Balenciaga Flexes Its Muscles at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace
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Balenciaga today unveiled an enlarged 2,800-square-foot store at the Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. The unit features handbags, accessories, shoes and sunglasses, along with the addition of men’s and women’s ready-to-wear collections.
With its business growing in North America, Balenciaga has opened a spate of stores in the last year, including in November a shop-in-shop at Holt Renfrew in Vancouver. In June, Balenciaga unveiled a 6,000-square-foot flagship at 338 North Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Expansions in the pipeline include units at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., and at Bal Habour Shops in Bal Harbour, Fla. Balenciaga in November will open a store at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre in Toronto.
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Balenciaga in September opened a 4,000-square-foot flagship at 620 Madison Avenue in Manhattan that represents artistic director Demna Gvasalia‘s urban retail concept, which has an industrial spirit with touches of metal, concrete and shades of gray.
The Madison Avenue flagship has elements representative of both industrial and service-oriented environments and many of the same elements on display at the Forum Shops. However, the latter’s design seems a bit flashier in deference to the Las Vegas ethos.
A conveyer rail system for displaying rtw — a new Balenciaga signature — is seen throughout the store.
Ceilings are lined with track lighting and office-like tubular lamps. The Balenciaga logo, which was redesigned by Gvasalia, is embossed across the gray carpeting. Block-shaped benches for seating are upholstered with public transportation patterns and arranged in a rough Stonehenge-like circle.
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