Chanel boosts retail presence in European ski resorts

After unveiling the new Coco Neige collection, Chanel is taking to the slopes, opening new seasonal stores in some of Europe’s most prestigious ski resorts. The Parisian luxury label has been a winter regular in the French resort of Courchevel since 2009. It will again open a seasonal store there this winter, but will also add new addresses in Megève, France, and at the Swiss resort Gstaad.

Chanel is back in Courchevel with a 128-square-metre store in centrally located rue de l’Eglise, an address with three large shop windows. A high-tech satin fabric with a star pattern, especially designed this season, is used to upholster the store’s black and white poufs, a reference to figure skating, the inspiration to Chanel’s latest ski collection. Pictures of Lily-Rose Depp, who is fronting the collection’s ad campaign, line the store’s walls. The store will open on December 15 and will remain open until March.
  
On December 18, Chanel will inaugurate its temporary store in Gstaad, housed in a wood-built chalet on Lauenenstrasse, dating back to the early 20th century. The 120-square-metre premises on two floors will showcase, as in Courchevel, the Coco Neige collection alongside the cruise collection 2023-24, unveiled in Los Angeles in May, as well as a selection of top-end watches and jewellery items. It will be Chanel’s first time in Gstaad, where the store will remain open until March 8.
 
It will also be the label’s first time in Megève, another renowned French Alpine resort favoured by an affluent international clientèle. Chanel will set up shop in the historic Chalet des Sœurs on rue du Comte de Capré, also home to a boutique hotel. The small 84-square-metre store will showcase the skiwear wardrobe designed by Chanel’s Creative Director Virginie Viard, with a special focus on denim items, the collection’s main novelty. The store will remain open from December 15 to January 12.

The winter sports category, with ready-to-wear and specific accessories, is emerging as the new frontier for luxury labels, most of them busy diversifying and introducing new segments in their product range. Louis Vuitton, Balmain, Pucci and Boss have recently presented skiwear lines, while Balenciaga has entered the segment for the first time this winter, also opening several ad-hoc pop-up stores, not in Alpine resorts but in Asia, notably Japan and South Korea.