Cult shoe designer Nina Christen opens her first Paris store

When Nina Christen imagined the dream location for her eponymous label’s flagship store in Paris, she hoped for somewhere like Rue de la Paix. The Swiss designer, who launched Christen in 2024, describes the historic part of the city as somewhat ‘mythical’. It was an easy decision, then, when 1 Rue de la Paix became available. ‘Everything is a sign, and it’s a beautiful, significant address in itself,’ she says.

The newly opened Christen store is probably unlike anything that storied Parisian street has seen before. Its deceptively simple design favours materials like concrete and chrome, with adaptable elements that can evolve as the brand does: currently Christen’s primary offering is a collection of covetable shoes and a leather bag, with more accessories, ready-to-wear and fine jewellery planned for the not-too-distant future.

Before stepping into the spotlight with her own label in 2024, Christen honed her craft designing footwear for fashion houses like Loewe and Bottega Veneta – and continues to do so, currently holding the position of design director of shoes at Dior, working with Jonathan Anderson. (We speak the day after Dior’s A/W26 show, where she was behind the lily-pad stilettos, polka-dot pumps and other much-documented styles.)

It is under her name, though, that Christen is able to execute her own meticulous vision. This encapsulates her compellingly off-kilter shoes – think heeled sandals lined with goat shearling, or knee-high tabi boots in skin-tight leather – and everything that surrounds them, from highly considered packaging to campaigns and now physical retail. ‘I’m obsessed with concept-building around the product,’ she explains. ‘When I was imagining the whole brand, a space was always part of it. A space can valorise a product in a different way.’ The architectural plans of 1 Rue de la Paix revealed original arches that had been covered by new walls. ‘For me, it’s not about embellishing. We were able to take these walls away, so this classical arched structure would resurface, which I find extremely beautiful. It was about respecting the space rather than transforming it into something that it is not.’

For Christen, who collaborated with multi-disciplinary artist Azadeh Shladovsky on the interior architecture, the result ‘creates a dialogue between the product and the space’. ‘The collection is extremely refined, but because it is 100 per cent made by hand at every stage, there are always imperfections – to me, that is the definition of luxury. I want to show the natural beauty – that the leather is a living material that evolves with time, and it can have imperfections.’ Within the restrained, stripped-back store, Christen’s shoes exist in a sculptural yet adaptable environment. ‘To me it was important to blur the lines between furniture and the space itself. I like when things are multi-use – when something can be a bench, a table, a podium.’ Looking ahead, clothing will slot seamlessly, if unexpectedly, in too. Rather than separate changing rooms, ‘an area can be transformed into a dressing room’ with a swathe of curtains. ‘You really do feel like the whole space is yours.’