Cover A look from Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2021 haute couture collection. (Photo: Balenciaga)

Opening on 10 Avenue George V in Paris, the Balenciaga store will bring haute couture to the modern-day fashion crowd

The world of haute couture is traditionally a closed one, reserved only for the richest of the style cognoscenti, but Balenciaga is set to change that.

In fact, the French fashion brand is offering a window into that world with its first Couture Store, opening on 10 Avenue George V in Paris. The address is a historic one: it’s where the brand’s founder, Cristóbal Balenciaga, opened his couture salon in 1937 and created designs for stylish socialites like Babe Paley and Pauline de Rothschild for years before retiring in 1968.

Balenciaga returned to those roots last year, when designer Demna Gvasalia staged the brand’s first haute couture collection in over five decades at its restored salons in Paris. But now the space will do more than hold fashion shows for Kanye West to attend; it will offer clients the chance to shop limited-edition clothes for men and women, bags, accessories and one-off objects that range from artisanal to high-tech.

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Above Balenciaga’s Couture Store opens on July 6. (Photo: Balenciaga)

Balenciaga clients can expect only the finest craftsmanship from these offerings, which are all made in France and are exclusive to the Couture Store. And if they so please, shoppers can make their purchases truly one-of-a-kind through the personalisation and alteration services that are available at the brand’s ateliers, located just upstairs in the same building.

There, they will have the luxury to try on Balenciaga’s latest haute couture designs within a spacious fitting salon, much like couture clients of the past. The difference, though, is that today’s shoppers will get to take home their purchases immediately, instead of going through months of fittings.

“In this new store, products, made-to-measure services and retail excellence are a reinvention of the Balenciaga client experience,” said Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit. “You’ll be able to get the best possible service. You’re in a space that’s not a retail space; it’s experiencing a dream.”

That dream will begin on July 6, when the fashion brand presents its haute couture fashion show for Fall/Winter 2022 at 10 Avenue George V. Selected pieces from the new collection designed by Gvasalia will be available to shop at the Couture Store, which will open on the same day. 

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Above A look from Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2021 haute couture collection. (Photo: Balenciaga)
Tatler Asia
Above A look from Balenciaga’s Fall/Winter 2021 haute couture collection. (Photo: Balenciaga)

With its new store, Balenciaga effectively marries two concepts that have long seemed mutually exclusive: the superior craftsmanship of couture creations, painstakingly made over months at the hands of artisans, and the instant gratification of the “see now, buy now” business model that has largely been adopted in the fast-paced fashion industry. It will especially cater to the shopping preferences of Balenciaga’s younger customers, who are used to splurging on the brand’s sneakers, handbags and T-shirts following the whims of hype created by celebrities like Kim Kardashian. Perhaps the Couture Store will also deepen their understanding of the brand’s rich history, too.

“A lot of people don’t even know that Balenciaga is a 100-plus-year-old couture brand,” said Gvasalia after his first haute couture fashion show. “They think it’s a brand that started with the Triple S sneaker. So in a way, it’s kind of educational, but also putting in the spotlight what is the most important thing about fashion, and to me, couture is the purest expression of that.”

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