Inside Chanel’s New San Diego Boutique, Built Around a Courtyard & 18th-Century Lion

Chanel has finally given San Diego a fashion boutique of its own. On October 8, 2026, Chanel opens its new Chanel San Diego boutique at Westfield UTC, a 16,000-square-foot, two-story freestanding building designed by longtime collaborator Peter Marino that brings fashion, watches and fine jewelry, and fragrance and beauty under one roof.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

Until now, San Diego’s Chanel clients have relied on an in-store boutique at Neiman Marcus in Fashion Valley or driven to South Coast Plaza for the full experience. The new address is Chanel’s fifth freestanding boutique in California, joining Beverly Hills, Costa Mesa, San Francisco and the Palo Alto boutique that opened this summer.

Because the building is ground-up, Marino designed for the setting rather than around it. “I was very inspired by the Case Study Houses and the relationship between architecture and landscape,” Marino told WWD. The result is a white stucco façade wrapped in clear glass that pulls Southern California light deep into the rooms.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

The heart of the boutique is a central courtyard, where an 18th-century lion sculpture nods to one of Gabrielle Chanel’s personal symbols. A continuous path loops around it, sliding glass doors open the rooms to the landscape, and the house’s black, white and beige palette takes on blue and turquoise tones borrowed from the coast.

Seven salons ring the courtyard on the ground floor, each meant to recall the residential intimacy of Gabrielle Chanel’s apartment at 31 rue Cambon in Paris. Two adjoining leather goods and accessories salons greet clients at the entrance, while wave motifs, hand-embroidered textiles and custom plaster finishes carry quiet marine references throughout.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

The Watches & Fine Jewelry salon plays the Parisian card hardest, with a Louis XV console, a Louis XV giltwood mirror and a Goossens “Madison” chandelier. Its cases hold high jewelry alongside the Coco Crush, N°5, Camélia and Comète fine jewelry collections, as well as the J12 and Première watches.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

In the back corner, two ready-to-wear salons — one anchored by a gold vase, the other by a dark-patina bronze commode — open with Matthieu Blazy’s Fall-Winter 2026 collection, which is built around the suit. The shoe salon across the floor has two sculptural chairs by Voukenas Petrides, and Venini vases punctuate the rooms.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

Fragrance and beauty get their own salon at the opposite end of the floor, stocked with the full range of Chanel fragrance, makeup and skincare. Clients will find Sublimage, N°5 and Les Exclusifs de Chanel alongside new launches, including fragrances from the house’s perfumer-creator, Olivier Polge.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

Upstairs is the private side of the house. A VIP lounge, reached through an elevator lobby with a bronze console by Audiane Delos, opens onto a wraparound terrace above the courtyard. Inside are Marino’s five-door “Deep Water” bronze box, a reference to the city’s maritime setting, and a sculptural bronze chair by Aaron Poritz.

Marino has placed art throughout, in keeping with Mademoiselle Chanel’s role as a patron of the arts. A commissioned plexiglass portrait of Coco Chanel by Norbert Brunner greets clients at the entrance, and works by Vik Muniz, Chris Succo, Peter Dayton, Kimiko Fujimura, Shoji Takahara, Vera Lutter, Anthony Pearson, Scott Pattinson and Setsuko appear across both floors.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Chanel

“I think San Diego is one of those unique and remarkable markets that bring together a really interesting group of clients,” Rebekah McCabe, Chanel’s general manager of fashion for the U.S. market, told WWD. With Hermès, Bulgari and Zegna as neighbors, this is the boutique San Diego has been missing, and Marino has made sure it could only exist here.

Chanel San Diego is located at Westfield UTC, 4487 La Jolla Village Drive, San Diego, CA 92122.

For more of Haute Living’s Chanel coverage, see CHANEL Arrives in Montecito With a New Seasonal Boutique and Matthieu Blazy Takes Flight at the Grand Palais.