Balenciaga opens its couture boutique in Paris in celebration of the house’s 51st couture show – and, it’s located where Cristobal Balenciaga opened his original couture boutique in 1937.
We’ve all wanted our own Kim Kardashian moment, right? And right now, what’s more Kim K than Balenciaga?
As the most recent, and most famous Brand Ambassador, Kim Kardashian IS Balenciaga. On the red carpet of the Met Gala, at iconic Kardashian parties, on the set of Saturday Night Live and on the streets of Paris for couture week. Kim Kardashian always opts for a Balenciaga look. Now, her wardrobe is essentially available to us at the new couture boutique in Paris.
Rewriting History
Georgian fashion designer, Demna Gvasalia, is the standing creative director of the house. Gvasalia designed this boutique to cater for Balenciaga’s couture designs, which he relaunched in July last year. After 53 years of discontinued couture, Gvasalia brought couture to the house in an acclaimed runway show on the upper floors of the building that the Parisian boutique is located in now. Here, is the place where Gvasalia re-writes history by reviving Cristobal Balenciaga vision for the brand.
“Couture is where Balenciaga comes from. As a brand it’s where it all started. When I realized how Demna had put Balenciaga back in its rightful place with our first couture show, I immediately felt this was a unique chance. Not to rewrite history but to reinvent the haute couture history of Balenciaga,”
says Balenciaga CEO, Cédric Charbit. “Haute couture is another craft we want to invest in. It’s an important expression of how we do things at Balenciaga. We realized after last year’s show how important couture was to the house. But we hadn’t realized how much demand there was for more unique product, services and ideas,” he adds.
“Lots of our clients have expressed the need for couture since the first collection of Demna… A space where the best possible service is available with rare and unique products, for High Net Worth Individuals – people with zero restraint when it comes to price. This is one-of-a-kind and the historical address,” Charbit concludes.
A Wardrobe of Couture
So don’t worry because this couture store will have it all. With Balenciaga clothing, accessories, eyewear and exceptional objects, you can purchase a whole wardrobe in one location, even though the store won’t hold any pieces from the house’s ready-to-wear collections. And in case you didn’t feel like a Kardashian already, all the products available are limited edition and can be personalized or altered in the ateliers upstair.
“Ready-to-wear is made by machine. Everything in this store will be made by hand,” the CEO enthuses.
“Known for his majestic sense of silhouette, unique fabrics and elegant sense of grandeur, Balenciaga is generally ranked as one of the half dozen greatest designers in fashion history.”
But it’s not just the designs stealing the spotlight. Gvasalia’s 250-square-meter boutique is, according to Charbit, “a big contrast compared to traditional couture houses”.
Open Tuesday to Friday, the store welcomes customers who value rare and unique products. On the ground-floor of the building is broken into compartments, accommodating the needs of both men and women, and upstairs you can find couture salons and ateliers.
Charbit and Demna are aiming for the store attract both new and existing clients.
“The concept of this shop is a gateway to haute couture, which remains a very closed universe, especially for the younger generations,” says Charbit.
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