The History of Le Bon Marché
Le Bon Marché is the most selective department store in Paris. It is the only store on the Left Bank of Paris, as well as the oldest in both the city and the world.
Aristide Boucicaut challenged traditional commerce. He invented his own concepts: seasonal fashion, sales, and stock renewal. He and his wife provided their innovating employees to a day of paid leave weekly, medical assistance, and a pension fund.
The myth of the elegant, seductive, independent "Parisienne" is a dream come true. The teams became more feminized, with women flocking from all over France to apply as salespeople. Wives dared to leave their homes without their husbands.
As an architect, Boucicaut chose L.A. Boileau and Gustave Eiffel as an engineer, two pioneers in the functional use of iron and glass in architecture. Iron made it possible to install the expansive bay windows, with glass allowing an abundance of natural light to flood in into the building.
In 1984 Bernard Arnault purchased Bon Marché and in 1987 the company became a founding member of Arnault’s group LVMH.
Built on the model of Aristide Boucicaut's Bon Marché, Zola wrote ‘Au bonheur des Dames’, a French classic aimed at the population bourgeoise and offered goods at a fixed price, created in industrial quantities. Zola's intentions regarding his novel are clear: it is a question of telling the story of an immense establishment from its birth to its final expansion, of showing how, little by little, it nibbles away at the surrounding businesses, but also of painting the milieu of employees of both sexes in their swarming.
Parisian architecture recreated in gold
A beautiful walk across the river from the iconic Bon Marché, lies Avenue des Pyramides. A beautifully designed Parisian street, Cassandra became inspired by Avenue des Pyramides' ornate doorhandles on every door. After a typical Parisian day of shopping at the Bon Marché and wandering down the elegant residential streets of the 1st arrondissement, Cassandra sat down at a café with a coffee and drew a sketch for a bracelet which would become her iconic Avenue des Pyramides design.
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