EXCLUSIVE: Dior’s New Spa in Paris’ Hôtel Plaza Athénée Focuses on Well-being
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PARIS — Parfums Christian Dior has morphed its spa at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée in Paris into a sanctuary of well-being.
The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned brand will open the revamped space, situated at 25 Avenue Montaigne, to the public on Sept. 5.
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The hotel is a stone’s throw from Dior’s boutique and couture salons, standing at number 30. There has been a long-standing synergy between the two locales. Christian Dior, the designer, fashioned the house’s bar suit while keeping in mind his clients’ frequenting the Plaza Athénée’s bar, for instance.
Among the hotel’s star guests have been Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Ava Gardner and Jacqueline Kennedy. The Plaza Athénée was also the site of Dior’s first spa, inaugurated in 2008.
The now 43,055-square-foot space has been redesigned numerous times since then, and today was created with a focus on holistic well-being.
Dior has been developing its spa activity on numerous fronts, most recently in the form of a summer wellness cruise on Paris’ River Seine, which ran from July 3 to 14. On April 14, Dior also opened the doors of a spa at the legendary Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, in the south of France.
For the new spa merging beauty and well-being, Dior has kept the Plaza Athénée’s original architecture and focused on its own aesthetic codes, including throws in toile de Jouy, a pattern of bucolic scenes that is iconic for Dior. The spa is decorated in pale, natural warm colors and made of noble materials, such as stone and wood.
Upon entering, there is a reception area as well as a boutique with La Collection Privée Christian Dior fragrances, plus the exclusive spa product range Solutions Professionnelles. The spa has five single-treatment rooms and a double, a sauna and a steam room.
It takes a holistic approach to well-being, using both manual and high-tech treatments.
There is a Dior light suite, inspired by light therapy, which is billed to be a first in a Paris luxury hotel. Its ceiling can reproduce the sun’s light through LEDs diffusing natural light with intensities said to offer energizing, relaxing and restorative effects. The “Cronos Light,” created with Lucibel, is meant to resynchronize the circadian and chronobiological rhythms influencing people’s well-being.
Such light is used in three new tailor-made treatments at the spa, each of which lasts 105 minutes — a length similar to the ultradian cycle’s — and includes specific massage techniques.
The Recharge ritual, meant to energize, gleans inspiration from the light of dawn through to the midday sun, for instance, while the Recover ritual recreates the light of a full day and ends with a half-light to help with recovery and high-quality sleep, according to Dior.
The house recommends the light baths for jet lag recovery or to strengthen the skin and body against daily aggressions, such as pollution or stress. Each goes for 450 euros.
The brand will also offer a treatment developed exclusively for the space, called Dior Privé Sur-Demande, which can be used for the face or body. This protocol will be totally customized to each person and can combine electrostimulation and cryotherapy for the face. The body treatment, centered on detoxifying, includes draining massage strokes. The treatments run for 90 or 120 minutes, priced at 550 euros or 700 euros, respectively.
On the menu, as well, will be three, three-hour to three-hour-and-45-minute rituals made up of several treatments combined to target specific needs of the body, mind and face. There is the D-Stress therapy, D-Tox therapy and D-Bloat therapy, at 1,000 euros, 820 euros and 650 euros, respectively.
Other technologies to be employed in the spa include the Waves 21 machine, which gives metameric stimulation and cold treatment with violet LED, and Dior Sapphire Crystal Micro-Abrasion for the face. That mixes micro-dermabrasion with light stimulation. The Dior Soin is powered by Hydrafacial for deep cleansing, used with Dior Lotion Peeling Flora Face and Body, and Les Solutions Professionnelles, as well as manual techniques.
Other treatments include the hour-long Kobi-Dior expert facial protocol, for 260 euros, and the Miracle L’Or de Vie face and back treatment, which lasts for 90 minutes and costs 420 euros.
Le Grand Salon at the Dior spa is a lounge where people can relax. It houses a cabinet de curiosités devoted to well-being and serves vegetable juices created by Wild & the Moon, plus herbal teas and food supplements. Dior accessories are on offer there, too.
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