Carven Opens New Paris Flagship and Launches E-commerce

Carven is expanding and growing. The French brand is opening a second, larger store in the same Left Bank neighborhood at the same time launching their e-commerce in Europe.

The new flagship store is 1,300 square feet and located at 13bis Rue de Grenelle. Carven's creative director Guillaume Henry told WWD, "Carven hasn't fundamentally changed, but we have polished our concept, and this store will allow us better to show who we are."

The new store is conceived by Eric Chevallier and features small square sandstone tiles on the floor and light oak paneling on the walls. The light oak has faint matchstick red dots through out in the shape of leather-covered benches adding just a hint of color.

Carven was founded by Carmen de Tommaso as a couture house in 1944 and has undergone a major revival since Henry joined in 2009. You can now find the brand in 450 stores in 60 countries.

On top of the two Paris women's stores and three department store corners in Paris, Carven has plans to open a men's store on Rue de Sévigné this summer. Its e-commerce site, operated in-house, offers women's ready-to-wear and accessories and men's rtw.

"I think it's essential for a brand to have 360-degree distribution," said Henri Sebaoun, chief executive officer of Carven and Société Béranger, which owns the brand. He noted he expects the site to become "lucrative within 24 months."

Carven is planning additional openings in Kuwait, Hong Kong and Tokyo under license with local partners. Sebaoun also hopes to open the first Carven store in New York later this year, and is in talks to open shops-in-shop at Bergdorf Goodman and Saks Fifth Avenue.

Carven also plans to stage its comeback in the world of fragrance today when it begins selling a new women's scent, Carven Le Parfum, exclusively in Paris' Colette and through colette.fr.