Borsalino opens second Paris boutique – checks on walls, ceiling and floor
Italian hatmaker Borsalino now has a store in Paris's Golden Triangle. Shortly before, the brand opened its first permanent shop in China.
Symbolic image · Photo: Ypsilon from Finland / Wikimedia Commons, CC0 (cropped and resized)
Heritage hatmaker Borsalino, from Alessandria in Piedmont, has opened a new boutique in Paris at 24 Rue Marbeuf, in the so-called Triangle d'Or between the Champs-Élysées and Avenue Montaigne, FashionNetwork Italia and HUB Style magazine reported on 12 October. It is the brand's second address in Paris and its third in France after Cannes. According to HUB Style, it follows the first permanent store in Greater China, which opened a few weeks earlier at the Plaza 66 mall in Shanghai.
Architect Nicola Quadri designed the space around Borsalino's signature check, which runs as a textured fabric across the walls, floor and ceiling. It is combined with mid-20th-century furniture, including a table by Ignazio Gardella, a central figure of Italian modernism. The store carries hats for women and men, leather goods, fragrances and a small eyewear collection.
The Paris connection goes back a long way: according to HUB Style, founder Giuseppe Borsalino trained with the hatmaker Berteil on Rue du Temple before setting up his own company, and in 1900 the firm won a Grand Prix at the Paris Universal Exhibition. France is described as the brand's second most important market. General manager Mauro Baglietto called the opening "a natural evolution of Borsalino's growth path", adding that Paris has always been one of the main reference points for fashion, culture and international luxury.