Air France celebrates 90 years of ‘je-ne-sais-quoi’ with Galeries Lafayette takeover
Air France marks 90 years with window displays at the Paris department store, featuring works by costume designer Xavier Ronze, alongside special products and experiences
![Air France Galeries Lafayette takeover](https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/VQoa7CPnqbct8gXWi6Lsxj-415-80.jpeg)
‘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
A dress created by Xavier Ronze, head of the costume design workshops at the Paris Opera Ballet
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.
Vintage posters and ephemera also feature in the displays
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.
The various gowns celebrate different facets of Air France – from technology to innovation to fine dining and fashion
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
galerieslafayette.com
Wallpaper* Newsletter + Free Download
For a free digital copy of August Wallpaper*, celebrating Creative America, sign up today to receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories
Jack Moss is the Fashion Features Editor at Wallpaper*, joining the team in 2022. Having previously been the digital features editor at AnOther and digital editor at 10 and 10 Men magazines, he has also contributed to titles including i-D, Dazed, 10 Magazine, Mr Porter’s The Journal and more, while also featuring in Dazed: 32 Years Confused: The Covers, published by Rizzoli. He is particularly interested in the moments when fashion intersects with other creative disciplines – notably art and design – as well as championing a new generation of international talent and reporting from international fashion weeks. Across his career, he has interviewed the fashion industry’s leading figures, including Rick Owens, Pieter Mulier, Jonathan Anderson, Grace Wales Bonner, Christian Lacroix, Kate Moss and Manolo Blahnik.
-
This Nova Lima apartment is a Brazilian family oasis with striking Minas Gerais views
A Nova Lima apartment designed by Jacobsen Arquitetura celebrates its long, natural Minas Gerais vistas
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Commune’s sustainable personal care products look ‘quite unlike anything else’
Commune’s Somerset-made products stand out in the sustainable skincare crowd. Madeleine Rothery speaks with the brand’s co-founders Kate Neal and Rémi Paringaux
By Madeleine Rothery Published
-
‘Hedonistic and avant-garde’: Rabanne’s Julian Dossena on the legacy of the chainmail 1969 bag
Paco Rabanne’s 1969 chainmail handbag encapsulates the late designer’s futuristic, space-age style. Current creative director Julien Dossena tells Wallpaper* about the bag’s particular pleasures
By Jack Moss Published
-
First look: Stephen Jones’ extraordinary headwear to be celebrated in Paris exhibition
‘Stephen Jones, chapeaux d'artiste’ will span over four decades of the milliner’s ‘transformative and fun’ headwear, with a particular focus on his work in Paris – including a 30-year collaboration with Dior
By Jack Moss Published
-
Highlights from Haute Couture Week A/W 2024
Wallpaper* picks the best of Haute Couture Week A/W 2024 in Paris, from Olympics-inspired offerings at Dior and Thom Browne to the first Chanel collection since the departure of Virginie Viard
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025: Loewe to Dries Van Noten
Wallpaper* picks the best moments of Paris Fashion Week Men’s S/S 2025, from ‘hypnotic precision’ at Loewe to Dries Van Noten’s final show, as well as the latest outings from Pharrell Williams, Kim Jones and Grace Wales Bonner
By Jack Moss Last updated
-
Auralee, the ’seductively unknowable’ Japanese label celebrating a decade of beautiful clothes
Ahead of Auralee’s S/S 2025 runway show at Paris Fashion Week Men’s this evening (18 June 2024), Dal Chodha meets Tokyo-based designer Ryota Iwai to speak about the brand’s considered, covetable collections
By Dal Chodha Published
-
’Daring to tread into the unknown’: a first look inside Dover Street Market Paris
Dover Street Market reveals the interior of its new Rei Kawakubo-designed Paris outpost, marking a new chapter for the inventive fashion store
By Jack Moss Published
-
Diptyque opens the doors to an ‘astonishing’ new London home (and you’ll want to move right in)
Diptyque has unveiled Maison Diptyque on New Bond Street, London, an immersive space that captures the storied world of the luxury perfumer
By Hannah Tindle Published
-
Paolo Roversi’s poetic, timeless fashion photography celebrated in Paris exhibition
’Paolo Roversi’ at Paris’ Palais Galliera is the first large-scale exhibition of the seminal fashion photographer’s work in his home city. Curator Sylvie Lécallier tells Wallpaper* the story behind the landmark display
By Jack Moss Published
-
Dior Spa at Hôtel Plaza Athénée is a Parisian haven for the sleep-deprived
On World Sleep Day, head to the Dior Spa at Hôtel Plaza Athénée to experience its Light Suite, the first of its kind in Paris
By Melina Keays Published