Galeries Lafayette Reworks Its Beauty Concept

PARIS — Galeries Lafayette is unveiling a new retail concept designed to bridge the worlds of beauty and fashion in its Boulevard Haussmann flagship in Paris.

“The idea is to have the widest offer of beauty with a clear customer journey” said Arthur Lemoine, chief executive officer of Galeries Lafayette, during an exclusive interview.

Following the pandemic, the French department store underwent numerous changes, including to its leather goods, watches, jewelry and fashion departments. In 2022, the retailer opened La Wellness Galerie, a 32,290-square-foot department spanning the lower floor, replete with brands, treatment rooms, products, a restaurant and gym. That was then billed as the largest space devoted to wellness in Europe.

Fast-forward to now, and while the wellness factor has in no way diminished, other priorities have bubbled up, as well. “One of our targets was to rebalance our customer base and to develop especially the local customers,” Lemoine said.

Beauty is particularly important in that respect, Lemoine said, noting it’s a category that attracts relevant traffic with high conversion potential, including to other departments, and has a halo effect.

Globally, beauty comprises about 10 percent of the store’s volume sales annually. Last year, when the beauty departments’ renovations were underway, Galeries Lafayette posted double-digit growth in the category versus in 2024. That double-digit year-over-year gain has continued into the start of 2026.

“We are really confident about the effects of this refurbishment, even if it’s not completely finished,” Lemoine said.

The goal of the project is to differentiate Galeries Lafayette as much as possible from specialty stores and parapharmacies, the two major retail channels in Paris, and elsewhere in France, for beauty.

“We can do it on the products — with exclusive fragrances and makeup — but also on services,” Lemoine said, explaining the strategy is to “capitalize on what we’ve done on wellness” and to take that beyond the lower ground floor.

Altogether, there are 40,355 square feet of beauty selling space in the store currently. That is 5,380 square feet more than before the works began. Now Galeries Lafayette stocks 440 beauty brands, taking into account the 190 new ones in the recently debuted parapharmacy section.

On the second floor, the leather goods department that formerly ran along the inner circumference — beyond which the ground floor is viewable below and over which the colorful cupola soars — was carved out to make space for exclusive fragrance brands linked to luxury fashion.

First up was the Loewe fragrance and candles area, which opened about a year ago with the same aesthetic and architectural concept as the brand’s fashion corner nearby.

“What’s interesting is that some fashion customers from Loewe buy some additional products from the beauty,” and the same happens vice versa, Lemoine said. “As a department store, we always had everything under the same roof. The idea is we need to enable the customer to discover all the categories of a brand.”

Prada’s beauty department, which will move to the ground floor in June, currently has an extensive corner on the second level.

“We worked closely with L’Oréal [holder of the Prada beauty license] and Prada in order to develop a specific concept which is consistent,” Lemoine said. Some of the brand’s accessories, such as scarves, small leather goods, hair bands and barrettes, are here, too, alongside the perfume and makeup.

Officine Universelle Buly 1803 is also present on this level, where it opened in October 2025. “It’s a brand that speaks to fashion customers,” Lemoine said. Buly’s entire range is here, and it offers the same services as the brand’s own stores.

Dior on this floor sells products bridging fashion and beauty, as well. This includes scarves, custom jewelry and sunglasses, which are merchandised next to some of the brand’s more exclusive beauty ranges, such as the customizable Dior amphora bottles, which are present in less than 10 stores worldwide.

Other beauty brands on this level include Guerlain, Louis Vuitton, Maison Francis Kurkdjian and Chanel. Fueguia will debut on June 26.

The fashion-beauty connection continues on Galeries Lafayette’s ground floor, which centers on fragrance and makeup. Skin care brands that had been housed there previously were moved down to the lower ground level.

Louis Vuitton’s corner stocks the brand’s entire line of fragrances and makeup. Galeries Lafayette is the only department store in Paris to present that whole range, which is also carried in its Champs-Elysées location. Scarves, small leather goods and sunglasses are here, as well.

“It’s much more lifestyle than just a beauty corner,” Lemoine said, of the selling space that’s close to the brand’s fashion department.

The locations of Guerlain, Dior and Chanel have remained in the same place on this street-level floor.

The Dior department has some unique pieces, such as Sauvage and Miss Dior collectors’ items. “We worked with the brand to have a different level of offer,” Lemoine said.

Hermès’ space was expanded. “The idea was to have a concept where you could feel the spirit of the brand more globally,” he said. It’s the only beauty space where they worked with the same architectural codes as Hermès flagships, such as their yellow, black and white flooring.

Galeries Lafayette and Bergdorf Goodman in New York are the two department stores worldwide to sell Bottega Veneta fragrances. The brand’s corner in Paris is decorated with a sheath of Murano glass, which echoes the fragrance flacons. Small leather goods are also there.

In mid-June, Saint Laurent will debut its exclusive beauty retail concept linked to fashion on the Haussmann flagship’s ground floor. “It will be the first time that they mix the beauty and some accessories from couture,” Lemoine said, adding for that Galeries Lafayette worked closely with the fashion brand and Saint Laurent’s beauty licensee L’Oréal.

Other brands mixing beauty and fashion include Tom Ford and Victoria Beckham. Lemoine said that after Victoria Beckham fashion debuted on the third floor, the brand’s customers, as well as those from other designer brands, requested Victoria Beckham Beauty.

In the makeup area, the number of selective cosmetics brands was reduced. MAC Cosmetics, Bobbi Brown and Nars were maintained, while Charlotte Tilbury and Hourglass Cosmetics were added. Westman Atelier launches on March 6.

Galeries Lafayette amped up its makeup services, with each brand hosting its own area to give services such as how-tos or makeovers.

Nearby is a section with 13 niche fragrances brands, such as Parfums de Marly, Maison Crivelli, Kilian Paris, BDK Parfums and Byredo.

One flight down gives a completely different selection. “On the minus-one, we capitalize on our strength, which was the right balance between services and products,” Lemoine said, of the lower ground floor.

The 2,690-square-foot parapharmacy area sells brands such as Avène, Nuxe, La Rosée and Galderma. “So many brands that the customers love, especially local and Parisian customers,” Lemoine said.

All the brands and services from the initial Wellness Gallery were kept, like Augustinus Bader and Foreo. Meanwhile, stalwarts such as Clarins, La Mer, Estée Lauder, La Prairie and Lancôme were moved to this level. Galeries Lafayette brought in Evidens de Beauté as an exclusive and Helena Rubinstein.

“Now, we have a wide proposition for skin care — the widest one in Paris,” Lemoine said.

There are 20 treatment rooms altogether, double the number prior to the refurbishment. Among the brands to have their own rooms are Skinneo, Nathalie Duarte and Boudoir du Regard.

Floralab, Aveda, L’Oréal Professionnel, Redken and Shu Uemura comprise the hair care brands on offer. The central “beauty store” features niche labels, including from K- and J-beauty. New brands will be introduced there regularly.

The retailer has also tested out some brands in its Avenue des Champs-Elysées location before launching them in its other doors, especially in the Haussmann flagship. “Champs-Elysées is quite a lab for us,” Lemoine said. “On beauty, Champs-Elysées is working really, really well.”

This April, the department store will roll out a beauty focus in every one of its French stores. “All of our windows, all of our pop-ups will be about beauty,” said Lemoine.

Galeries Lafayette has been investing heavily in the category in other stores in French cities such as Strasbourg, Nice, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Annecy and Lyon. That has been very well-received, he said, explaining the monthlong beauty push will help Galeries Lafayette to capitalize on what it has begun in the category.

The department store’s locations in Toulouse and Biarritz will undergo refurbishments next, with specific attention paid to their beauty departments.

Galeries Lafayette is completely renovating its Boulevard Haussmann building dedicated to men, making for more consistency between it and the main “cupola” building next door, according to Lemoine.

“In this project, beauty will be also major, as we understood that it is now one of the departments which has a specific echo with the fashion departments,” Lemoine said. “So we won’t create a specific beauty division inside the men’s building, but integrate many beauty brands inside the men’s customer journey.”