What Avenue Montaigne is known for
The most glamorous shopping street in Paris. Dior's flagship (where the New Look was born), Chanel, Valentino, Céline, Louis Vuitton, and Gucci all maintain their most important boutiques here.
Avenue Montaigne's status as Paris's most concentrated luxury address traces to a single decision in 1946, when Christian Dior chose number 30 -- a four-storey hôtel particulier built in the 1860s for a son of Napoleon III -- as the site of his new fashion house, drawn partly by its proximity to the well-heeled clientele of the nearby Hôtel Plaza Athénée. The house of Dior was inaugurated there in December 1946; weeks later, on 12 February 1947, Dior presented his debut couture collection in the building's neoclassical salon, a collection Harper's Bazaar editor Carmel Snow famously dubbed the "New Look." Every one of Dior's successive designers, from Yves Saint Laurent through Maria Grazia Chiuri, has worked from that same address since. The short avenue -- part of the 8th arrondissement's "Triangle d'Or," or Golden Triangle -- has since drawn a dense concentration of flagship houses along its length, including Chanel, which has occupied its own building at number 42 since 1986.
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Dior, Chanel, Valentino and Céline flagships on Avenue Montaigne
French and international luxury fashion houses.
More in Paris
- Balenciaga — Paris
- Bourrienne Paris X — Paris
- Cartier — Paris
- Céline — Paris
- Chanel — Paris
- Charvet — Paris
- Creed — Paris
- Dior — Paris
Where next
- Elie Saab — Paris
- Lemaire Le Marais — Paris
- Homme Plissé Issey Miyake — Paris
Hand-curated for ORBIS · no paid placement