Air France celebrates 90 years of ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ with Galeries Lafayette takeover

‘French excellence... a je-ne-sais-quoi’ is how Air France describes its unique brand of air travel on its 90th anniversary. Founded in 1933, the airline has come to epitomise the country’s synonymy with elegance and style – not least in the roll call of couturiers and fashion houses that have created the cabin crew’s uniforms, from Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga and Christian Dior in the 1960s to Nina Ricci, Christian Lacroix and Olivier Rousteing in more recent years. Alongside, a roster of seminal designers has worked on the airline’s interiors: Charlotte Perriand, Andrée Putman and Jean Prouvé among them. 

90 years of Air France at Galeries Lafayette, Paris

To celebrate this unique history – ‘90 years of travel, fine dining, design, haute couture, art and architecture’, as the airline describes – Air France has taken over the Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann department store with a series of fashion-infused window displays alongside souvenirs and ephemera. The latter are available in a number of pop-up stores on Galeries Lafayette’s second and third floors, and include objects created or reissued for the anniversary – such as tableware by Jean Picart Le Doux, Bernardaud mugs, and vintage accessories, from flight bags to key rings. Fashion shows will also take place across the store, seeing models wear vintage pilot and cabin crew uniforms.

However, it is Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann’s 12 on-street windows – long a site of creative collaboration with fashion houses, artists and designers – which provide the nexus of the takeover, featuring a series of dramatic displays created with Xavier Ronze, French designer and head of the costume design workshops at the Paris Opera Ballet. 

Ronze has created a series of five fantastical dresses that epitomise the various hallmarks of Air France: ’aircraft and technology, uniforms and fashion, emblematic posters promoting its vast network; fine dining and tableware; design and architecture’, as the airline describes. Featuring surreal motifs and dramatic flourishes, the gowns are situated in a milieu of archival Air France objects.

For those not in Paris, Air France has also created an immersive online platform that tells the stories behind the displays, as well as a special edition of Air France magazine EnVols. The collector’s issue – in French and English – goes behind the scenes with Ronze as he creates the custom gowns for the anniversary project, takes a closer look at Rousteing’s current uniforms, as well as ‘shares the secrets’ of triple Michelin-starred chef Anne-Sophie Pic, who has previously created menus for Air France’s ‘La Première’ and business cabins. It will be available from Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann and in Air France lounges.

Air France’s takeover of Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann runs until 10 October 2023.

airfrance.co.uk
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