CJ Fashion opens in São Paulo, a rare new luxury department store

JHSF opened CJ Fashion on Saturday, a new department store inside its Shopping Cidade Jardim mall in São Paulo, at a moment when the format is in retreat across most of the world. The store spans more than 4,000 square metres, about 43,000 square feet, across three floors and carries roughly 150 brands.

That makes it smaller than department stores elsewhere, but the range of categories on offer, fashion, jewellery, beauty, accessories, gastronomy, furniture and books, is what earns it the label. JHSF chief executive Augusto Martins said the company studied major department stores abroad before deciding to build its own rather than import one.

"We take what works well abroad, refine the model, and adapt it to Brazil, the assortment, the atmosphere and, above all, Brazilian service, which is unreplicable," Martins said. The company concluded a homegrown format would appeal more to its customers than a licensed foreign chain.

What brands the store carries

The first floor holds international names including Balmain, Brunello Cucinelli, Isabel Marant and Fusalp, alongside Latin America's first standalone Tom Ford Beauty shop. Brunello Cucinelli is an Italian house built on cashmere and knitwear, and we reported it opening a 2,800 square metre flagship on Paris's Rue Saint-Honoré, complete with a private members' floor.

Tom Ford, the brand behind the beauty line, was founded by the designer in 2005 and built its name on a sophisticated, modern aesthetic across fashion, accessories and fragrance. Its beauty licence belongs to Estée Lauder, whose turnaround plan has pushed both Tom Ford and Jo Malone past a billion dollars in sales, as we reported.

Brazilian labels feature prominently too, including jeweller Paula Raia, Alexandre Furmanovich and Cris Ruas on the first floor. Assouline, the publisher of oversized art and design books, supplied about 1,500 titles to open its first standalone Brazilian location inside the store.

The mezzanine houses a multibrand concept called CJ Mares, showing Zimmermann, Victoria Beckham, Oscar de la Renta, Elie Saab, Etro, Missoni and Proenza Schouler among others. Zimmermann is the Australian label known for feminine, sophisticated designs and is one of several brands JHSF already operates as a franchise partner in Brazil.

The second floor carries 40 national and international brands organised by category, spanning occasion wear, resortwear, athleisure and lifestyle products, plus Brazilian home, design and gifting labels including Fine Prints, MH Studio and Ju Scarpa. International additions there include Borsalino, Monies, Sermoneta and Olympia Le-Tan.

The third floor is devoted to footwear, handbags and accessories, bringing together Maison Faebelle, Aquazzura, Fratelli Rossetti, Gianvito Rossi, Glorinha Paranaguá and René Caovilla. A rotating "Special Residencies" programme currently spotlights Brazilian creators, including jeweller Fernando Jorge and porcelain maker Gracinha Carvalho.

How the business model works

CJ Fashion does not own its inventory. "The retailers hold the stock," Martins said. "Our role was to curate the brands and products and implement the service and customer care, creating the atmosphere of a department store within a healthy business model," with exceptions for exclusive collaborations.

The concept began as an e-commerce platform run by Shopping Cidade Jardim, itself the first Brazilian mall to launch online sales, before that operation was shut down. Martins said JHSF then converted it into a private shopper service that matched the e-commerce operation's sales within six months at a fraction of the cost.

Martins found that 80 percent of purchases ended with customers messaging private shoppers for ideas, wanting to be accompanied through the buying process. Demand for that personalised attention, and for the team's brand curation, grew enough that JHSF turned the service into a three-storey physical store.

Project leader Ana Auriemo said CJ Fashion was built to bring together, under one roof, what clients had long been sourcing store by store through the private shopper service. Fashion curator Renata Queiroz de Moraes described the goal as pairing a French maison with a Brazilian jeweller in the same space.

The design and what comes next

Architect Carolina Proto of Estúdio Obra Prima designed the store to feel closer to a residence than a shop, with large organically shaped rugs that change colour by department and walls hung with works by Brazilian and Latin American artists in partnership with Simões de Assis gallery.

JHSF, cofounded in 1972 by brothers José and Fábio Auriemo alongside Henrique Falzoni and Silvio Sandoval, already runs an affluent-focused portfolio of designer stores, shopping centres, hotels, restaurants, condominiums, office towers, a surf club and a private airport.

Martins said the company's near-term focus is bringing more luxury franchises to Latin America, with Alaïa, Loro Piana, Tiffany and Chanel due at Shopping Cidade Jardim. JHSF's first franchise was Hermès, and it now runs Celine, Alaïa, Gianvito Rossi, Aquazzura, Zimmermann, Isabel Marant, Chloé and Balmain locally.

Asked whether more department stores are planned, Martins confirmed the CJ Fashion format was designed to be replicated, "in other JHSF developments and, above all, in other countries," though he named no specific sites or timing for a second location.

Support the content you love — it’s free 🎉

Add Worthbury as a preferred source on Google. Our stories will be more likely to appear in Google’s Top Stories. It’s free and supports our team. Thank you!

Add as preferred source

You can remove us any time in Google’s source preferences.

This briefing is published daily using an AI-powered system crafted by Worthbury's team and finely tuned to meet our editorial standards. While we continuously test and review the output, mistakes can sometimes happen. Tell us if you spot one.

Images: CJ Fashion