Good for oligarchs, but also for Berlin: Chanel on two floors

2023-05-12 13:10:26

HomeBerlinGood for oligarchs, but also for Berlin: Chanel on two floors

The new Chanel flagship store on Kudamm is a positive signal to Berlin. It’s not just about shopping here.

Sabine Rothig

The recently opened Chanel branch at Kudamm 185 Julien Barbes

You don’t have to be a die-hard Chanel customer to be delighted with a new boutique by the French luxury brand on the Kudamm. The opening with a larger sales area primarily means that the top league of fashion is still interested in Berlin customers. And it’s a compliment to Charlottenburg.

While other formerly beautiful corners are becoming filthy and seem to have long been abandoned by the public order office, work on the comeback of the former magnificent boulevard on the Kudamm continues. Among the investors: legendary couture house Chanel, which, unlike most major luxury brands, is still privately owned. In the age of multi-corporations, this is something special.

With an area of ​​almost 500 square meters, the newly opened flagship store is significantly larger than its predecessor a few doors down. Where Karl Lagerfeld’s creations were presented on just one floor in number 188/189, the collections of his successor Virginie Viard now have significantly more space in the former Jil Sander address. The range includes ready-to-wear, handbags, shoes, small leather goods, glasses, watches and jewellery. Also available are the fragrances from the “Les Eaux de Chanel” series, inspired by Gabrielle Chanel’s favorite destinations.

Berlin artists in the Berlin Chanel store

The interior of the new Chanel boutique looks extremely classic and not very coy, which may be due to the typical black and white gold look of the more than hundred-year-old fashion house.

Nonetheless, the materials have been well-done: gilded doors and walls, upholstered furniture covered with the iconic Chanel tweed or a customer toilet completely paneled with light-colored marble. The setting is complemented by precious lights made of gold-plated metal and rock crystal – made by the Parisian goldsmith Goosens, which like many other small workshops now belongs to Chanel. Art hangs on the walls, including three pictures by Berliner Gregor Hildebrandt. One painting is called “The Little Black Dress”. It is a small format monochrome image in black. This is original.

Restrained at first glance, opulent at second glance: the new Chanel store on Kudamm.Julien Barbes

The New York architect Peter Marino, who has been working with Chanel for a long time, is responsible for the furnishing. Marino, who has already renovated for Warhol, knows the codes of the House of Chanel inside out. He celebrates this again in the Berlin boutique in an almost unexcited way, which nevertheless teaches us: In uncertain times, historically grown companies like Chanel retreat to their aesthetic heritage, while others like to gallop in their hunt for effects. For Berlin, the new Chanel boutique is a sign of hope because the city is given two floors of optimism. Who will actually shop here in the end is another matter and doesn’t really matter. The main thing is that the ruble rolls.

Chanel. Kurfürstendamm 185, 10707 Berlin, phone [phone], opening hours: Mon–Thu 11 a.m–7 p.m., Fri 10 a.m–7 p.m., Sat 10 a.m–6 p.m