The Dior Rodeo Drive Flagship

A few weeks after creative director Raf Simons made his ready-to-wear runway debut for the French fashion house, Christian Dior raised the curtains last Thursday on a completely renovated Rodeo Drive flagship.

Dior has a long history on Rodeo Drive, where it has operated the 5,000-square-foot location on the prestigious 300 block since 1990. The company’s chief executive officer Sidney Toledano suggested the store is more important than ever as the profile of Los Angeles rises.

Architect Peter Marino compared the decor to a private home or apartment with an incredible collection of furniture and art — more than 20 pieces are situated throughout the store.

The store is divided into five salons. The front one, which has a towering ceiling, houses handbags, small leather goods and watches. The room features a film of Dior in various settings, a bench of interlocking ginko leaves made out of aluminum by French artist Claude Lalanne and a rotating chandelier by Lee Bul with crystal, glass, steel, aluminum, acrylic and wire.

The center of the store has a salon dedicated to shoes and another dedicated to a bag bar with exotic and specialty bags, and other novelty accessories. Art in those salons includes a piece on the ceiling by Rob Wynne of hand-poured mirrored glass in a cosmic pattern, a tapestry by Pae White that resembles crushed foil and wall-mounted, hand-blown, dented silver mirrored glass by Jeff Zimmerman.

The salon with RTW currently has the cruise collection, and the fine jewelry salon is at the back of the store. A VIP area is on the second floor. Some of the pieces contained in those rooms are a couch crafted out of nickels by Johnny Swing, a desk lamp and mirror by Veronique Rivemale, a stainless steel sculpture by Joel Morrison and a fireplace by Juan and Paloma Garrido topped with framed pictures of Christian Dior and Princess Margaret to foster the store’s hominess.