Washington, D.C., Gets a Style Injection With a Bigger Chanel Store

Ritu Upadhyay
·3 min read
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The Washington, D.C., area is getting another new style destination with the opening of Chanel’s revamped boutique at Tysons Galleria Mall.

Designed by longtime Chanel collaborator Peter Marino, the new 5,000-square-foot boutique more than triples the size of the previous one, which first opened at the mall in 2004. The new location showcases the full scope of the brand’s offerings, incorporating 10 different dedicated salon spaces that showcase fashion, watches and fine jewelry, fragrance and beauty.

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“We want our clients to enjoy that experience of feeling immersed in the Chanel environment when they come to shop with us,” said Rebekah McCabe, Chanel’s general manager for fashion for the U.S.

The Tysons Galleria boutique is one of two in the Washington area. “There is a unique style-oriented community in Washington, D.C., that loves fashion and is loyal to the brand. Our client in D.C. has a very unique day-to-day life. They are involved in the arts and local initiatives while also having big roles in leadership and in the C-suite. The Tysons boutique really gives us the ability to service them in the way their lifestyle needs.”

The boutique’s warm neutral tones punctuated by gold and black with custom woven textiles in metallics and rich brown create a backdrop for an exceptional collection of art.  In an homage to Gabrielle Chanel’s love of the arts, Marino chose furniture, paintings and sculptures for the boutique that reflect what she might have had in her legendary apartment on Paris’ Rue Cambon, long a source of inspiration for the brand’s stores worldwide.

One of the women’s salons in the new boutique.

Mixing together modern art with antiques, the pieces are placed throughout the boutique.  Inside the ready-to-wear salons’ trial rooms, clients can enjoy works by Peter Dayton, painter Alastair Gordon and abstract expressionist Agnes Martin. Custom lighting throughout the boutique was designed by Parisian goldsmith and longtime Chanel partner Goossens.

The watch and fine jewelry area in the new store.

One of the architectural highlights of the space is its textured and pleated stone wall, an element that ties together stylistically with the brand’s other D.C. area boutique at City Center, which features a similar one. “This is such a dynamic market and having two strong points of sales in the area, between Tysons and City Center, is much needed,” said McCabe. She noted that each boutique complements the other. “Tysons services more of a local client while City Center also attracts tourist traffic.”

Chanel’s investment in Washington extends beyond its retail offerings to include culture-oriented partnerships. The company’s annual women’s luncheon at the Hirshhorn Museum is one of the most anticipated events on the capital’s spring social calendar. The house also partnered this month with the National Portrait Gallery to sponsor the “Brilliant Exiles:  American Women in Paris, 1900-1939” exhibition.

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