“We were never on stand-by,” Sarah Andelman remembers of running her legendary Parisian boutique Colette. “We were always in action and excited to look for another adventure and the next fabulous thing to share in our windows.” For two decades, Colette reigned supreme as the original concept store, garnering a global following and marking itself as the coolest one-stop destination for all things fashionable from the moment it opened its doors in 1997.
Co-founded by Andelman and her mother Colette Rousseau after whom the store was named the duo created a space that broke down the barriers between fashion, design, art and food. It also spawned hundreds of surprising collaborations with everyone from McDonald’s to Mattel, mixing luxury designers with streetwear, fine art and fast food, as well as hosting countless performances, shows and installations. Notable moments included a Chanel pop-up in a former garage, complete with handbag customisation and nail bars; a premier
To watch
Colette, Mon Amour, the new documentary about the beloved Paris boutique, at a time when “going inside a store” and “mingling with other people” both feel like alien activities hits, as they say, different. Watching, I was immediately transported to the last time I walked through the doors of the store on the Rue Saint-Honoré. It was during Paris Fashion Week, and I was there to see a fashion show being held upstairs, but first I had to ford my way through a first floor full of excited elbow-to-elbow shoppers excitedly brandishing their finds.
Andelman, Rousseaux, and the Colette crew at the store’s closing in 2017.