CHANEL X Grand Palais

Some pairings are just a perfect match. CHANEL announcing its sponsorship of the restoration and renovation of the Grand Palais is just what design dreams are made of.

The house will contribute 25 million euros to the project that is scheduled to begin in December 2020 and will run for 4 years, with a partial reopening in 2023.

Home to CHANEL’S Ready-to-Wear and Haute Couture shows for 13 years, the building is close to Karl Lagerfeld’s heart. Originally build for the Universal Exhibition of 1900, the site is to be the recipient of some carefully curated craftsmanship that will see it well into the next century.

The house has a strong connection to fine glasswork. The development of the bottle for their Gabrielle fragrance took years to develop. While it may look like a classic CHANEL bottle, this one has incredibly thin glass, with intricate technical feats, imperceptible to the untrained eye. That’s the whole point of luxury; touches and finishes in the craftsmanship that you may not be able to see, but you know that they are there. Gabrielle Chanel herself once said, “Luxury is what you don’t see.”

This attention to invisible detail is just what a majestic building like the Grand Palais needs, and it has thankfully found it in the partnership with CHANEL. I’m so excited to see the final result.