first European flagship store in Paris, France on February 26th. Located in the heart of the Golden Triangle, this flagship occupies three floors and the central courtyard of the historic Pershing Hall Building at 49 Rue Pierre Charron. Kith Paris will be the brand’s largest store to date at 16,000ft²and will provide a holistic lifestyle experience for customers which includes Kith Retail, Kith Treats, and a Kith for Sadelle’s restaurant. As always, Kith has worked with perennial design firm Snarkitecture to create this sixth flagship.
The space features core motifs to Kith’s retail design language, blended with native elements distinctive to its French home. As with all Kith stores, the shop features uniquely positioned plaster cast sneakers. In Paris, the cast fixture lines the barrel-vaulted ceiling of the Carrara marble-tiled entryway. With each new continent, Kith selects a different sneaker silhouette lineage to highlight. For Europe, the Air Max 1 was chosen as a tribute to France’s innovative Pompidou Center. The entryway opens to a grand double-height courtyard, with an Accessories Lounge and Kith Treats, the brand’s cereal and ice cream bar, anchoring opposite ends of the surrounding colonnade.
The glass-covered courtyard utilizes multi-coloured Carrara marble-tiled floors and sits in front of a plant wall that stretches from floor to ceiling. This green wall was designed by renowned botanist Patrick Blanc and was reimagined for Kith by French landscape design firm Jardins de Babylone. The seating in the courtyard is for customers partaking in the culinary extensions of Kith Paris, which includes a special partnership with Major Food Group’s acclaimed New York-based restaurant Sadelle’s. This marks the first international Sadelle’s outpost, residing as a permanent restaurant within Kith Paris where its one-of-a-kind brunch menu will be served. The menu will feature its New York classics and caviar offerings, in addition to the return of The Babka Swirl, an ice cream confection once briefly available at Kith Treats SoHo as a limited engagement, which incorporates the restaurant’s homemade chocolate babka.
Situated adjacent to Sadelle’s, Kith Treats is crafted in stainless steel and Carrara marble and features the brand’s discernible parlour-style cereal canister wall. The bar will serve a tailored variation of offerings, including its global signature specials curated by friends and family of the brand and classic Build Your Own offerings, as well as specials and standalone mix-ins exclusive to the Paris shop, along with all of Kith Treats’ inline apparel releases.
A restored Carrara marble staircase takes customers from the ground floor to the first floor which includes men’s apparel, women’s apparel, kid’s apparel and footwear rooms. At the top of the staircase is a custom chandelier made from resin cast Air Max 1s. As each room offers a different experience, the floors vary in material and colour. The men’s apparel space is crafted with walnut wood panelling and brass racks, while the adjacent women’s apparel space features a custom walnut and Carrara staircase opening into a mirrored room with multi-coloured herringbone marble-tiled floors. Across a mezzanine overlooking the courtyard is the footwear room, which situates three oversized coloured benches in the centre and high ceilings.
Travelling downstairs past the ground floor will take customers to the basement level, which houses a rotating activation space. This incubation gallery will feature a revolving array of immersive and experiential touchpoints which will consistently align with Kith’s latest releases and partnerships. To celebrate the flagship’s opening, Kith has partnered with Nike to create a collaborative Air Force 1 that will be sold exclusively at this location. Inspired by the flag of France, this model features an all-white premium leather upper with blue hits seen on the velvet lining. The flag is represented on the mini- embroidered swoosh while also featured on the tongue label, accompanied by the Kith classic logo. The quarter panels are debossed with Kith’s monogram pattern, while the sole unit is finished in a vintage beige. Other details include special Kith Air logos, a reimagining of the Nike Air logo, embroidered on the heel tabs and printed on the footbeds. Kith will also introduce its newest EU online website, which will allow product to fulfil locally, with reduced duty-free shipping costs.
