Galerie Goossens expands the Chanel group marque into decoration

By

Godfrey Deeny

Published
Nov 12, 2020

Goossens, the preferred costume jewelry marque of Coco Chanel, has quietly expanded into decoration with a new boutique Galerie Goossens located at a key nerve center of luxury retailing in Paris.

Though currently closed, like practically all central Paris retail businesses due to the second French lockdown, Galerie Goossens actually opened in late September, at 20 rue Cambon, at the Mecca of French shopping just off the rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré in central Paris. The new boutique in effect allows consumers to enjoy the sort of objects and ambience Chanel cultivated in her private life from when she met Goossens in 1953 to her death in 1971.

Galerie Goossens is part of the extended Paraffection group, a series of key fashion and luxury resources controlled by Chanel that includes feather supplier Lemarié; embroiderer Lesage and glovemaker Causse. Two other brands in Paraffection – Scottish cashmere specialist Barrie and milliner Maison Michel - have shops next door on rue Cambon. While Chanel’s historic flagship and site of the brand’s haute couture design studio is located at 31 rue Cambon.

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Founded in 1954 by Robert Goossens, the son of a metal foundry worker, Goossens is famed for its striking Byzantine style and novel use of materials like gilded bronze, shells, pearls and natural rock crystal. His creation of a style that blended genuine stones with semi-precious materials and even fakes in a mix of Renaissance and Roman influences won Goossens orders from such legendary designers as Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and Cristobal Balenciaga. However, his key client was Chanel, for whom he developed multiple pieces of jewelry and a famous golden wheat table, made of gilded brass and glass. The original is still in Mademoiselle’s apartment, preserved on the other side of rue Cambon; while the re-edition costs 65,000 euros.

The new store offers everything from mirrors, lamps and chandeliers to candle sticks and a series of three small lions – Coco’s favorite animal - that jointly hold a rock crystal ball. Prices vary from the entry level lion trio, which starts at 530 euros, to re-issued Heritage wheat mirrors beginning at 21,000 euros.

The 45-square-meter space, located around the corner from the brand’s jewelry shop, also contains huge ceiling lightings that can be made to measure; and a selection of vintage Goossens pieces by founder Robert Goossens, like the dramatic gilt bronze and crystal drop chandelier made in collaboration with Maison Rapin, the noted Left Bank gallery that was the jeweler's dealer.