Paris: the Colette store will close in a month and will be taken over by Saint Laurent
“Twenty is a beautiful age”Sarah Andelman, daughter of Colette, co-creator of the store
Sarah Andelman, daughter of Colette, is in charge of purchases in the boutique on rue Saint-Honoré. With his mother, they formed the winning duo, before deciding to stop everything… simply.
Was a simple message on Instagram the best way to announce the end of colette?
It was mom's decision to tell herself that this has to stop, to turn the page. We didn't think too much. Except that we had to warn our team first. Afterwards, we had to try to get the information across without it being a press release like for a product launch.
And the reactions came in floods?
I expected that it would not go completely unnoticed. But we didn't expect so many testimonials from people we worked with, from clients, and from people we absolutely don't know. This affects us enormously.
In the beginning, however, it all started with a simple meeting...
It really was born from the place itself. We lived above and we passed this still empty space every day. One day, we visited it and we immediately had the idea of creating a place where we can also have lunch all day long. We wanted to bring together the gallery, fashion, design, music… Lots of areas that we loved. We wanted to work from the heart. And it happened little by little.
Do you feel like you've created the perfect store?
We arrived at a time when Paris was in the trough. Department stores were from a different era compared to other cities like London or New York and Tokyo. You couldn't find certain products here when Paris is the most beautiful city in the world. Today, everything is more accessible and so much the better.
So any regrets?
It's a wonderful adventure where every day counted, every product we discovered was important. Each person on the team was able to add their own touch to our story. Twenty years is the golden age. We could have continued. But everything should have been reviewed. And mom preferred to stop as long as everything was fine, rather than see the story deteriorate. Above all, we are reassured about the future of our entire team (a hundred people) taken over by Yves Saint Laurent. People also wondered why we didn't sell the brand: we could have left with suitcases full of money. But above all, I think that, without us, it wouldn't have been the same… It's up to everyone now to build their own memories of colette.
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