Vicky Tiel’s Paris Journal: NAUMY Is Taking Over!

NAUMY Store – all photos Vicky Tiel

When I blog on Paris fashion I always cover two streets, Rue de Roi de Siècle and Rue Fbg St Antoine on the corner of Rue de Charonne. While covering fall fashion last week I sat in my usual cafe on Rue de Charonne and watched women pouring into a new store. I crossed the street and found the brand new NAUMY store.

I looked into the window and saw gorgeous dresses all priced at around 20 to 29 euros. This is unheard of. Even Monoprix cotton dresses are up to 59 euros this year.

Inside NAUMY I find a large two story store that has everything: women and men’s clothing, fragrances, handbags, luggage, lingerie and children’s clothing. They even have wedding gowns and dresses for children to wear to weddings. Almost nothing costs over 40 euros.

Among the women’s selection are these gowns that sell for 30 euros.

A perfect “Chanel” jacket is 52 euros. It is the most expensive item in the store. (Coco would be proud). In most stores it’s at least 250 euros for a nice copy.

I spoke with the manager and salesgirls (all tall beautiful Chinese young women). I was told that NAUMY is a Chinese company and this store opened in Paris in April 2023. She said they have opened 50 stores in France this year! Oh my!

They even have my red draped jersey short gown that sells for 3000 euros…for 37 euros. Having had my VICKY TIEL shop in Paris for 45 years I was in shock. Dresses that resemble my beaded couture gowns, sequin sheaths or diamond studded black jerseys are selling for the price of my rayon linings. How do the Chinese do it? They must use African labor as there were many African prints.

Who is making these dresses for $30 to $50? Well, no matter what, they will have killed the ready-to-wear French fashion industry and maybe 7th Avenue as well, thanks to their gorgeous knockoffs. Women can use their dress savings to buy electric cars and add pools to their backyards.

I left Paris to spend the weekend with my kids in the French village of Arpajon, south of Paris, near the Chateau du Fontainebleau. I told my daughter in law about NAUMY and showed her the photos of the inexpensive dresses and told her there were 50 stores built in France just this year. She looked up NAUMY in her computer and saw one was 10 minutes from her home. She raced there in her car.

The store in the countryside south of Paris is in a new mall three times the size of the Paris store. It is half the mall, in the middle of nowhere! THEY WERE STILL BUILDING IT…BUT IT WAS FULL OF PEOPLE.

What do I think of the Chinese taking over the world of fashion? Except for the few women fashion snobs that need to wear Couture, most women will love these inexpensive fashion styles either from NAUMY or the online NAUMY’S.

High priced stores will go bankrupt and couture will always sell handbags and cosmetics.The windows in Paris couture are now often just handbags, not a dress in sight.

So sad, but we had the great years.

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