The team at the Cité de la Mode et du Design envisions and produces a creative schedule of events built around innovation, culture, and style. Exhibitions, installations, and performances are created to help you discover talent: artists, designers, fashion designers, photographers, architects, graphic artists, and landscape designers
A beacon of the new 13th arrondissement/Paris Left Bank development and conservation zone, the Cité de la Mode et du Design is a symbol of Paris as a city in perpetual motion, eclectic and creative. This place stands out with its unique mix of professional and public, culture, entertainment, educational, or leisure events.
Each year is structured around three major axes:
In the springtime, it’s about photography
For summer, a themed, participatory, interactive exhibition
And in winter, a voyage of discovery of a country through its culture.
Throughout the year, botanical installations are in bloom at the Cité, both as part of the exhibitions presented, or on their own.
The team at the Cité de la Mode et du Design envisions and produces a creative schedule of events built around innovation, culture, and style. Exhibitions, installations, and performances are created to help you discover talent: artists, designers, fashion designers, photographers, architects, graphic artists, and landscape designers.
A 15,000 sqm city within the city, the Cité hosts unique, inspiring venues. Club kids, students, families, athletes, professionals, art and design lovers…the Cité welcomes nearly 1.5 million visitors each year.
On the Quai (Riverbank), the Piazza, or the Rooftop, clubs/restaurants Garage, Nuits Fauves, Wanderlust, Communion and Café Oz Rooftop reign supreme over Parisian nights, with their cutting-edge programming and unique ambiance. On the passageways, over the Seine, the DAD restaurant offers delicious gourmet hot dogs with that extra touch of French savoir-faire.
Institut Français de la Mode
As a State-certified higher learning institution and center for professional development and expertise for the textile, fashion, luxury, and design industries, the IFM (Institut Français de la Mode) chose to settle in at the Cité starting in 2008.
Founded in 2013, Art Ludique - Le Musée advocates art’s role in entertainment, through two annual exhibitions dedicated to artists in comics, manga, film, animation, and video games.
In 1907, the Port of Paris requested a design for industrial warehouses from architect Georges Morin-Goustiaux. Constructed on the banks of the Seine, the Magasins Généraux stored merchandise in transit from river barges to the Gare d’Austerlitz.
This architect created one of the first reinforced concrete structures in the capital, and chose not to embellish it with a decorative façade, as was common practice in his day. A first in France, this raw concrete structure signaled the creation of the first modern Parisian docks of the 20th century. This was an innovative architectural choice which proved quite controversial, provoking both admiration and criticism.
In 2005, architects Dominique Jakob and Brendan Macfarlane were selected to design the conversion of the Magasins Généraux into the Cité de la Mode et du Design; the Cité was reborn, transfigured, in 2009.
Jakob+MacFarlane decided to preserve the concrete structure of the former industrial warehouse, and cover it with a new skin…This skin, which reveals and celebrates the existing structures, is designed as a “plug-over”. Inspired by the river’s movement, the plug-over, in metal and etched glass, owes its green color to aquatic reflections. This is living, organic architecture, plugged into the surrounding urban environment.
At night, the lighting, created by artist Yann Kersalé, brings the building to life with a play of light from a variety of sources, in a multitude of colors.
President: François Bachy
Chief Financial Officer: Patrick Robo
Head of Sales and Events: Amandine Vandendries
Event Affairs Officer: Frédérique Delion Dohnu
Event Affairs Officer: Cédric Juste
Event Affairs Officer: Laura Wengrow
Sales assistant: Laetitia Mengin
event@citemodedesign.fr - +33 (0)1 76 77 25 30
Head of Communications and Visitors Experience: Véronique Thouvenin
Cultural Programming Manager: Sandra Biaggi
Communications Manager: Inès Kokou
communication@citemodedesign.fr - +33 (0)1 76 77 34 88
Technical and Safety Manager - Didier Lahaye
General Operator - Judith Peluso
As a 100% subsidiary of the Caisse des Dépôts Group, the Cité de la Mode et du Design is part of the Cultural Center of the Caisse des Dépôts, along with the 15 Montaigne - Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.