I’m a Christian Dior girl. I’ve had a love affair with the brand for years. Getting laid off this year hasn’t changed that love, but it has changed what part of the brand I can afford. That is, of course, for the time being.
Imagine my surprise when I found out that I could get a taste of luxury without the hefty price tag — with a massage at their spa.
At Hôtel Plaza Athénée, the brand has reimagined its spa, located tucked two floors below the Parisian hotel. For roughly €260 (or roughly $325), I got a taste of the luxury brand without spending upward of $6,000 on a bag.
Next to my actual bank account, it’s still a splurge, but at least it’s one I could actually pull off. And I did exactly that during my “Eat, Pray, Love” solo trip to Paris this past June.
Luxury brands want customers to buy in beyond their products
And it turns out Dior isn’t the only one who’s figured out that their fans want in on more than just bags, shoes, and the like.
Louis Vuitton opened its first US restaurant in November 2024 on the fourth floor of its Fifth Avenue flagship, developed by a Michelin-starred chef. It serves what the brand calls “luxury snacking.”
Gucci and Armani have done the same thing, opening their own restaurants instead of releasing just another bag or blazer. The math still works the same way it does at Dior: a meal or a coffee costs a fraction of what the clothes or accessories do, and it carries the same name.
Prada also had its own café inside Harrods for three years. It closed that location this past June, then took the concept to Singapore.
What I loved about Dior’s spa
Hôtel Plaza Athénée sits on Avenue Montaigne, and it’s incredibly hard to miss with the red awnings and rows of geraniums out front.
Christian Dior staged his first show nearby in 1947, so the spa being tucked below the hotel isn’t a random location; it’s intentional. It fits the brand’s actual history with one of the city’s most iconic hotels.
Once you go inside, the spa sits behind arched glass doors etched with a shell pattern, and the care put into the space showed up everywhere I looked. A round table near the entrance holds a lineup of Dior fragrances and beauty products arranged around fresh delphinium. Names like Bois d’Argent and Gris Dior sat lined up in neat rows, and I smelled almost every one while I waited.
The lounge area has vaulted, gold-lit ceilings and a marble soaking feature sunk into the floor. Cream daybeds lined the walls, each one draped in a fringed Dior toile throw. My treatment room was simpler by comparison, with just warm wood paneling and a single bed dressed in cream linens, with a Dior-stitched towel waiting at the foot.
I booked the Constellation massage, which is a 60-minute full-body treatment built around slow, layered movement, and told the therapist upfront that I wanted deep pressure. She adjusted without hesitation. As with visiting the storefront, you’re greeted with a glass of Champagne or tea, depending on your preference.
The hour moved through my back, shoulders, and legs, and my shoulders finally started to let go about halfway through. I told the therapist beforehand that I couldn’t lie on my stomach for long stretches because of fibroids, and she adjusted the whole session around that without missing a beat, working more time into my back and shoulders while I stayed on my side.
Of course, I was going to use the gym too. When else in my life am I going to work out with Christian Dior-branded medicine balls? The equipment was sleek, well-kept, and modern (I hate going to a hotel gym with decades-old equipment).
I only stayed for 30 minutes, but it was worth it just to say I did a set of squats surrounded by that much logo. I took a photo of the medicine balls before I left, mostly so I’d have proof this actually happened.
There was a downside
The one place the spa didn’t quite live up to the luxury experience was the locker room. It was small and plain, with no whirlpool or steam room anywhere in sight.
After an hour surrounded by Dior’s version of luxury, it was a strange place to land before getting dressed again. Every other inch of that spa had been considered down to the last detail, so the locker room felt like the brand had run out of budget.
Still, by the time I left, my shoulders felt lighter than they had in months, and I hadn’t thought about my job search once during the entire session.
A Dior bag says something to everyone who sees you carrying it. Nobody saw this massage. I’m still funemployed, and I still don’t have a Dior bag in my future anytime soon, but for one hour, nobody needed anything from me, and I didn’t check my phone once.
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