PARIS — Back in 2011, when Alexandre Mattiussi visited a compact office space on 9 Place des Victoires, he was yet to launch Ami Paris.
Fast-forward 15 years and that building is now home to Ami’s expansive headquarters. The brand held its spring 2026 show on the elegant city square, with models taking a turn around the statue of Louis XIV at the center.
On Friday, Ami will open its latest store there, too.
Located at 4 Place des Victoires, the 2,000-square-foot unit will offer a preview of the fall 2026 collection as well as a selection of vintage design pieces and photographs curated by Mattiussi. In addition to the ground-floor retail space, there is also 1,550-square-foot showroom on the second floor at the same address.
For the Ami founder and creative director, seeing it from his office window is a thrilling full-circle moment.
“Just like [Yves] Saint Laurent who dreamt of seeing his golden letters shine on the Champs-Élysées, I can see mine across the Place des Victoires,” he enthused. “It’s rather magical, one of the highlights of my personal and professional life.”
Owing to its particular location — the first Ami presentation was also on a nearby street — Mattiussi intends the new door to be at once congruent with his “neighborhood store” retail concept but also a laboratory of sorts to test new projects or capsules.
In that, the two-section layout will be put to good use to “make this store come alive in spontaneous and regular ways,” particularly the part that will be made to feel like “a permanent pop-up,” the designer said.
Wide street-level windows give a glimpse of concrete walls, light-toned hardwood floors and dark oak furniture. In the middle of the open-plan layout is a lounge with plush seating under a glass skylight.
Mattiussi also plans to make good use of the address’ two-section layout to “make this store come alive in spontaneous and regular ways.” To welcome summer, the brand has invited Italian ice cream maker Sammontana, which will be handing out cones to visitors from June 27.
The same ideas of flexibility apply to the showroom, where he intends to hold private events throughout the year, with sheer curtains and wheeled furniture helping switch things around rapidly.
“The idea is to have that spirit of sharing and say, ‘thank you for being a friend,’” Mattiussi said, referencing the tag line marking the brand’s anniversary. “Sometimes, that means doing things that don’t have a commercial, interested aim.”
Still, “true to the house philosophy, we don’t open a space if we don’t think it will reach break-even,” said Ami’s chief executive officer Nicolas Santi-Weil.
While the Place des Victoires store is “a store that is a little different and tells the [Ami] story,” he and Mattiussi are staunch believers in synergies and have seen a new clientele emerge in the Place des Victoires area, where a crop of fashion brands and specialty coffee shops has cropped up.
Inside the new Ami store in Paris
Alice Mesguich/Courtesy of Ami Paris
A luxury hotel is set to open across the street from the Ami headquarters in the midterm, another element that had the CEO estimating that the store will break even “relatively quickly.”
Santi-Weil said the opening comes as the brand is “growing, with strong retail and website momentum” despite tougher online competition. Although he did not share figures for the fiscal year 2025, which ended in February, he described “a positive momentum overall,” including in China, which returned to growth.
Meanwhile, France, and Paris in particular, remains the fourth-largest market overall, behind China, Japan and South Korea.
