Dior's Latest Look

Dior's evening-shoe salon at its newly revamped flagship store in Paris.

PHOTO: Jimmy Cohrssen

When it comes to celebrating big birthdays, nobody does it better than a fashion-world legend. For its sixtieth anniversary, CHRISTIAN DIOR treated its Paris flagship, on Avenue Montaigne, to a ravishing eight-month revamp. American architect Peter Marino orchestrated the new look around a spectacular twenty-three-foot-high central rotunda, where splashy videos playing on plasma-screen "windows" show scenes of Monsieur Dior's Normandy garden as well as head designer John Galliano's runway extravaganzas.

Shoppers saunter through a 13,000-square-foot enfilade of rooms arranged as a spacious contemporary apartment in fifty-six shades of gray. There are charcoal-painted and patinated walls in the prêtàporter salon, pale-silver leather walls in the fitting rooms and pearl-gray satin curtains in a boudoir devoted to evening shoes. In the evening-gown salon, the master looks down from his portrait by Bernard Buffet onto a pair of velvet sofas in front of a white marble fireplace.

Appearing throughout the store is an 18th-century-style medallion chair interpreted in thirty-six ways, and eye-catching pieces by 20th-century artists enhance the decor. Among them are André Dubreuil's aluminum console table (left), Rob Wynne's handblown-glass graphics spelling "J'Adore" and "Look Good," and Claude Lalanne's circular banquette with silvered-bronze water-lily leaves, which gleam under the central dome. A stop by the home collection of linens, china, cutlery, glassware, gifts and decorative objects will provide you with ideas for Dior-izing your own living space. 30 Avenue Montaigne; 011-33-1-40-73-73-73.