35: Between The Pleats!

Between The Pleats is a series where I give you updates on what I’ve been reading, enjoying, and thinking about between newsletters.

On Sunday, Meg and I met a few minutes after 1:00 outside of the new Printemps store so we could go in together. It was smaller than we had imagined but we got lost in the maze of racks and dead ends exactly as the department store gods intended. We talked about our new jobs while we turned shoes in our palms and cooed as we pulled dresses off racks and slyly flipped over the price tags.

There were a few things I liked—a shiny leather Marni jacket with a cropped sleeves (perfect for long gloves), a pair of Simone Rocha flip-flops and a hat I don’t remember anything about. But I was mostly struck by the space itself—the high tiled walls, pink moire silk wallpaper, the lush floral carpets and the way the items were displayed as if anything goes with anything. I’m convinced that the future of department stores is to forego departments altogether. If you stick Lemaire bags next to velvet venetian slippers, novelty socks and HAY candles, one will never feel that certain departments are off limits and it keeps the fantasy of a purchase alive.