It might seem like a show season dominated by stateside locations only just ended, but a slew of French houses have already returned to US soil. Dior and Louis Vuitton are among the brands that have traveled back to New York; only this time, it’s not for a runway show, but for a new exhibition.

“Hidden Treasures, 250 Years of Franco-American Luxury Stories”, a gathering of 65 French luxury maisons and cultural institutions organized by luxury association Comité Colbert, opens on Tuesday at The Shed in New York’s Hudson Yards. Running until May 31, the exhibition is part of a wider program put together by the two countries to celebrate 250 years of friendship since the American Revolution-era alliance began. The French association expects between 10,000 and 15,000 visitors across the six-day run.

“Sixty-five [exhibitors] is truly a record-breaking number [for an event of the Comité Colbert],” Comité Colbert CEO Bénédicte Épinay tells Vogue Business. “And it shows one thing: America is the leading market for most of our houses. It’s a market where they want to communicate both individually and collectively to promote French luxury and the French art de vivre, along with this shared history between France and the US.” The trade association, which has 115 members, works to promote French luxury internationally, preserve traditional craftsmanship, and coordinate industry collaboration and advocacy on topics spanning sustainability, dupes, intellectual property, AI, and more.

The exhibition is well-timed: the US continues to drive growth in the luxury market, with China’s slower-than-anticipated recovery, Europe’s subdued spending, and the conflict in the Middle East. In Q1 2026, LVMH saw its US revenues grow 3%, Kering 9%, Hermès 17.2%, and Richemont 18%. “The US continues to be a resilient and attractive market, with a K-shaped economy — where the top end grows, but the lower end is seeing more pressure,” TD Cowen analyst Oliver Chen told Vogue Business earlier this month.

Hélène Poulit-Duquesne, CEO of Boucheron and recently appointed chair of Comité Colbert, does not expect the exhibition to help boost sales further, however. “That is not its purpose; it’s about rallying,” she says. “Bringing all these maisons together is something amazing, and the fact that all of them come under a single stronghold tells a beautiful story of French luxury.”

She adds: “It’s also about positioning our houses in a broader context — houses of culture. We are not just luxury products. It’s looking at luxury through the art of living, so we tell stories of art, craftsmanship. It’s in that sense that [the initiative] is much more cultural than commercial. And I feel strongly about that.”

While Épinay agrees that the focus of the exhibition is not driving business, it does offer powerful clienteling opportunities for brands. “The show will be privatized every morning by the maisons, so they can invite their VICs. And they’re also going to organize side events in their stores, dinners, etc. So they are going to use this exhibition to reaffirm their presence and offer their clients an exceptional experience. Seeing all these artifacts from all these houses will be quite extraordinary.”

Conceived by Museum Studio, an agency that helps institutions and brands create cultural experiences, the exhibition will showcase diverse “hidden treasures” from each visiting house. Highlights include: American socialite Mona von Bismarck’s evening gown by Cristóbal Balenciaga (1958); a replica of Marie-Louise Mackay’s 621-diamond Boucheron Belle Époque necklace (1899); a Chanel tweed design from Matthieu Blazy’s Métiers d’art 2026 collection, paying tribute to 1931’s Tonight or Never, which features costumes by Gabrielle Chanel; the Christian Dior Athena silk satin evening gown from the New York FW51 collection; and Jacqueline Kennedy’s pink Hubert de Givenchy coat, worn for the first official state visit of the Kennedy presidency in France in 1961. Plus, there’s the Jean Paul Gaultier pinstripe dress featuring an invisible bra worn by Madonna in 1992.

Cartier headed to its vaults to bring out three golden replicas of the Lunar Excursion Modules (LEM), which were offered to the astronauts of the Apollo 11 moon landing when they visited Paris in 1969. “This illustrates several aspects of Cartier heritage and culture,” says Cyrille Vigneron, Cartier chair of culture and philanthropy. “First, the art of being unique. Second, a reminder that Cartier’s history in New York is very long: more than 100 years of presence with very rich interactions, special orders, and anecdotes. The Love and Juste un Clou bracelets were designed in New York, for example, also at the end of the 1960s. New York is not only a market, it is part of the maison. It feels like home.”

Meanwhile, Van Cleef & Arpels is bringing a selection of its historic and contemporary Dancer clips, in a tribute to Claude Arpels’s meeting with choreographer George Balanchine, co-founder of the New York City Ballet, in the late 1940s. “Since the 1920s and the establishment of [the brand’s first shop-in-shop] in New York, Van Cleef & Arpels has called the US home,” Van Cleef & Arpels CEO Catherine Rénier says. The house has recently opened stores in Dallas and Houston.

After the opening of its first US store in 2023, Boucheron now has boutiques in Las Vegas and on Los Angeles’s Rodeo Drive, with plans to open another in Miami before the end of the year. “We will probably open one store per year, depending on retail opportunities,” Poulit-Duquesne explains. “We’re really trying to pursue a targeted expansion, because the US is so vast. Each city is a market in itself — you have to succeed in embedding yourself within local communities.”

While the US market has been challenging to navigate in recent years — amid tariff tensions, department store woes, and negative currency effects — the consumer’s love for French brands is an enduring one, Comité Colbert says.

Between August 2025 and January 2026, Comité Colbert commissioned a temperature check on the consumer appetite for “Frenchness” in the US. The research surveyed 600 US consumers aged 18 to 60, who had purchased French products in the last year. According to the survey, France is the number one country whose products still feel “worth buying”, with 61% of respondents in agreement (followed by Italy at 57%).

“If you look at 250 years, which is the span of this year’s celebration, this long history has not been easy all the way through,” Vigneron notes. “The recent years are less challenging than other periods.”