INSPIRED BY COCO
South Coast Plaza Opens 9,000 S.F. Chanel Boutique
South Coast Plaza is known for boutiques with stately and often architecturally bold designs, but its redesigned Chanel boutique is intended to feel like a comfortable home. But it is not just anyone’s home. Specifically, the store is designed to feel like the Paris apartment of Coco Chanel, the legendary founder of the Chanel fashion house.
The 9,000-square-foot boutique opened to the public on April 23. Located in the Nordstrom wing of level one of the retail center in Costa Mesa, Calif., the store has neighbors such as the boutiques for Dior and Tiffany & Co. The look of the seven-room Chanel boutique was created by Peter Marino, whom New York magazine called the “No. 1 designer of the luxury landscape.”
The boutique’s domestic touches include fireplace-like features in two of the rooms. There’s an inviting arrangement of couches, similar to a living room. Some chandeliers, as well as use of crystal stones in the elegant boutique, are also inspired by Coco Chanel’s residence.
The fitting rooms of the South Coast Plaza boutique are intended to offer a personal feel. They feature devices to control temperature and lighting as well as a music player that carries sounds selected by the Chanel fashion house. The dressing room also features work of artists such as Chris Succo, Gregor Hildebrandt, Michael Wilkinson and Anthony Pearson.
The boutique will take a bow with the 2015 Spring-Summer Ready-to-Wear collection, which was designed by Karl Lagerfeld. The fashion house’s knits were featured on a wall during a gala reception for the store on April 22. The store also offers salons for accessories, shoes, handbags and eyewear. The South Coast Plaza boutique also will offer a watch salon. To celebrate the boutique’s opening, the fashion house’s Mademoiselle Privé Camelia watch observed its exclusive global launch at South Coast Plaza.
