Designer Cafes & Coffee Shops: Where Fashion Meets Food

*the updated version*

Designer cafes and coffee shops have been popping up all over the world. Brands like Louis Vuitton, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Dior, Saint Laurent and the latest brand, Coach have opened beautiful themed cafes, serving high quality coffee and delicious sweets. These cafes do an excellent job of providing a luxurious experience without having to pay designer prices. As someone who loves coffee and fashion, I have personally been to *five* of these designer cafes and here’s what I think about each one:

Louis Vuitton‘s Cafe in Paris

This one has to be my all time favorite designer cafe! First off, the Louis Vuitton Cafe is in Paris, so they have the advantage of being in one of my favorite cities to visit. However, the actual cafe is insane! When you first walk in, security leads you to the host, much like the actual store and they take you through the huge building. The cafe is paired with a mini version of a Louis Vuitton store, almost like a gift shop and mini museum of the brand’s iconic pieces. The cafe part of the building is the size of a restaurant and everything they use is the brands personal collection, from the plates and cups you eat and drink from to the napkins and silverware. Everything feels very luxurious, very on brand. Now the food and drinks are a whole different story, did you know lattes and pastries could be branded? I had absolutely no idea that they could. The iconic “LV” and Louis Vuitton logo were designed as latte art on my latte and somehow printed all over my pastries. Now I know what you’re thinking “there’s no way it tasted good and looked that pretty right?” Wrong. They were delicious, all of Paris’s food is but I was actually very pleasantly surprised. This was my first Louis Vuitton purchase and I ate it. The cafe was decorated so beautifully with various chocolate sculptures and windows all over showing the city of Paris. If you are traveling to Paris anytime soon I definitely recommend this designer cafe, it is such a cool experience. 

Ralph’s Coffee in New York

Ralph’s Coffee is Ralph Lauren’s Coffee shop, they have numerous locations but the one I visited was their larger location in New York. Their coffee shop has a vintage feel, it is paired with a Ralph Lauren store and the whole place is beautiful. They have chandeliers everywhere, the classic Ralph’s logo painted on the floor outside and on the walls. They have iconic souvenirs you can purchase, including the viral green Ralph’s hat. They have two options at this location, you can either order your latte and go or order and dine in, we chose the dine in option because we wanted the full experience. We ordered two lattes, one regular and one matcha and a chocolate and plain croissant. The table was just the perfect size for the two of us, it felt like we were sitting in a little cafe outside in Paris. The latte art on both drinks were very pretty and I am very picky about my matcha. The color was the perfect green (if you know you know) and tasted really good. The coffee beans they used for the espresso latte were from La Combe so of course that was also great. Lastly the croissants were flaky and so good, I may not have many Ralph Lauren clothing pieces in my closet but I will always visit Ralphs If I’m In the area. It’s something you have to experience at least once, plus the shop is totally “instagram pic worthy.”

Saint Laurent‘s Coffee in Paris

Unlike the others, Saint Laurent‘s coffee shop was located right outside the Saint Laurent store, and was an outdoor order only type of coffee shop. Nevertheless, there was still a line of buzzing people (including us) waiting to try it. Serving only a small variety or drinks, we ordered two drinks, a hot and iced latte and they were decent, they heart shaped latte art, branded cups and napkins and overall it was still a fun experience. Out of all of the designer coffee shops I’ve tried, this one was the most reasonably priced, considering it was in Paris, Saint Laurent‘s brand and you know, designer. 

The Coach Coffee Shop in Austin

The latest Brand to jump on the coffee shop train and I’m not mad at it! I recently had the pleasure of trying the Coach Coffee shop this past weekend in Austin, TX at the Domain and it was one of the cutest designer coffee shops I’ve been to, if I had to rate it just on aesthetics alone it would be a 10/10 however that wouldn’t be very fair now would it? As soon as you walk up to the coffee shop you are greeted with the cutest neon sign of the animated coach coffee and it really sets the scene. Despite the cute decor and coffee shop vibes their merch really takes the cake here, whoever the marketing genius was that designed their coffee shop merch needs a raise. They have everything from sweaters to tote bags, tea cup and mug sets and the list goes on. Unfortunately you can only buy the merch in the store however fortunately that means you now have an excuse to drive out to the nearest coach coffee shop. Their coffee shop is a walk up and order style cafe and their coffee was decent, not my absolute favorite but nowhere near the worse, I got a plain iced almond milk latte. They also have the cutest chocolates and pastries molded after their iconic coach tabby purse. I definitely think the experience and merch alone is worth it, also did I mention the coffee shop is in a coach store?

Dior’s Cafe in Paris

Ranking this one at number four however I’m still glad I tried it, designer coffee shops are always a fun experience. Dior’s Coffee shop reminded me more of an outdoor patio bar but it was inside a Dior store in Paris. They had a variety of teas, small treats and lattes, we ordered an espresso latte and some green tea. Like the Louis Vuitton Cafe, they also used their own line of cups and plates plus their menu was a mini version of how a Dior store looks from the outside (I thought that was a very cute but subtle touch.) You could either sit at the bar or the tables and we opted for the tables. I enjoyed my tea and the latte art, however the latte was a bit on the milky side for us. 

Overall, I think designer cafes and coffee shops are a cool concept high fashion brands are starting to implement, it’s a genius marketing technique and gen z loves it. These cafes go viral every time a brand opens another one and they offer unique experiences that you can only get at their cafe. I mean where else are you going to get Louis Vuitton latte art coffee? Coach just opened one in New Jersey and I am dying to go and try it!! If you are ever in the area and you’re looking for something to do or you’re just craving some designer coffee, definitely check out these cool places. If you want to see my experience trying out these designer coffee shops, check out my vlogs:

If you made it this far, thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed and/or learned something from this post! Comments are always welcome! What would you like to see more of? Any questions? What did you love, hate, feel inspired by? Let me Know (: