Paris Shi Jia photography

Previously, Balenciaga opened the largest flagship store in Europe in New Pound Street, London, England, becoming a good place for young people to punch in. This flagship store began to be renovated last summer, and now it is officially opened to embrace the public.

The reason is that Balenciaga is not only one of the most popular luxury brands at present, but also the label of its "largest" European flagship store attracts people's admiration. This time, both goods and decoration are unprecedented "new". For example, here you can see 22 key styles of the just-concluded 2022 autumn series-leather landing coat, super-profile suit jacket, famous "garbage bag" and other items; You can also experience Balenciaga's brand-new Raw Architecture retail concept here. Although this concept has been implemented in Berlin and Shanghai, its raw meat level is not as good as that of the new flagship store in London.

We have shared the strangeness and absurdity of Balenciaga's visual aesthetics in articles, most of which focus on its propaganda or advertising photography. In this issue, we set out from BALENCIAGA's shops to see how this developing brand can be presented through space and produce visual effects that complement each other with clothing.

Friends who have been to Balenciaga stores know that most of their decoration styles use stainless steel counters or hangers, reflective aluminum foil ceilings and direct lighting facilities to create a sense of the future. Clothes are hung on hangers without any mannequins, which is different from the simple luxury of building BALENCIAGA stores in alexander wang era. Demna Gvasalia, the current creative director of the brand, hopes that Balenciaga store can give people a personalized, intimate and real feeling, not just a "luxurious" hall.

Except for boutiques all over the world, most of Balenciaga's large flagship stores are of historical significance, and they will adopt corresponding colors or materials that meet different architectural styles in different places, but on the whole, they will show a sense of industry and futurity, and complement the brand clothing.

Since last September, Balenciaga first introduced the concept of "primitive architecture" in Si Long Street, London, and then continued to promote it in Berlin and Shanghai. Until recently, new Pound Street, the largest Balenciaga flagship store in Europe, was designed by Niklas Bildstein Zaar, artistic director of Studio Sub in Berlin, and Andrea Faraguna, an architect. In fact, this studio of Sub has cooperated with Balenciaga several times. Recently, it is well known that the Fall/Winter 2022 collection created by Sub for Balenciaga got the stage-giant glass snowballs, models struggling in artificial snowstorms ... full of metaphor, majesty and magic sense for the future.

This feeling can also be felt in Balenciaga's new concept store. Each floor seems to symbolize the degradation or construction stage of the building. Concrete, oxidized metals, worn-out textiles and synthetic dirt are everywhere. The internal structure of the building is intentionally preserved, and mottled walls, weathered doors or floors, pipes or wires are clearly visible. The "unfinished" vision creates a sense of depression, which Niklas Bildstein Zaar, the artistic director of Sub, rated as "warehouses, parking lots and empty galleries-these places hold the most abundant activities. 」

This sentence can't help but remind people of the subculture scene injected by Demner in his design-the dilapidated underground space always attracts many subculture groups wearing strange clothes to come to the carnival. On this basis, compared with the exquisite futuristic feeling of the previous stores, the original building of this new retail concept retains the "traces" of the past buildings, and derives a natural roughness and wildness, but adds a sense of story or soul. This change in style seems to be found in Balenciaga's gradually primitive and evolving fashion style.

In fact, this real and dangerous industrial style is also common in avant-garde fashion brands boutiques or buyers' shops, but it is basically not found in luxury brands. "The newly designed space continues Balenciaga's original architectural concept, retains and responds to the existing site, and affects the unfinished or ongoing quality. Its roughness and disqualification contradict most of the polishing environment of the store (now). From the brand's response to the new original building.

In addition, the less you get from the building, the less waste you produce, which means the less "new" materials you put in. This concept of sustainable development is also one of the reasons why Demner insists on primitive architecture. Just like the "doomsday feeling" that he often uses in his design, there is also a meaning of calling on everyone to protect the earth's resources.

Of course, the vision of a fashion/luxury retail store cannot be supported by architectural style alone. Now most boutiques or buyers will create a complete visual concept through the furniture and devices in the store, and Balenciaga is no exception.

In this regard, Balenciaga has always insisted on a project called "in-store art". For example, in the recently opened store in New Pound Street, London, Balenciaga put sitting furniture designed by Dutch designer Tejo Remy. The raw materials of this sofa are all from Balenciaga's unsalable fabrics and scraps. Like the concept of original architecture, it aims to reflect the brand's ecological commitment.

Prior to this, Balenciaga used to create artistic installations by artists from all walks of life and put them in shops. In 20 17, street artist Mark Jenkins created three human sculptures in Balenciaga costumes, which were placed in the retail store of Balenciaga Madison Avenue. In the same year, the two sides continued to cooperate. Mark Jenkins created sculptures "Head to Head" and "Head to Wall" and placed them in the BALENCIAGA exhibition area of Colette boutique, also wearing the ready-made clothes of this brand.

As always, the surreal visual presentation of Balenciaga always makes people feel uneasy. Subsequently, in the 20021autumn/winter series, Balenciaga teamed up with the German artist Moreno Schwweikle to create an advertising blockbuster, and invited artists to build a "beverage machine" and take it to retail stores in Europe, China and the United States.

As for this year, after Crocs cooperated with BALENCIAGA, the latter invited Berlin artist Anna Uddenberg to put on an invisible face outside Milan store and show her cooperative shoes in a twisted posture. Similarly, Anna Uddenberg also created similar sculptures to shoot Crocs x BALENCIAGA advertisements, exploring how to combine body image with fashion items or practical products to reflect social norms.

These are the artistic achievements of Balenciaga's "Art in Shop" project in recent years. Although different artists convey different values, their weird and surreal feelings echo the current Balenciaga style. In the future space where there are not too many flashy things, these sculptures can add a sense of unreality to the store, thus catching the eyes of consumers.

Although we don't know whether Demna will spread the concepts of "primitive architecture" and "in-store art" to stores in more areas, it is undeniable that the current brand trend has many similarities with Demna's view of beauty and BALENCIAGA's vision.

This coincidence is always interpreted by Demner in a clever way. For example, in the BALENCIAGA store in New Pound Street in London recently, consumers will receive a red carnation from the clerk when they leave. In fact, it is the favorite flower of Cristóbal Balenciaga, the founder of the brand. The sans-serif logo of the brand is printed on the glass ... It seems to be an unintentional move, but it actually implies the brand allusion, realizing the integration of classic and modern in details.

# Balenciaga # # Art # # Architecture # # Fashion #