No New Yorker could get lost on the way to One Wall Street, a 50-story skyscraper located at the intersection of the iconic American financial street and Broadway. Erected in 1931, it is one of the splendors of the southern Manhattan business district – an Art Deco jewel similar to the Empire State Building or the Chrysler Building, filled with offices and apartments. Its lobby once housed the vast reception hall of a bank.

Nicknamed the "Red Room" due to its blood-red tiled walls and intertwined golden lines, it had been inaccessible and abandoned for decades. So, on the evening of March 21, the first guests to discover the renovated grand hall were amazed. Even the unflappable Anna Wintour, editorial director of the Condé Nast publishing group, whose offices are nearby, seemed impressed.

On this first day of spring, it is fitting that Printemps should open its doors in this celebrated New York building. The French department store chain previously did not have a location in the city. And even if many attendees struggled to pronounce its name correctly, the atmosphere was cheerful. A joy that would be dampened 10 days later, on April 2, when Donald Trump announced increased tariffs and a 20% tax on European products. But on March 21 in the Red Room, there was still hope that the American president would not follow through and that the global economy would not falter.

Drawing rooms, bathrooms, alcoves

With optimism, the brand – part of the Qatari investment fund Disa, which also owns the One Wall Street building – took "a first step in America," smiled its president, Jean-Marc Bellaiche, in early March. He described "the obviousness of the location" for what "is not a department store" (the phrase "Not a department store" was even tagged by an artist at the entrance), but rather "a pied-à-terre" spanning 5,000 square meters – 10 times smaller than the flagship store on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris's 9^th arrondissement. It features five dining areas, as well as accessories, ready-to-wear and beauty products.

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