PARIS – Expanding its profile in the Golden Triangle luxury shopping district of Paris, Balenciaga is to open a second flagship on Avenue Montaigne, WWD has learned.
Balenciaga chief executive officer Cédric Charbit confirmed the new store would open next year at No. 56, roughly across the street from its current flagship at No. 57.
“Our foundation and ambitions are further expanding,” he told WWD, noting the doubling of the brand’s presence on one of the toniest shopping streets in Paris is aimed at “reinforcing the house’s legacy.”
The imposing stone building at 56 Avenue Montaigne occupies a key chunk of the prestigious, tree-lined thoroughfare, flanked by large Gucci and Dolce & Gabbana boutiques, with Jacquemus sandwiched in between on one side. In the past, No. 56 housed separate boutiques for Jil Sander and Blumarine.
The boutique at 57 Avenue Montaigne opened in 2017 and was only the second store to open under creative director Demna, who arrived at the house’s creative helm in October 2015.
Additionally, Charbit told WWD that Balenciaga has completed its “grand return” to nearby Avenue George V, where founder Cristóbal Balenciaga first set up his couture house in 1937.
Balenciaga’s historic address at 10 Avenue George V in Paris.
Courtesy of Balenciaga
Last year the Kering-owned brand doubled the size of its couture salons at 10 Avenue George V by expanding to No. 12, adding new offices and commemorating the occasion with a plaque on the facade of the building explaining its historic significance.
Now it has completed the restoration and expansion of its “creative headquarters,” which now also spill over to No. 7 Avenue George V.
“The newly opened offices are high-tech while maintaining a respect for our tradition and craft,” Charbit said, calling the George V addresses “a place where Balenciaga’s past, present, and future live in sync.”
“It is important for Balenciaga, being such an important couture house, to have its creative ateliers, that are the heart of the house, its couture salons and its couture clients united all under one roof,” he added.
The creative headquarters house Demna‘s design studio and his teams, in addition to the Balenciaga couture and ready-to-wear ateliers. The iconic No. 10 address is dedicated entirely to couture.
A look from Balenciaga’s fall 2023 couture collection.
Courtesy of Balenciaga
“Over the past nine years we have undertaken the important and symbolic mission to expand Balenciaga’s presence and legacy in Paris’ epicenter of French couture excellence,” Charbit explained. “Each year has been an important step towards continuing the legacy of Balenciaga.”
The company’s main corporate offices are located on Rue de Sèvres with parent Kering in the old Laennec hospital, a transporting and tranquil complex of 17th-century stone buildings arranged in cross formations. The fashion house boasts other offices on the Left Bank located on nearby Rue Vaneau.
The building at 10 Avenue George V also houses twin couture stores — one for men, one for women — selling Bang & Olufsen speaker bags for 8,500 euros alongside jewelry, footwear, sunglasses, and disquieting face shields developed in collaboration with Mercedes AMG F1 engineers.
The historic couture salons were painstakingly restored to the way they were before the founder retired from fashion and closed shop in 1968. The house resumed making high fashions in 2021, and Demna only shows couture once a year, during Paris Couture Week in July.
Last year Balenciaga doubled its presence on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and debuted a two-story venue at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., as part of its U.S. retail push. It also recently opened boutiques in Hamburg, Germany; Vancouver, B.C.; Guadalajara, Mexico; Rio de Janeiro; Taipei, Taiwan; Detroit; Mumbai; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; and Hong Kong Harbour City.
Earlier this month the company opened a two-level location in American Dream, the entertainment and retail center in East Rutherford, N.J. And, on Saturday, Balenciaga is to open its biggest store in the Middle East region, at the Mall of the Emirates in Dubai.
