As new and exciting perspectives emerge in the Spanish luxury fashion house under the influence of Demna Gvasalia, the flagship store of Balenciaga in London is a bold statement in the Victorian façade of New Bond street’s luxury fashion outlets. The new store celebrates the brand’s concept of ‘raw architecture’ as a backdrop to unveil an empirical impression of modern luxury, in continuity with the Sloane Street store. At the forefront of this notion is the aim to create a new experience for retail and retail design, wherein polished objects of luxury are displayed in an unfinished setting. Thus, while the notion of perfection is rather glorified in luxury, Balenciaga and its recent outlets accent on a sense of temporality and action in progress. Designed by art director Nikolas Bildstein and Architect Andrea Faraguna of Berin-based Studio Sub, the store’s design ensconces its stages of deterioration with exposed services and aged patina finishes.
The new flagship store rests at the convergence of the New Bond and Conduit Streets.
The thought envisioned in the interior design points to the brand’s new codes of retail wherein the passage of time is imagined as a transformative event. Hosted in a three-floor building comprising 710 sqm of floor area, the Balenciaga New Bond Street store offers a range of women’s and men’s ready-to-wear apparel, shoes, bags, accessories, eyewear, jewellery, and objects, curated in what the brand terms to be its interpretation of ‘modern luxury’. The building stands at the intersection of the New Bond and Conduit Streets, with the ground floor corner chamfered to occupy the stainless-steel entrance door, complete with a Balenciaga ‘stamp’. The building’s twin facades adjoining the streets are adorned with floor-to-ceiling glass windows along with illuminated brand signs projected from the exterior. The raw structure and transparent façade reveal the deconstructed interiors to the streets, creating a pragmatic expression of the space to passersby.
