WWD
On the eve of opening of RH’s first Paris gallery, Gary Friedman issued a heartfelt message to the city and its people. “In Paris, the measure is eternity and we have built accordingly,” a video message read, with images of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame the Arc de Triomphe floating by with emotional music in the background.
On Friday, the Corte Madera, Calif.-based furniture and interior design firm officially opened the gilded gold leaf gates of its latest jewel, RH Paris, the Gallery on the Champs-Élysées: A New hub for Architecture, Design, Food and Wine.
Since taking over RH in 2001, then a trusted U.S.-based furniture business, Friedman has worked to transform it into a luxury experience. Everything, he said, has been leading up to this moment. Friedman slept three hours the night before, in preparation for the unveiling of his biggest feat yet.
“It’s the most dominant country for luxury brands, the most dominant, influential country from a culinary point of view and its impacts. It is the place where you come to do your best work,” he told WWD in an interview, highlighting RH’s luxury positioning and the store’s proximity to the pillars of the European luxury market.
Located just off the Avenue Montaigne, the building was finished in 1983 and was once the flagship location of Abercrombie & Fitch.
“It was always our vision to open [in Europe] with Paris. And the logic behind that is based on a quote from Bernard Arnault, when he was asked, ‘how do you build a great brand in China?’ And his answer was, you build great stores in Paris, London and New York. And so we’re doing it in a bit of a different order,” he said, noting that the New York City gallery was opened first. The six-level, 90,000-square-foot RH Gallery, at 9 Ninth Avenue in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District with its rooftop restaurant with views downtown to the Freedom Tower, set the tone when it opened in 2018.
RH Paris, the Gallery on the Champs-Élysées.
Paul Fogiel/WWD
The Paris opening is a milestone for the company, historically and architecturally. The structure itself is majestic. A freestanding building on three sides, visitors follow a crushed limestone path to a secret garden where ivy-covered walls and sculpted trees frame the six-meter cast medallion bronze doors marking the entrance to the Parisian store of what has become one of the largest residential design firms in the world. Inside, walls are adorned with inlaid brass and white onyx mosaic, framing a three-dimensional image of Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, which is present in many RH Galleries and represents the RH design ethos.
Vitruvius, a Roman architect and engineer whose work from the first century BC is said to have inspired da Vinci’s drawing of the “Vitruvian Man” 1,500 years later and has been a guiding inspiration for Friedman along his own path.
“Our design principles and ethos go all the way back to the teachings of Vitruvius. We believe that the most pleasing design is a reflection of human design, a study of balance, symmetry and human proportions. And he believed that beauty is produced by pleasing appearance and good taste, with everything integrated. And so everything that we do, we think of the need to integrate things seamlessly so it’s one thing,” he mused.
When asked how RH will fit into the Parisian design community, brimming with interior design studios and signature flair, he’s confident, as one of the biggest one-stop interior design businesses in the world with everything from landscape architecture to bathrooms under its umbrella, that the brand has a lot to offer. RH may not have the European flair Paris does, but it’s able to undertake residential projects like no other businesses. It was also no mistake that RH decided to open the space during Paris Design Week, which started Thursday and will run until Sept. 13.
“I think the biggest advantage we have from an interior design point of view is that most interior design businesses are not consumer-facing. There aren’t really storefronts for interior designers on streets that people see. We’ve got an incredible physical platform that we’re building. And that physical platform is based in great architecture, great interior design and great landscape architecture. We have a physical manifestation of what we do. And most interior designers don’t have that,” he said, adding that the RH Paris Gallery invites the design community to explore the RH world.
“It’s probably the largest assortment of product at our quality level in the world. And it’s not just sofas or not just lighting,” he continued.
A coffee table by French architect and designer Thierry Lemaire has been added to the array of furnishings that includes everything from bathware to garden pieces. RH’s roster of designers includes Sydney’s Nicholas and Harrison Condos, Los Angeles-based designer Ann Marie Vering and Spanish designer Mario Ruiz.
The new Vao coffee table by French architect and designer Thierry Lemaire features prominently among the many contemporary furnishings, lighting and unique art and sculpture at RH Paris, The Gallery on the Champs-Élysées.
Paul Fogiel/WWD
As a museum-like space brimming with rare works, the gallery has a lot to offer the design-curious. Inside the Architecture and Design Bibliotheca, guests are privy to rare books by cultural masters, including Vitruvius, da Vinci, Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, French architect and writer Philibert de l’Orme, French philosopher Maurice Blondel and French administrator Georges-Eugène Haussmann, who was responsible for Paris’ modern urban transformation. At the center of the library lies one of the first modern printings of “De Architectura, the Ten Books on Architecture” by Vitruvius, which was produced around 1521.
The Gallery, spanning seven levels, is connected by a soaring atrium of floating cast medallion stairs. In the center of it lies the cast bronze Caryatid, circa 1870, attributed to French sculptor Louis-Félix Chabaud, who is renowned for his sculptures at the Louvre and the Palais Garnier opera house. An emblem of strength, grace and ingenuity, a harmony between art and engineering, it serves as a centerpiece and symbol of RH’s desire to connect and create harmony between the brand and the people of Paris.
One of the first modern printings of “De Architectura, the Ten Books on Architecture” by Vitruvius, which was produced around 1521.
Paul Fogiel/WWD
The dining section includes Le Petit RH, an upscale restaurant envisaged as a jewel box, featuring a menu of caviar specialties, small plates, signature salads and seafood towers. Clad with champagne lacquered walls with a sparkling ceiling of more than 7,000 individually handblown glass polyhedrons, it boasts views of the Eiffel Tower, Grand Palais and the Pyramid at the Louvre. Friedman explained that architects Foster & Partners designed a retractable 15-foot elevator that comes up and disappears to avoid blocking its neighbors’ views of the Eiffel Tower.
RH worked with Foster & Partners on select areas of RH Paris and will be again partnering with the architectural firm for the opening of RH London in 2026.
Le Jardin RH is located on the second-floor terrace and sits under a curved glass-and-steel structure inspired by the Grand Palais and offers a menu of American and Mediterranean classics.
On the third floor sits the World of RH Bar & Lounge, a physical and digital immersion into the places and spaces that define the brand while enjoying a glass of wine or a craft cocktail by famed mixologist Colin Field.
RH Paris, the Gallery on the Champs-Élysées.
Paul Fogiel/WWD
The RH galleries have been a winning concept, boosting its European revenues. RH England, The Gallery at Aynho Park — a 73-acre, 17th-century estate opened in 2023 — is testament to that success, he said, noting that it generated $46 million in total demand in its second full year. This bodes well for all new galleries, including the upcoming London Gallery in Mayfair and the one in Milan, which is set to open during Salone del Mobile.Milano in 2026.
“If an RH Gallery in the English countryside, with an estimated population of 100,000 in a 10-mile radius two hours outside of London, can generate $46 million…what can an RH Gallery in the center of Mayfair, the most exclusive shopping district in London with a population of 9.7 million, do in its second full fiscal year?” the CEO asked.
RH’s expansion strategy is focused on taking market share despite macro headwinds. Moving forward, the company will open seven to nine new galleries a year, despite the unpredictable market conditions. China for now isn’t in the cards, he said.
“But, you know, and I think that’s just, it’s not, I don’t think it’s necessarily, you know, are we rushing to go to China? Not necessarily. We’re not rushing to go to Russia either, right? There’s political instability in a lot of places in the world right now with tension. And so I think we’ll let things, you know, kind of cool down politically, you know, let the geopolitical stuff get worked out, whether it’s worked out in this current administration or next administration,” he said, adding that U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade policy and his announcement regarding further tariffs on furniture makers is an incredible challenge for the industry as a whole.
“You’ll start to feel it in the second half of this year. You’ll feel it more in the fourth quarter than the third quarter. You’ll really start feeling it in the first quarter of next year. And by the second quarter of next year, you’ll feel it at about 80 percent,” he said. RH remains one of the largest upscale furniture and home businesses in the world and posted $3.18 billion in net revenues in 2024.
“And so who knows what the world’s going to look like. I think right now you’ve got to pray for peace and plan for war. I don’t mean war from a militaristic point of view, or even from a financial point of view. There’s never been this much chaos in business in my entire career,” he said.