If you a-do-ré the recent expo at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs about the Great Stores, the sublime Cité de l’architecture et du patrimoine presents a new, totally different version, much more immersive, tracing the history of these temples of window-shopping from 1850 to today. Nearly 500 diverse and varied works are exhibited there until April 6, 2025: an exciting expo to rush to with your favorite shopping partner.
A social revolution
Since their appearance, great stores have sparked a commercial revolution, offering a new way of consuming and transforming the act of purchase into a sensory and social experience. This expo brings together works from the previously unseen collections of the great stores, blending architectural, economic, social, and artistic questions.
The golden age of great stores (1850-1930) is marked by urbanization and the rise of transport, leading to the construction of absolutely sumptuous architecture in the major cities of the world, called by Émile Zola the cathedrals of modern commerce. These stores, designed for a bourgeois clientele (since shopping there is expensive), introduced shopping as a real leisure. The great stores eventually opened their doors to visitors without requiring purchases: simply wandering among the displays became an activity in itself and a way to parade in society. Very quickly, the great stores also opened tea rooms to complement the leisure activity that shopping had become.
The beginnings of marketing
Between 1930 and 1980, facing competition from new supermarkets, the great stores became true selling machines, optimizing their spaces and practices to maximize profitability. Marketing took over, and the shopping experience gradually faded before the purchase itself. Since the 1980s, threatened by shopping malls and AliExpress, the great stores have faced an identity crisis. They constantly reinvent themselves by integrating service and experience elements (from immersion to ultra-luxurious services) to attract customers beyond the act of buying, thus adapting to new modern consumer expectations.
Shopping as if you were there
The expo offered by the Cité de l'Architecture et du Patrimoine is unique. Bringing together nearly 500 works ranging from the handrails of majestic staircases of the 19th century to sales catalogs from the 1960s up to ultra-modern architecture plans of the shopping centers of the future, the experience of La Saga des Grands Magasins is an immersive gem.
You can shop like in 1850 or 1970! Pass between the handrails and glass roofs that adorned the first great stores before heading to the stalls. Choose from haberdashery, hats, perfumery: you will be served. Don’t hesitate to smell the perfumes available to you to choose the one you’ll wear to your next ball. Take the time to fill in your order slip, providing your address and paying in francs at the cash register. And finally, a generative AI tool allows you to try on almost a century and a half of fashion styles: on a tablet, you can choose the outfit you want to wear, and in front of you, a large screen shows your image adorned in the clothes of your choice. Spoiler: you won’t believe it.
La Saga des Grands Magasins, Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, 1 place du Trocadéro et du 11 novembre, Paris 16th. Until April 6, 2024.
© Cité de l'Architecture et du patrimoine
