Longchamp’s SoHo Flagship Revamp Is About Energy and Plenty of Art

PARIS – What’s a good reason to go to a store?

As far as Longchamp‘s chief executive office Jean Cassegrain is concerned, a great product is a good start but isn’t enough.

That notion influenced the revamp of the French brand’s flagship in the SoHo neighborhood of New York City, unveiled Tuesday.

At a time where e-commerce reigns supreme, “there are many other ways to access the product that are going to be more convenient than coming into the city and going down to Spring Street,” he told WWD. “So we want to make it worth the trip for you.”

There’s nowhere it’ll be more visible than in the 9,000-square-foot industrial loft, built in 1936, located at 132 Spring Street that’s been home to Longchamp since 2006.

Exhibit A: the new zingy green livery on the facade and the dramatic staircase, a cascade of 55 tons of steel ribbons that connect the street level to the second floor imagined almost two decades ago by British designer Thomas Heatherwick.

Green spills from the columns and onto swirling rugs, telegraphing the act of pouring paint from top to bottom. Shelving units look like giant slats curving down from the ceiling, giving a peek at the industrial-style equipment tucked above.

Dotted around are eye-catchers ranging from a 1970s croissant-shaped couch by renowned French designer Raphaël Raffel, midcentury modern furniture that includes a table by Gio Ponti from 1948 — the year Longchamp was created — to graffiti by French artist André Saraiva. Also featured are works by British sculptor David Nash, French ceramicist Nitsa Meletopoulos, and American visual artist and designer Bobby Silverman.

While there are no plans for a formal lifestyle component such as a café, the brand has activations in the works coming this summer.

The studio behind the redesign that took six months to complete is Heatherwick, which was already behind the store’s 2006 incarnation.

Although much has happened in 19 years, from changing retail expectations to fresh brand codes for the 77-year-old French company, “there’s no one else than Thomas [Heatherwick] we would have approached,” Cassegrain told WWD.

“[This] is not just a boutique, it’s really a design project, a design piece and is probably one of the most designed boutiques in New York City,” he said. “So you can only ask the original designer to update it if you want to be loyal to him and faithful to [the] original ideal.”

For Heatherwick, writing a second chapter to the original design “is a story of reuse, combining special materials and new moments of joy and surprise, while being deeply rooted in history,” he said in an email.

“The world of shops is typically extremely wasteful, as retailers come and go, and interiors get repeatedly ripped out and replaced,” the designer said. “So it’s been a precious treat, after almost 20 years since we first built it, to have a chance to refresh, strengthen and re-clarify our original Longchamp ‘Maison Unique’ store.”

The SoHo redesign is a major milestone following the COVID-19 years, a challenging time for a brand centered around travel. “During almost 19 months, there was no movement, no travel,” recalled Cassegrain. “So we suffered a lot and we’ve taken the time to rethink a lot of things.”

What emerged was a need to clarify the brand’s identity in a much clearer way. Among the evolutions was a new retail concept that started to roll out in 2022, leaning on the codes of Parisian apartments and Longchamp’s heritage embodied by objects and artworks from its archives.

“Because we’ve been around for a long time, there were maybe layers upon layers of preconceived ideas about the brand and we have decided to package our story in a way that is more efficient, more readable for the customer,” in collections, retail as well as communication, he said. “And at some point, the customer perceives that and it yields some results in terms in sale.”

While the privately owned company does not communicate its turnover, it said that sales in 2024 had set a new record, with a 20 percent growth year-on-year. Europe leapt 33 percent and South Korea nearly doubled, while the U.S. rose 27 percent.

The North American market, which includes the U.S. and Canada, accounts for around 10 percent of the business, Cassegrain said during the interview. And American clients also purchase the brand in Europe and other destinations — as they have for decades.

Longchamp’s international expansion began in the wake of World War Two, when young Americans stationed to Paris purchased its products. The brand followed home, where it has enjoyed a continuous presence since the 1950s.

But while its history or SoHo store’s unique features are great conversation starters, the brand’s key to success remains what Cassegrain described as “a sensible approach,” which means doing “nice product and to price them fairly” in his opinion.

And that covers how Longchamp is handling the new U.S. tariffs, still under rapid and ongoing development. Prior to the April 2 announcement by President Trump, its products were already subject to duties that ranged between 8 and 18 percent depending on the product.

On June 1, the French brand’s prices in the U.S. will rise by 6 percent, to account for the additional duties but also a weaker U.S. dollar.

“It’s a rather cautious increase,” the executive said. “If needed we will increase our prices again [in following seasons] but always with in mind a balanced approach.”

Befitting the family business’ roots in travel, Cassegrain is a staunch believer that anything that impedes the circulation of people and goods is detrimental to the Longchamp’s “good product at an acceptable price” ethos — and across the board.

“I’m hopeful that this whole episode will end up showing that it does not work, and that tariffs are not good for anyone,” he said. “Even in Europe, the political world is more and more for closed borders, which I find very sad, and I hope that [this] will show that closing borders is not the solution to anything.”