Benetton launches in Printemps

A new launch for Benetton is a phrase repeated too frequently for comfort perhaps, but the newly opened space for the brand on the third floor of department store Printemps’ flagship on Paris’ Boulevard Haussmann is a thing apart.

The 200 sq m shop-in-shop is divided into two areas, with one half being devoted to ‘premium collections’ while the other is home to a ‘colour theatre’ and a circular seating area. Connecting the two are a series of coloured ‘threads’, designed to look as if they are paint trails from the faux pots 3D graphic on one of the walls, which mimic the Benetton logo.

The ‘theatre’ is theatre in the round with a circular plinth at its heart used as a display for glass containers of brightly coloured material with the knitwear being shown side-hung on a curved lower perimeter rail in the space where the theatre seating would normally be located. Above this, sizes in each colour are used to add more colour to the walls, giving the whole the ability to turn eyes as shoppers pass through the floor.

Benetton has managed to inveigle itself into other major European department stores with Selfridges in London, de Bijenkorf in Amsterdam and Dublin’s Arnotts all having in-store space set aside for the brand.