Chanel’s Dallas Homecoming

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On a stately, tree-lined street in Highland Park Village in Dallas, Texas, a cream-colored terracotta and stucco façade hints at the magic inside. From the street, mannequins draped in sunset-hued slouchy, camellia-adorned prints flank large, paneled windows, framed against black-and-white images of cypress trees. Today, Chanel reopens its doors after two years of construction.

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Built in the 1930s, the building’s interiors have been reimagined by longtime collaborator Peter Marino. Despite the two-story, 6,500-square-foot boutique’s large size, it retains an intimate and domestic feel. Rather than an open floor plan, nine salons are dedicated to fashion, watches and jewelry, and fragrance and beauty—and inviting couches and chairs in fabrics reminiscent of the label’s signature bouclé dot the rooms.

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The redesign is a nod to Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel’s intricately decorated second-floor apartment on rue Cambon in Paris, situated above her famed eponymous storefront where visitors included Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí. The French space, which captured the designer's many sources of inspiration, was filled floor-to-ceiling with exquisite objects of affection. Books lined the walls; artworks rested on tables. Opulent chandeliers hung from the ceilings. The couturier’s famous dislike of doors resulted in her interiors divided by ornate Chinese screens emblazoned with camellia flowers.

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In Dallas, a mate-black granite entryway greets visitors with a bronze commode designed by Marino himself along with an acrylic, oil-filled block by Andrei Molodkin, commissioned by Chanel. Nearby, handbags and accessories are displayed atop woven black-and-white rugs and inside glass-paned cabinets reminiscent of a kitchen counter.

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As visitors traverse the storefront, each room unfolds into warm, neutral tones with bursts of pink and yellow. The colors build into a crescendo on the second floor where three salons contain Chanel’s Spring-Summer 2024 Ready-to-Wear collection. A playful, sunlit world of head-to-toe floral prints, nautical stripes, and slouchy caftans imagined by creative director Virginie Viard, are drenched in the building’s natural light. 

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Throughout the hand-painted and upholstered walls, artworks curated by Marino play off the space and the designs that it holds. Works by artists Johan Creten, Heinz Mack, Vera Lutter, Mario Deluigi, François Morellet mingle with furniture and decorative arts  that span the Ming Dynasty to present day. There is an 18th-century Chinese Coromandel screen, custom upholstered Etere chairs from the ‘50s by Augusto Bozzi, and sculptural white-and-gold tables by Alasdair Cooke—and, of course, there are sculptures of lions, a motif that frequented the storied rue Cambon apartment (Coco was a Leo). In the spirit of the fashion house's founder, the Texas space invites visitors to pause, look around, and soak in its legacy, underscored in every carefully curated detail.

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Chanel’s Dallas boutique is located at 100 Highland Park Village #105, Dallas, TX 75205.