BALMAIN FLAGSHIP STORE IN PARIS
French luxury fashion house Balmain opens its new flagship store on Paris’ Rue Saint-Honoré.
March 29, 2019
The new two-story Balmain flagship store in Paris is 630-square-meters located on one of Paris’ most famous luxury shopping streets and a place of historic significance for the brand. Just a short distance away is 44 Rue François 1er where the brand’s founder, Pierre Balmain, opened his first atelier in 1945.
“I was really important to me to be on Rue Saint-Honoré,” explains Creative Director Olivier Rousteing. “We kept Monsieur Balmain’s atelier and office on Rue François 1er but opened here to be more global, more international. It was a really big step for the brand. When I started working at Balmain eight and a half years ago, I would never have dreamed of it. We’ve achieved so much every season, it makes me really happy.”
Rousteing set the creative direction for the new flagships and tapped Parisian firm Studio AMV for the architecture and interior design.
Similarly to the guiding principals behind Balmain’s collections, the space needed to honor the brand’s singular heritage but speak to today’s generation in what Rousteing calls a “historic-modern duality”.
Recalling a Parisian luxurious apartment, the boutique features several rooms, each of which houses a different collection. Wander through the bibliotheque to see the season’s hero styles and bags, the salon de jeux (complete with gambling table) to browse accessories, or the boudoir for footwear. The reasoning behind the design is to give the customer a sense of ease and intimacy as they would feel in their own home.
“Our design focus on Paris makes this Saint-Honoré opening a sort of homecoming,” Rousteing said. “Since we first began working on the concept, I couldn’t wait to bring it back here, back to the city that inspired every square inch of the interior. When I started this role nine years ago, Balmain was really a Parisian brand. Today I can say it is a Parisian brand with a strong international vision.”
