A PRINCESS IN PARIS: Sirivannavari, the high-end label based by Thai princess Sirivannavari Nariratana, is touchdown at Galeries Lafayette Haussmann for a spring pop-up.
The 320-square-foot house, situated on the second flooring of the Parisian division retailer’s major constructing, opened Wednesday and runs via Might 27.
It affords the model’s spring 2025 ready-to-wear, which takes its cues from the Italian Renaissance and luminaries resembling Michelangelo and Botticelli for its sinuous curves, graphic traces and filmy transparencies. Complementing these seems are equipment starting from purses to footwear.
For the Thai royal, who holds a masters’ diploma in design from L’École de la Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne, now the Institut Français de la Mode, opening a pop-up in Paris is a milestone she’s lengthy been dreaming of.
Though the model was established in 2005 and made its first worldwide foray with a pop-up at La Rinascente in 2016, it was 4 years in the past that Nariratana really put Paris in her sights.
“It’s the Olympics for style and its largest [arena] additionally,” she informed WWD in an unique interview. “Like sports activities, we needed to prepare up for this.”
Sirivannavari Nariratana
Punsiri Siriwetchapun / Courtesy Sirivannavari
The primary order of enterprise for the model was bolstering its ladies’s and menswear repertoire, creating two full-fledged collections a 12 months for every. For fall 2023, it staged an intimate presentation throughout Paris Trend Week, showcasing them alongside a compact providing of leather-based items, eyewear and swimwear types.
Whereas Nariratana stated she “places the princess cap away” when engaged on the model as its artistic director and prefers the ensuing designs do the speaking, she’s keenly conscious of her standing and the obligations that include it.
Instructing is vital for the Thai royal, who takes specific satisfaction in sharing data with courses starting from first 12 months of college to Ph.D. ranges. In reality, “I choose being known as ‘Professor’ than princess,” she stated.
Like her grandmother, Queen Mom Sirikit, whose royal patronage targeted on the preservation of the nation’s silk and conventional handwoven textiles, Nariratana too intends to leverage her place as a royal — and the Sirivannavari model — to pave the way in which.
“I informed my workforce [that] we convey all this data from Europe however don’t neglect we’ve Thai data additionally,” she stated. Thai silk, specifically, at all times seems in every assortment, whereas conventional components are infused as discreet touches resembling draping.
Extra experimental instructions additionally come into play, resembling the usage of ocean plastic, a blight Nariratana is keenly conscious of as a diver.
It’s a stability that has labored nicely for the model.
Gross sales are within the excessive seven-figure vary in euros and the corporate expects to develop 7 % this 12 months. It has caught the attention of a youthful demographic and worldwide shoppers are within the majority.
Headcount sits round 90, with a core design workforce of seven. That’s with out counting the embroidery division, which is related to a college Nariratana dubbed “a mini Lesage” with a robust deal with transmission.
In Bangkok, the model presently has two shops, within the Siam Paragon procuring complicated and the journey retail hub King Energy Rangnam, a downtown vacation spot for duty-free procuring.
Plans for a 3rd tackle in Emporium, a luxurious mall within the Khlong Toei district, are underway.
In the meantime, the Thai royal stated a excessive jewellery line was within the works, slated to be unveiled in 2026. She can also be weighing up an growth into hospitality, with maybe a café.
