Girard Avenue might soon become known as San Diego’s Mecca for “l’art de vivre à la francaise,” otherwise known as “all that is French country.” With the recent addition of New York-based Pierre Deux, a store that brings the charming French countryside to the United States, French interior design has taken over the block. Sitting alongside La Maisonette and Roche-Bobois, Pierre Deux doesn’t see the other French lifestyle retailers as competition, said public relations and marketing director Naomi Cooper, but as a “complement.” Bringing La Jolla’s high-end, retailheavy market in conjunction with the decades-long Provençal décor of Pierre Deux, the venue opened shop just a few weeks ago. For shoppers familiar with some of the 80-plus Pierre Deux locations around the country, La Jolla’s version has a similar “look and feel” to others by means of vignettes representing the bedroom, bath, kitchen and dining spaces. San Diego’s addition will pay tribute to some “fresh looks,” Cooper said. While investment pieces are still staples in the high-end market, Pierre Deux core sellers are accessories to “freshen things up” until the economy improves. Such standouts include monogrammed pieces from Ankasa, a company known for its work on Oscar de la Renta, Ascada and Vera Wang. In the exclusive partnership with the French company, monogrammed accents will be a signature buy. Formed in a Greenwich Village hovel during the ’60s, Pierre Deux continues to commission smaller artisans from the French countryside who create century-old standards. President and creative director Hedwige Cointreau de Bouteville has roots in northern France dating back 500 years that enable Pierre Deux to re-create family heirlooms and archives in a unique combination of the traditional and modern. Originally developed “with the goal of bringing the authentic French county of Provençal — print, culture, art — to the States,” the company has become a national sensation, Cooper said.
