Sarah Andelman Made Le Bon Marche Big, Bookish, Beautiful
If there’s any one thing that Sarah Andelman, Colette’s co-founder, really, really excels at, it’s curating a tasteful, aspirational space. This is why anyone currently in Paris will be lucky to stroll through Le Bon Marche Rive Gauche from now through April to check out her curated popup retail space called Mise en Page.
It’s a concept store that spans most of the space and offers upwards of 1,000 items that share a theme of literature, reading, and writing, whether it’s commemorative notebooks and stationary for a couple of euros or a $60K writing table designed by a renowned architect.
Or, you know, a candle or exclusive perfumes from Diptyque or Byredo. You may not think that an eau de toilette has anything to do with being a bibliophile but actually everything is just so that it all makes sense together.
There are actual coffee table books, too, as well as branded items from landmark bookstores like The Strand in New York City and Cow Books in Tokyo.
Since closing Colette’s doors in 2017, Andelman has been working at her own publishing company, Just An Idea.
There, she prints limited runs of monographs from fellow creatives, so the bookish theme is close to her heart. Everything is pretty, there, too.
She’s also collaborated with other fashion-minded friends like Pharrell Williams for other curated retail projects and remains one of the most important creative minds in the industry.
Alas, you do have to be in Paris to truly appreciate the Mise en Page store or even to buy anything from Andelman’s carefully selected inventory.
Per The New York Times, most of the items were created especially for the concept pop-up at Andelman’s personal request —there’s not a single haphazard thing about the project from start to finish.
Then again, this is the mind behind the old ‘water bar” in the old Colette retail space, so what could we really expect if not greatness?
