RIP Colette: Lessons From the Paris Boutique's Coolest, Craziest Brand Collaborations
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Luxury labels used to be snobbish about associating with mass consumer brands or street culture. Eclectic, eccentric Paris boutique Colette helped break down those barriers, selling Balenciaga boots and Barbie dolls, along with merch from both Coca-Cola and Chanel. Somehow it all made perfect sense, thanks to the taste-making talents of its founders, namesake Colette Roussaux and her daughter Sarah Andelman, the shop’s creative director and purchasing manager.
The 20-year-old boutique is preparing to close down in December as Roussaux retires. That’s sad news for fashionistas and for mass consumer brands too. Colette was famous for its limited edition products in collaboration with both high-end fashion labels and everyday brands, and for allowing brands to take over its store displays on the chic rue Saint Honore near the Louvre. Overnight, its windows would suddenly fill with Apple watches or Ikea Billy shelves and Lack tables, and often the photos would go viral.
“Any brand that that was picked by Colette automatically gained some coolness,” said Isabelle Tardieu, associate director at BETC Pop in Paris, part of the big Havas-owned French agency that has worked on collaborations between Colette and clients including Evian and Air France. She added that Colette’s tactics have caught on, as the “idea of doing limited editions and odd brand partnerships has now become quite ordinary.”
