Soldes En Paris: Hitting the Sales in Paris by Isabel Clift
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Fact: the fashion sales in Paris are like nowhere else on earth. The city's biannual-only official sales ('soldes') make a real push to put the magic and spectacle back in to shopping and shake off the drudgery of cut prices online and year-round high-street discounts. Quite simply, landing that killer bargain becomes an event again.
During these five-week periods you can ransack the best stores in Paris for much, much less: most places offer 20-50% off, with discounts of up to 80% in the final days. If you're a non-EU resident, you can claim a 12% tax refund from purchases, too.
The sales in Paris start at the beginning of January and again at the end of June. If you want to plan your break to coincide, we're here to make it easier with our area-by-area pick of the best places to hunt out bargains.
As ever, we can also recommend a selection of super-fashionable luxury hotels in Paris in each place to hole up in after a hard day's shopping. Paris is fantastically walk-able, so check out the TI soldes shopping map to plan your route.
6e: Saint Germain des Pres
There are huge designer discounts to be had at Left Bank centre-of-cool Saint Germain. A mix of hidey-hole alleys and buzzy commercial streets, it’s a treat for anyone after grown-up Paris sophistication.
Sonia Rykiel (175 Bd Saint Germain)
Knitware queen Sonia Rykiel offers delicious discounts at the label’s flagship Paris store. Pick up irresistibly soft and simple pullovers, cardigans and t-shirts in classic stripey styles as well as more experimental pieces – Rykiel pulls off both with super-sophistication.
Façonnable (174 Bd Saint Germain)
Expect smart, tailored high-end men’s and women’s practical wear with a sporty edge. This stuff will last the test of seasons and at a soldes discount it’s great for investing in basic bits – light trousers, belted trenches, cashmere and the like should all fly off the shelves.
Le Bon Marche (22 Rue de Sévres)
Paris’s oldest department store pretty much epitomises elegant Parisien style. Once you’ve scoured the lush discounted homeware and designer pieces (edgy yet accessible labels like Isabel Marant and Marc by Marc Jacobs are out in force), pop across the street to the food halls and treat yourself to lunch at the wonderful Epiciere.
Recommended Hotel - Montalembert: A stay at the original boutique hotel in Paris Montalembert perfectly accompanies sales shopping in Saint Germain des Pres. Sleek and discreet with comforts like deep bath tubs and queen sized beds, it treads just the right line between cool and luxurious.
9e: Boulevard Haussmann
Boulevard Haussmann is home to Paris’s two biggest department stores (besides Le Bon Marche), both hubs for designer discounts and highlights of the sales in Paris. Architecturally beautiful, these original flagship stores make shopping feel magic (even when you're fighting off twenty others for the last top in your size).
Au Printemps (64 bd Haussmann)
Browse reduced-price Chanel and Dior or rummage through the 200-plus brands at Printemps's self-claimed “world’s largest beauty department”. It's a traditional old place: fit in afternoon tea for a moment of calm under the restaurant's gorgeous ‘20s stained glass cupola.
Galeries Lafayette (40, bd Haussmann)
A designer focus on young trendies over the old guard here – pick up discounted bits from Diesel, Levi’s Red Tab, Desigual and Zadig & Voltaire. Most breathtaking is the beauty hall you arrive in on entering – it has an opera-house feel with its liberal use of gold, two stories of galleries ringing the room and huge cupola.
Recommended Hotel - Hotel Daniel: Hotel Daniel is a romantic, eclectically-furnished boutique hotel with a sophisticated olde world vibe – a fab place to stay in companion to exploring Paris's grand department stores. Tucked down a side street, it’s quiet and intimate but never far from the action.
8/1e: Saint-Honoré
Walk the length of Saint-Honor (comprised of rue Saint-Honore and rue de Faubourg Saint-Honore) and you’ll discover every designer outpost under the sun. Perfect for finding soldes discounts for big fashion hitters and younger brands alike.
Colette (233 rue Saint-Honore 1er)
Concept-store extraordinaire Colette's tightly-edited mix of the exceptionally cool is a boon during soldes: pick up the likes of Alexander Wang, Rodarte and 3.1 Philip Lim at less bank-breaking prices. Super-popularity and a slightly crammed layout makes this place feel packed most of the time, so try visiting on weekday mornings to avoid jabbing elbows.
Hermes (24 rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré 8er)
Terms like ‘timeless’, ’classic’ and ’investment piece’ – often bandied about in fashion-speak – are actually relevant when it comes to Hermes creations. Hunt out discounted silk scarfs and luxurious leather goods here during the soldes and wear smugly for years to come.
Fifi Chachnil (231 rue Saint-Honore 1er)
A 50s boudoir-style lingerie store that’s so pretty with its curly-footed furniture and gauzy curtains you might just want to live in it. Get attractive soldes discounts on vintage-inspired undies, frou-frou perfumes and girly nightware.
Recommended Hotel - Hotel le Bristol: There’s no better place to stay after a wander down Paris’s most designer-dense street than Hotel le Bristol. Mixing traditional sensibilities with quirkier elements (the spa pool is decked out like a 19th-century yacht) this luxury hotel and its three Michelin-starred restaurant is not to be missed.
3-4e: Le Marais
Le Marais’s buzzy network of narrow streets and alleys are crammed with up-and-coming designer boutiques and retro stores. Shop here for a treasure-chest of eclectic wear.
Free’P’Star (8 rue Ste-Croix-de-la-Bretonnerie 4er)
You’ll need to be ready to hunt at this pile-'em-high retro emporium, but soldes deals are ridiculously easy to come across. Downstairs, racks burst with vintage frocks and fur coats while stacks of leather handbags and luggage teeter on shelves. Climb metal steps to the tiny mezzanine to rummage one-Euro bins that resemble dress-up boxes.
Stephen Plassier Set in Black (2 rue des Blancs-Manteaux 4er)
Not hard to find a whole matching outfit here during soldes – the men's and women's clothing collections from visual artist, architect and theatre designer Stephen Plassier only come in black. Pick up soft basics like rollnecks and teeshirts, or get funky with a little noir party dress.
Surface to Air (68 rue charlot 3er)
Concept store that’s a bookshop, publishing house, creative consultancy agency and clothing brand all in one. Unless you've a music video in the piepeline you just have to get a storyboard for, we say make a beeline for the clothes: soldes discounts make the label's utilitarian-yet-funky men's and women's wear all the cooler.
Recommended Hotel - Murano Resort Paris: Cool is Murano Resort Paris’s watchword: boogie to the DJ at the vodka bar, admire the restaurant’s arty installations then skip upstairs to enter your sexy suite by fingerprint-sensor. An ideal luxury hotel for a stay while shopping trend-setting Marais.
Planning to hit the sales in the French capital? For a suitably stylish stay, check out our full selection of luxury hotels in Paris.
Alternatively, see all our travel writing about shopping.