The year was 1947. Only a few months after moving his ateliers into the 1865 hôtel particulier on Paris’s 30 Avenue Montaigne, Christian Dior invigorated the fashion world by unveiling the New Look, a collection that transformed silhouettes forever. It’s been a legendary site ever since. To carry that famed heritage into modern-day retailing, the Dior brand has revitalized the space, emphasizing its role as a centre of craftsmanship. Originally comprised of ‘a tiny studio, a presentation room, a cabin, an executive office and six small fitting rooms’, Dior’s 30 Avenue Montaigne location has been a workplace to the house’s artisans, couturiers and embroiderers for the past seven decades. For the first time ever, it now hosts its jewellers as well. The space’s 2,000-sq-m boutique draws on the classical salon culture of 20th-century fashion. Architect Peter Marino devised a ‘kind of theatre or set design in which many different plays could unfold’. Marino referenced a mix of traditional French styles, from Versailles-inspired parquet flooring to décor recalling the era of Louis XVI. Flowers – one of Monsieur Dior’s greatest passions – feature prominently in the open-plan design, one example being the customized gilded elevator by Sophie Coryndon. Almost 100 different materials, including stone and textile, bedeck the interior, which is enhanced by photography, art and installations by the likes of Paul Cocksedge and Jennifer Steinkamp. The furniture selection ranges from chairs by Joaquim Tenreiro and Hans Olsen to Gio Ponti tables. In addition to work and retail spaces, the reimagined 30 Avenue Montaigne also hosts a restaurant, patisserie, café, three Peter Wirtz-conceived green spaces (one a luxurious rose garden) and gallery. The latter takes visitors on a fashion-history journey through Dior’s long-spanning legacy. Nathalie Crinière’s scenographic narrative for La Galerie Dior accentuates the novelty of being physically present at the place where Dior’s history began.