Caron's Paris flagship is built around a full-height perfume fountain

Briefed through artistic director Olivia de Rothschild, layering house heritage, the Art Deco era and Caron's history with artistic glass — but the instruction was blunt: a space for smelling.

A full-height fountain of hand-frosted, back-lit fluted glass tubes filled with the house's perfumes — display, light and bottle-refill ritual in one centrepiece.

Art Deco stepped walls and columns lined in stainless steel treated to blur reflections, lighting run as one continuous wall band, and a three-zone plan crowned by the Atelier Blam-built fountain; a stair leads up to a first-floor VIP room.

The store opened as Caron's flagship at 332 Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris, turning the house's signature bottle-refilling service into the centrepiece of the retail experience.

Caron, founded in 1904 and billed as Paris's oldest perfume house, opened a new store at 332 Rue Saint-Honoré designed by Casper Mueller Kneer Architects, the London and Berlin practice better known for runway sets for Saint Laurent, Loewe and Celine. The brief came through the house's artistic director, Olivia de Rothschild, and layered house heritage, the Art Deco era and Caron's long relationship with artistic glass — yet the instruction was blunt: a space for smelling, with nothing to distract.

Inside, everything pulls upward. Walls and columns step in and out in true Art Deco fashion with display folded into the articulation; stainless steel lines the space, treated to reflect without forming clear images, so the bottles' coloured contents staggered up the walls appear as soft, hazy smudges. Lighting is built into the walls as one continuous band, mirrors carry the room onward, and the monochrome shell only comes alive through the perfume and light — set-design thinking: build the stage, then let the product perform.

The centrepiece is the fountain. Refilling bottles is part of Caron's signature service, and here the ritual becomes a full-height sculpture: bundles of hand-frosted, fluted glass tubes arranged in a circle, back-lit and filled with the house's perfumes, engineered and fabricated by Atelier Blam, drawing on Art Deco chandeliers and the house's artisanal glassmaking. It serves as light, display and service point in one, anchoring a three-zone plan with Collection Merveilleuse and Pour un Homme at the front and back, cash desks and archive walls to the rear, and a stair up to a VIP space.

Caron's refilling service is a signature ritual, so the architects made it the literal centrepiece instead of hiding it at a counter.

The brief demanded a space for smelling with nothing to distract, which pushed the design into restraint: monochrome steel, light built into walls, product as the only color.

Set-design instincts carried over from Casper Mueller Kneer's runway work for Saint Laurent, Loewe and Celine — build the stage, let the product perform.

In a store built for smelling, the product is invisible until sprayed — so the design makes the liquid itself the ornament: coloured perfume as the only color in a monochrome steel shell.

The store operates as Caron's flagship at 332 Rue Saint-Honoré, with Collection Merveilleuse and Pour un Homme flanking the entrance, archive walls and cash desks to the rear, and a first-floor VIP space above.