During our trip to Paris in June, my wife and 16 YO daughter are going to have a shopping day while the boys and I do a day trip outside the city. Wanted to get some input on the latest shops for them to visit. My daughter currently shops at places like Hollister, American Eagle, Delia's and Target. Kind of standard teenager type clothing, but I know if she has the opportunity, would probably go a little less standard. Their shopping will take place on a Monday, so if anyone knows of any problems that day might pose, I would appreciate that as well. Thanks in advance for the help.

Regards,
PJCPA

I have taken our DD when she was 16 and then 18 (last year), and she loves to shop. One place that she found lots of clothing, reasonably priced too, was Promod. There are several locations around town. Also Etam, on Rue de Rivoli, where she found clothing and handbags. Pylones is a fun store...not clothing but more a misc mix of key chains, brushes, kitchen utensils, etc. Really a fun store and several locations in town. On both trips, one of our favorite places was the Longchamp store. We both bought several bags and still cherish them. The nice thing is they have styles that are not available here, so if you can splurge a bit she might enjoy that. DD got a beautiful navy blue leather bag there when she was 16 and still uses it often and still gets loads of compliments on it.

My best advise though is to wander and fine small stores that interest you. We came upon so many that way, and many are very reasonably priced.

They can just shop along the Champs-Elysees (there are several youngish chain stores along there, like Zara), or bd St Michel starting at the Seine, or go to Les Halles shopping mall on the Right Bank where there are a lot of teens. An alternative is to go to the mall just outside the gare Montparnasse, which is more manageable than Les Halles and also has a lot of cheap chain shops, some she might like (such as Kookai). That is probaby a better idea as you can go to the Inno across the street (a bit to the south) which is owned by Monoprix and that will be Target-like. There is a Monoprix on the Champs-Elysees, also.

Also, my 16 year old loved the street fairs.

I have 3 French nieces living in Paris-16, 18, and 20. Their favorite place to shop is in the 6th on rue de Rennes running from Blvd. St. Germain all the way down to Montparnasse. In terms of shops, they especially like to find bargains on shoes there in the little boutiques. For clothes-there are also good little places, although for cheaper kind of "college kid" kind of clothing they haunt the stores on Blvd. St. Michel running from the river up to Blvd St. Germain. On rue de Rennes for clothing they like the chains like H&M and there is an American Apparel.

They also like Zara for clothing-I believe it is a Spanish chain:
Address 140 Rue de Rennes 75006 Paris
Tel: 01 42 84 44 60

Etam is great for lingerie-not expensive-Mononprix is also great for all that-pj's nightshirts, etc. I know our friend's 16 year loved buying all sort of frilly French things there and also a bikini at Monoprix-All of that stuff is something the French do really well At monoprix and in the office supply sections of the department stores-keep an eye out for little back to school stuff-they make really cute branded pencil holders, tiny notebooks etc.
Etam
Address: 135 Rue de Rennes 75006 Paris
Tel: 01 45 44 16 88

Monoprix
Address: 50, Rue de Rennes, 75006 Paris‎
Tel: 01 45 48 18 08‎

Other than clothing-here are their favorites:

Plastiques: This store is great-they sell everything plastic-little things to hold cell phones, little soap dishes stuff to decorate their rooms-and it is a great place to find inexpensive souvenirs for friends that won't break!

Address: 103 Rue de Rennes 75006 Paris
Tel: 01 45 48 75 88

Pimkie Jewelry and some clothing I think at least like socks, etc.
Address: 144 Rue de Rennes 75006 Paris
01 45 48 10 82

Agatha Also for jewelry-earrings, rings etc.
97, rue de Rennes
Tel: 01 45 48 92 57

Fnac Montparnassee Books, CD's etc. Even if she is interested in French books she might want to bring back some music....
Address: 136 Rue de Rennes 75006 Paris
Tel: 08 25 02 00 20

Finally be aware that most of the grand Magasins like Bon Marche, Galleries Lafayette, etc. now carry many of the boutique brands of clothing and jewelry in their stores (like Kenzo, Agatha etc.) but I figured that this would give you some alternatives to that. Bon Marche isn't far from Rue de Rennes so if your wife and daughter have the stamina they can walk from the south end of rue de Rennes near Montparnasse all the way up to Bon Marche-have lunch there-there are some cool little restaurants or they can buy picnic stuff at the Marche food section and then do the rest of rue de Rennes (also go down rue du four another nice shopping street) over to St. Michel and shop all the way all the way to the river. Me personally I think I would be exhausted-not to mention broke-but I must say my nieces do that about every Saturday-even if they don't have money to buy-they just "lick the windows" as the French say

Le Bon Marché Rive Gauche
Address:38 Rue de Sèvres 75007 Paris
Tel: 01 44 39 80 00
lebonmarche.com

I took each my nieces to Paris when they turned 16. The first one was thinking seriously about a career in fashion design, so she wanted to walk past all of the fashion houses on the rue St Honore and window shop (something I had never done before, and it was terrific fun), then hit all of the uber-cool clothing stores in the Marais. The second one had very little interest in "fashion," but loved shopping on the Ile Saint-Louis (and found an amazing leather jacket that she still wears), as well as Gallerie Lafayette to get a feel for a large department store.

The area around the large department stores (Printemps and Galeries Lafayette) is awash in clothing stores of all kinds, including H&M, C&A, Zara, etc., as well as smaller chains and individual boutiques with all sorts of interesting things. The department stores themselves cover the latest fashions pretty well, too, which separate departments (indeed, separate floors) for teens.

There are nice stores all over the city, but this particular area has a fair concentration and cross-section of clothing stores with a good selection.

The Latin Quarter also has a lot of stores that cater to students, both in fashion and price range.

Keep in mind that French women pick and choose a great deal, and then assemble things in individual ways to express themselves fashionably, whereas American women tend to buy things ready-made without a lot of mixing and matching. (Of course, there are exceptions to these rules on both sides of the pond.)

There are stores in the garment district (near the rue Saint-Denis—just ignore the prostitutes) that sell a lot of unique or very trendy stuff, but many of them will only sell wholesale. Some of them will sell retail, though. It requires a lot of trudging around to find exactly what one likes, but there are some hidden gems, depending on what you like.