What: Le Bon Marché has partnered with Van Cleef & Arpels Prize winner Edgar Jayet to redesign Salon Aristide, founder Aristide Boucicaut's former office, as a VIC space where every piece is available to buy or commission. 

Why it is important: Salon Aristide extends Le Bon Marché's VIC offer into collectible design, following Bergdorf Goodman's shoppable design residency and Selfridges' private shopping suites in using exclusive, lived-in environments to deepen ties with top clients.

Le Bon Marché has transformed Salon Aristide, the room reputed to be founder Aristide Boucicaut's former office, into a collectible design space for VIC clients. The room is the centrepiece of the store's Salons Particuliers, a series of private apartment-like spaces opened in 2019, and retains its original mahogany panelling, gold-leaf details, engraved glass and alabaster lighting.

Rather than a period reconstruction, designer Edgar Jayet was asked to create a dialogue between the existing architecture and his own work. His pieces are all for sale, and clients can commission customised dimensions, materials and typologies from his studio. The collection, first shown at Design Miami, includes a cashmere daybed made by a Parisian seat-maker and moiré-covered trunks evoking White Star Line first-class cabins. It is complemented by an Andrée Putman carpet, a Maïon sculpture and Delisle chandeliers.

Jayet, who founded his studio at 23 after winning the Van Cleef & Arpels Prize, says Le Bon Marché's clients seek small-scale, crafted pieces rather than mass production. Director of client relations and services Raphaël Lipszyc says the aim is for clients to encounter pieces within a fully realised interior rather than as isolated objects.

IADS Notes: Salon Aristide builds on a positioning already central to Le Bon Marché's strategy: QDE in July 2026 described the store as a highly selective Left Bank destination built around affluent local clients, curation, service and exclusivity, with a history of retail innovation, from fixed prices to returns, that gives it a strong heritage platform. That heritage already extends to culture, as Le Figaro reported in March 2026 in covering the store's annual carte blanche collaborations with renowned artists, part of a wider move by French department stores to blend commerce and culture into experiential destinations. The shoppable-interior format has a close precedent in New York, where WWD reported in April 2026 that Bergdorf Goodman turned its seventh floor into an immersive space blending showroom and interior, where clients can buy collectible furniture, vintage pieces and exclusive design collaborations. The emphasis on private service for top clients mirrors investments elsewhere in luxury retail: Selfridges opened 40 Duke, a members-only club combining private shopping suites, a restaurant and wellness treatments for clients spending at least £20,000 a year (BoF, April 2026), while Prada has added a private floor offering re-editions, tailoring and commissions in its Milan Galleria complex, reporting that top clients spend about €7 for every euro spent entertaining them (Wall Street Journal, September 2026).

Le Bon Marché brings collectable pieces into its luxury retail suite