PARIS — Nina Christen is about to jump into retail with both feet with the opening Friday of her first flagship.
For the Chilean Swiss designer, snagging the two-level 3,300-square-foot unit located at 1 Rue de la Paix felt like a coup.
“To be able to have this location is a huge privilege,” she said. “To me, it is really one of the most beautiful addresses in Paris.”
But it’s not just the sales or visibility such a prime location can offer that drew the designer, who is also behind the much buzzed-about Dior shoes of the Jonathan Anderson era.
What Christen saw here was the ideal fit for her creative universe with a growing footprint that spans the sculptural footwear that put her on the map, her first handbag design as well as a capsule of ready-to-wear staples.
“I like to look at spaces in their most raw form, not as interior decoration, but really purely as space and architecture,” she said, framing the project developed in collaboration with multidisciplinary artist Azadeh Shladovsky as an ever-evolving installation rather than a conventional boutique fit-out.
When she first visited the site it was a warren of small rooms, an “old-fashioned boutique” divided into tight compartments. The revelation came at the back, where a large, unused space with arches was hidden behind partitions. It caught Christen’s eye.
Christen’s flagship in Paris.
Courtesy of Christen
The owners “confirmed that we were able to just take away and demolish everything and resurface that original structure,” she recalled. “Because this space is so amazing, I just really wanted to preserve the structure that we found after we removed what previously was [piled on].”
Rather than overlaying that structure afresh with a conventional luxury interior decor, Christen opted for near-monastic austerity.
“We decided to make a very radical gesture for this address, to just leave the space completely raw and just work on a permanent concrete installation which will expose the product and therefore create more of a gallery, which also valorizes the shoes in a way as objects of art,” she said. “Because for me, they’re little sculptures.”
Lighting, developed with a company that usually works with art institutions, will further accentuate the gallery-like mood.
One of the store’s signature aspects is an atmospheric water feature, an addition that is “a presence of a natural element that really adds a sort of energetic field in my mind to the space,” Christen revealed.
The space is spread over a main floor and a below-ground level of similar size, but Christen is determined that there be no hierarchy between front-of-house and back-of-house.
“To me, the whole space, everything should have the same importance,” she said. While the focus will be on the ground level at opening time, she would in time “love to treat [the lower level] as an archive section which is equally as visually pleasing as the upper part.”
Overall, Christen intends the store to be “an evolving installation,” she continued. “I like the idea that the customer actually can participate in the evolution of the store, so that we can start with this very raw concept and eventually also build up on it.”
At opening, the focus will be squarely on her footwear designs, the core of her brand, with the classics she has developed over the last three seasons unfurled in full.
Nina Christen at the 2025 Footwear News Achievement Awards.
John Nacion/WWD
But the new flagship also offers room to grow — in footwear as much as other categories.
The brand’s nascent men’s segment, which currently has three styles, will increase. “Many styles that I design are actually from the beginning meant as unisex, but I always like to launch them first as a women’s shoe,” she said. “I have a lot of interest from men regarding shoes that I also wouldn’t have necessarily thought they would be for men.”
After 15 years focused on footwear, the designer relishes creative breadth.
Case in point: the T-shirt and made-in-Japan denim that will also be on offer, two items Christen has been working on for over a year.
“The ready-to-wear will be drops coming into the store from time to time when they are ready,” she said. “I just work on the pieces until I am happy with them, and then we can launch them in the store. It starts with a T-shirt, and it can be many different things — clothes, but also objects.”
Fine jewelry will be another axis of exploration, closely tied to footwear, which she sees as a type of jewel. Christen revealed her first design will be a toe ring and that she’ll be producing the line with a specialist working with major houses, but she doesn’t have a set launch date.
If the interior is deliberately restrained, the emotional investment is anything but for Christen. “It’s just amazingly exciting to have this space,” she enthused. “I also like to be in touch with my clients and to discuss with them about the shoes. I just like the fact of sharing the passion for something that I love with people that equally appreciate the product and buy the product.”
Asked what she wants visitors to take away from the experience, she returned to the product itself and the space that frames it.
“From me, it’s just all about the product,” said the designer. “As a brand, it’s important to not sell the product through too much marketing. It’s really just to let the product shine in a raw space, so that people recognize the quality, the material and the making. I would say it’s maybe a new honesty in luxury.”
