Balenciaga installs haute couture, design studio at new Parisian headquarters on avenue George V

Balenciaga is returning to its eponymous founder’s historic Parisian headquarters. When Cristóbal Balenciaga moved to France in 1937, he based his fashion house, which he had founded in Spain in 1917, at 10 avenue George V. Balenciaga, owned since 2001 by the Kering luxury group, will install its haute couture ateliers and offices, as well as its design studios, in the six-storey avenue George V building, whose interiors have been fully renovated and enlarged.

The building is steeped in the spirit of Cristóbal Balenciaga, who lived there until 1968. The couturier had even called his first perfume Le Dix (number 10) as a reference to the address, on whose façade a commemorative plaque has now been affixed. The ground floor, once used to sell the label’s fragrance and accessories lines, was recently transformed in a haute couture boutique, offering “an innovative retail experience, where customers can discover exclusive collaborations and unique items,” said the label in a press release, in which it also stated that the building “will once again become Balenciaga’s headquarters.
 
The legendary building was reopened in 2021 to host the first haute couture show by Demna (full name Demna Gvasalia), the creative director of Balenciaga since 2015, signalling the label’s intention to return to the haute couture business, which it had discontinued 53 years before. Since then, Balenciaga has staged another two haute couture shows in the building, the latest on July 5, with two icons like Isabelle Huppert and Inès de la Fressange as models.

On that occasion, the label unveiled part of its new headquarters’ revamped and enlarged interiors. The renovation work enabled Balenciaga to double the size of the couture ateliers, which now extend to number 12 on avenue George V, in the premises above the adjoining Crazy Horse nightclub. “The ateliers for haute couture and ready-to-wear, as well as new offices, have now been added,” said Balenciaga.
 
In parallel, in 2022 the label led by Cédric Charbit moved part of its staff to an approximately 4,000 square-metre building at 16-18 rue Vaneau, as FashionNetwork.com reported last year. The building is home to the label’s C-suite, other senior management, and the communication department, among others.
 

The avenue George V building was renovated in 2020. “Previous architectural iterations have been enhanced during the renovation of the building, originally designed by Albert Le Voisvenel in 1887, and later refurbished by Christos Bellos, under the aegis of Cristóbal Balenciaga,” said the label. At the time, noted Balenciaga, “the interiors were extremely discreet for a fashion house, with neutral colours and a Parisian apartment’s signature features, selected so as not to divert attention away from the collections.”
 
For the building’s reopening in 2021, “the original off-white stucco arabesques, creaky parquet floors, and warm grey carpets were recreated and weathered to evoke the untouched passage of decades,” said Balenciaga. “I decided to replicate the original salons of that time in as much detail as possible, and in addition to create an authentically aged, dusty effect for the interiors, as if the apartments had been reopened after over half a century of being abandoned,” wrote Demna on the label’s website. “The newly reopened spaces feature high-tech updates and modern details such as the dark smoked glass that partitions raw walls, establishing a destination where Balenciaga’s past, present, and future live in harmony,” said Balenciaga.
 
Balenciaga shot the Fall/Winter 2023-24 campaign in the building during the renovation work, amidst half-built masonry and paint pots. It was lensed by US photographer Tyler Mitchell, and notably starred actress Isabelle Huppert and top model Vittoria Ceretti.