Twice As Nice
Balenciaga is bringing its industrial warehouse chic to tony Rodeo Drive.
The Kering-owned brand has moved its L.A. flagship across the street to 338 N. Rodeo Drive, nearly doubling the floor space and introducing a new, two-story, garage-like design in keeping with artistic director Demna Gvasalia’s love of all things gritty.
Balenciaga is looking to the
U.S. retail market for growth. The new store follows a Miami Design District flagship that bowed in April, and a Madison Avenue boutique is scheduled to open later this summer in New York.
About 6,000 square feet, the L.A. store was designed by Balenciaga’s in-house team under the creative direction of Gvasalia. The facade looks like it is sliced in half, with an enormous glass window letting the L.A. light in, while reflecting the palm trees lining the shopping street outside. The stone tile on the ground floor is flush with the sidewalk, giving the illusion of a continuous walkway. Inside, garage doors define the space, revealing raw, graffitied walls underneath, while polished metal tables, glowing displays and padded seating evoke a laboratory. Warehouse-style shelving and conveyor rails add to the industrial aesthetic.
Women’s accessories, eyewear, small leather goods, ready-to-wear and footwear are on the ground floor, while men’s is upstairs. Fans of the label’s shopper bags can nab a limited-edition XXS version for $1,520 that reads “Los Angeles.” — BOOTH MOORE costume director, then facilitates the designers’ visions — adapting their fanciful whims to suit ballet’s athleticism and the grand scale of its stage.
Parker initiated the fashion gala franchise in 2012 under City Ballet’s previous Ballet Master in Chief, Peter Martins. In the last seven years, it has seen collaborations with designers including Valentino, Thom Browne, Virgil Abloh and Dries van Noten, among others.
Martins’ successor, Jonathan Stafford, said he intends to keep the program in place.
“It’s been highly successful for the company, both artistically and financially, and it always brings a lot of excitement into the theater. It’s definitely something we plan to continue,” Stafford told WWD.
“The fashion gala collaborations follow in the tradition of [our founder] George Balanchine who had a history of working with artists from various disciplines. Anytime we branch out and collaborate with leading artists in other fields, it’s great for the company and the whole creative process,” he added.
“For many years, I’ve been pushing for a New York-centric Fall Fashion Gala. This year with Anna and Zac, I think it’s a really nice moment for New York designers,” Happel said.
“What I’ve really learned over the years is how to talk to fashion designers in a way that helps them understand our world and how they can bring their designs into it, in a way that works for the ballet but still has their unique fingerprint,” he added.
The gala evening will also include a performance of one of Balanchine’s seminal works, “Symphony in C,” a grand ode to classical ballet set to music by Georges Bizet and featuring a fleet of lavish costumes.
— MISTY WHITE SIDELL almost 310,000 square feet. It was meant to house the Center of the Ministry of Finance, but it has never been fully finished or used.
Kering had no comment on Friday. According to the note, a change of destination of the building has been approved, and it can be recovered and destined to production activities.
Local media speculate that Compagnie Financière Richemont was also eyeing the building and the note, without naming the group, said CDP had received another offer by a company “operating in the luxury sector at an international level.”
Mayor Sandro Fallani said the goal is to “save a neglected [location] and to transform it in a unique development opportunity that would bring employment, excellence and a competitive system for our territory.”
Last year, Gucci, also controlled by Kering, inaugurated ArtLab, a sprawling, state-of-the-art industrial complex, in Scandicci, one of Italy’s main leather goods manufacturing hubs.
— LUISA ZARGANI