Inditex Shuffles Zara Home in Paris: Shuts Pop-Up, Unveils New Apartment on Rue du Bac

Zara Home is moving into the heart of Parisian design. After a year of testing with a temporary flagship store at 117 Rue du Bac, which has become one of the must-see destinations in the capital’s 7th arrondissement, the Inditex group’s brand has pulled down the shutter on the store. The space, located in a store owned by the luxury department store Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche, owned by the conglomerate LVMH, is currently empty. According to Modaes, the home and decoration chain of the Spanish group has already begun work to launch a new permanent establishment, just minutes from its ephemeral store on the Rive Gauche.

To the surprise of many of the residents and visitors to the emblematic bourgeois district of Haussmannian architecture, the imposing establishment located on the corner of number 117 of the street is now empty and devoid of any logo or reminiscence of the guest who brought it back to life after a long period of inactivity. “How is it possible that this store has closed? Si c’était ma-gni-fi-que!”, exclaimed a customer with a clear Parisian accent who was looking at the large windows with some disappointment.

Indeed, Zara Home’s rollout with the introduction of the premium concept The Apartment, for the first time abroad, had succeeded in seducing the local clientele with high purchasing power, accustomed to strolling around Kering’s headquarters, having coffee on Place Saint-Sulpice or doing their weekly shopping in the gourmet space of La Grande Épicerie.

However, Zara’s big bet had been announced, since its presentation, as a long-lasting pop-up flagship format, an unusual retail proposal that although it allowed Inditex to successfully sound out the potential of the market and the location, now leaves customers without its collections in the run-up to the Christmas campaign. In fact, the ephemeral flagship store had managed to become a community space in which experiences such as coffee, customization or chats coexisted through its three floors and 1,700 square meters of floor space. The store’s address even became a seal of identity, becoming the decorative element of mugs, T-shirts or stationery, turning the boutique into a space with its own merchandising.

Zara Home has lowered the shutter on its pop up store in Rue du Bac

Now the home and decoration chain is preparing to open a new permanent space just a few meters away, at number 83 of the same artery. The establishment, currently under construction and with access through an interior courtyard of Parisian air, has its opening scheduled for the first quarter of 2026, as confirmed by the company to Modaes. The new store will also maintain the El Apartamento concept, the brand’s most aspirational format, which mixes interior design, ready-to-wear and lifestyle in a domestic and curated environment. It will be the third store with this type of space, in addition to those already established in Zara stores in A Coruña and Serrano, in Madrid.

Pending the opening of the new Zara Home store on the Parisian Rive Gauche, whose distribution and total area are still unknown, the home brand will continue to operate in the French capital with six stores, including the flagship store located at number 2 Boulevard de la Madeleine.

The move culminates a quiet but steady repositioning strategy, in which Paris has become the key stage for raising the global perception of the group. If for two decades Zara and Zara Home have represented industrial efficiency and the global expansion of fast fashion, today Inditex is seeking a narrative of aesthetic legitimacy. And the Parisian square, the symbolic capital of luxury and design, is the place where that narrative is put to the test.

The Rue du Bac project is not an isolated event, but one more piece in Inditex’s global strategy to legitimize its brands in the universe of cultural luxury. Just a few weeks ago, sister brand Zara celebrated its 50th anniversary with a luxury pop-up at 40 avenue Georges V, curated by Sarah Andelman, founder of Colette and a benchmark in contemporary retail. For the initiative, the brand brought together fifty figures from fashion and global culture, from Rosalia and Pedro Almodovar to Pierpaolo Piccioli, Annie Leibovitz and Marc Newson, presenting a collection of objects and garments in edition.Zara’s aim is to speak the same language as the maisons, linking its brand to creativity and demonstrating that it can operate in the field of culture, not only in distribution.

From The Conran to Zara Home: a symbolic takeover

The parallel between Zara’s pop-up store on the Champs Elysées and Zara Home’s flagship store on the Rive Gauche is obvious. If Avenue Georges V serves as a dialogue with luxury fashion, Rue du Bac represents the gateway to high-end design and decoration. There, in May 2024, Zara Home took over from the historic The Conran Shop, with an “ephemeral laboratory” that functioned as a showcase for Zara Home’s new creative direction, sober, tactile and focused on experience. During its year of operation, the flagship store functioned more as a manifesto than a store, despite being one of the key stores for the group’s turnover in the French market.

In collaboration with Vincent Van Duysen, Belgian architect and creative director of Molteni&C, and Patrick Seguin Gallery, Zara Home installed furniture pieces, ceramics and art books in an environment that moved between showroom and home gallery. The café, managed by Dose, and the ephemeral flower shop by Nina Charles completed an unusual sensory experience in the Inditex universe.

The choice of neighborhood was not accidental. Rue du Bac is one of the most symbolic arteries of a high-income, diplomatic and cultural area where luxury is lived with discretion. It is home to Ligne Roset, Silvera, Cassina, Boffi|DePadova and Maison Sarah Lavoine, as well as the historic Deyrolle and the Carré Rive Gauche galleries, which since the 1970s have brought together antique dealers, artists and international collectors.

The departure of The Conran Shop at the end of 2023 had left a symbolic void in that Parisian design ecosystem. The entry of Zara Home was not perceived as a rupture, but as a continuity adapted to its time, representing a new interpretation of accessible, more experiential design, which updated the heritage of The Conran.

The Spanish group Inditex closed the first quarter with a 1.5% increase in sales, up to €8.274 billion, and a 0.3% increase in net profit, which stood at €1.3 billion. The evolution marked a more moderate pace than in the same period of 2024, when the world’s leading fashion retailer increased its sales by 7.5% and its net income by 9%.