La Saga des grands magasins

Exhibition at the Cité de l'architecture et du patrimoine, Paris, 6 November 2024 - 6 April 2025

The birth of department stores and their golden age (1850-1930) has often aroused keen interest and fascinated the imagination. Yet their story has rarely been told over the long term, right up to the present day, and internationally, taking into account the economic, political, sociological, cultural and artistic aspects. This is the aim of this catalogue, with its multidisciplinary contents illustrated by paintings, prints, photographs and archives, some of which have never been seen before.

The book sheds light on the spread of department stores in a colonial and non-European context, examines the representations of shopkeepers and employees, looks at consumer trends from the Second Empire to the emergence of e-commerce, and looks at the relationship between department stores and the development of shopping, the art of window displays, the spread of ready-to-wear clothing, advertising and cinema. These themes are structured through the prism of the history of architecture: buildings designed to dazzle, places for staging and living, department stores shape cities and society, establishing themselves as temples of consumption and emotion.