Interview with Marlene Pellicci, founder of Calesta, Paris

In 2004 Marlene Pellicci opened Calesta, a wonderful kids concept store in Paris, featuring the coolest brands of the moment. The store closed in 2008, but Marlene continues Calesta as a culture and fashion blog (www.calesta.net). Mother of Cala (7 and half) and Lestat (9), Marlene lives in the hip northern part of Le Marais in Paris, which has become the epicenter of cool fashion and cool art galleries. Marlene comes back on her experience as a boutique owner and some precious hot mama’s addresses.

What was your favorite moment in the Calesta adventure? All the starting process was great, looking for the right spot, defining the concept, working on the decoration. That achieved, I also had a lot of pleasure doing the buying and traveling to spot new brands for the store

What was the hardest part? All the commercial aspect : dealing with customers and suppliers, managing employees

What were your favorite brands at the time of the opening? Finger in the nose (that I co-created but withdrew from in 2005) and Zef from France, Maan and Simple kids from Belgium, Caramel baby&child from England

Today, what are the new brands that you would buy for your store? I would definitely still work with Finger in the nose, Zef, Little Marc Jacob and Caramel baby&child. I would add Kid by 3.1 Phillip Lim, Acne kids and Stella McCartney for kids. And for baby, a small new brand called La petite Luce, created by one of my former employees

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Your favorite online destinations? Net-à-porter.com for myself, Amazone.fr for books and music, Littlefashiongallery.com for the kids

Your favorite stores? I love Kabuki, Rue Etienne Marcel Paris 2eme. They sell all my favorite brands (Balmain, Givenchy, Stella Mc Cartney, Balenciaga, Jbrand, Notify, etc) and they are so nice. Each time I go to London or to the US, I visit to Urban Outfitters. For the kids: Finger in the nose, Zef and Bonton who just opened a mega big store near my home…

What do Cala and Lesta like to wear? They don’t care about fashion. They want to be comfortable. Cala never wears dresses except in summer. They are always in jean, T-shirt, cashmere sweaters and boots or sneakers. Caban (typical french sailor/navy jacket) for Cala, teddy jacket for Lestat. One think Cala loves to wear is fur… maybe like her mother… She has about 4 or 5 fur coats!

Your favorite city in the world? I have several but I’ll say Los Angeles. I love Château Marmont, It’s quiet, it’s nice and over all, I can walk to Melrose for shopping from there. I can spend 3 or 4 days there doing shopping. I start on West Melrose with the “couturiers”, I finish on Eeast Melrose with the vintage stores

Where are you going to spend the x-mas holidays? The kids want to go skiing, and I would prefer a sunny destination. So we are negotiating. It’s in between Mègeve in the French Alps or Mauricius. I hate to plan holidays a very long time ahead

 

Finger in the nose, Zef, Little Marc Jacobs, Maan, Simple kids, Caramel baby&child, Kid by 3.1 Phillip Lim, Acne kids, Stella McCartney for kids, La petite Luce, Littlefashiongallery.com, Bonton