On September 29th, Balmain opened an uptown New York City store, at 650 Madison Avenue. At any other point of time, this would register on the fashion industry news cycle, and thanks to attendant party and photo-ops, your IG feed. Yet right now that opening is taking on greater, and different, resonance. For one thing, Balmain’s space sits in the shadow of the shuttered Barneys New York, a grim and poignant reminder of the havoc that was being wreaked on the city’s physical retail scene even before our current situation. And for another, the specter of COVID still stalks New York, just as it does almost everywhere else in the world. Opening Balmain New York at this precise moment of time feels like the most glorious and optimistic volley into the darkness of our increasingly unpredictable future.
Still, it’s hardly surprising that it’s Balmain—or more accurately, the house’s creative director Olivier Rousteing—who’s doing the lobbing. Let’s remind ourselves that it was Rousteing who, as Paris was emerging from a strict lockdown, loaded up a bateau mouchewith models, a resort collection that he and his team had designed during le confinement, and sailed up the Seine to give bystanders on the quais a no-holds-barred fashion blowout.
That was one way to say: WE’RE BACK! This is another. The store features a gallery space visible from outside, to highlight the work of artists and the house’s collaborations, before opening up into several smaller rooms dedicated to different aspects of the Balmain universe, the decor pitched somewhere between gilded Paris salon and the kind of upfront gloss that New York has always done so well; a glance at the gleaming reflective interiors gives more mirror action than you’ll currently see at the Studio 54 show at the Brooklyn Museum.
Days before his spring 2021 show, Rousteing spoke via email about the opening, the reinvention of the P-B Balmain monogram that Pierre Balmain himself launched to celebrate his own NY store in 1970—there are a couple of new limited edition BBuzz bags in that very motif—and why Rousteing, long a fan of the city, still has New York on his mind.
Olivier, what does it mean to be opening a store on New York’s Upper East Side, an area that’s always had this iconic—and filmic—quality to it?
And uptown, especially, is incredible. The noise, the bustle, the architecture, the crazy traffic and the crowds—there’s an excitement that I find truly inspirational. I have so many great memories associated with uptown (not the least of them being the Met Ball) and I’m very pleased that this house will once again, 50 years after the first Balmain Madison Avenue boutique opened, have a flagship in that one-of-a-kind neighborhood.
What did you want the store to look and feel like?
Years ago, when I first began working on the new concept for the Balmain boutiques with the amazing trio of women at Studio AMV (our architects, based here in Paris)—the most important thing was our shared determination to bring Balmain’s vision of Paris to each and every part of the world. So, we played on the idea of a Parisian hôtel particulier, making each part of the store channel one room of a classic Parisian townhouse (garden, library, boudoir, etc).
But for this Madison Avenue address, we wanted to be sure that we created a space that fit into the unique spirit of Manhattan. So, AMV and I adapted our Balmain prototype, in order to reference the unique ambiance of NYC—the streets, galleries and incredible loft spaces… Yes, we did include many of the furnishings that people who have seen our flagships on Saint Honoré recognize and the Parisian influences remain, but we also added a bit of that tougher, urban attitude that sets New York apart; exposing workings that we might have covered up elsewhere and putting the opening focus on a very cool all-black exposition space, which was inspired by the amazing galleries of New York that I love so much.
There’s also the undeniable fact that you’re opening Balmain New York in the midst of a pandemic; talk to me about that.
Being in lockdown for so long this spring and facing the fears and sad news daily affected us all, of course. But we always made sure to remind each other that this is a house that has continually set itself apart by its audacity and optimism.
I was listening the other day to an old recording of Pierre Balmain, which he gave to French radio in 1954. He made one small comment, which hit me—he was reminding the audience that when he founded his house, in 1945, things were definitely not all that easy here—after all the years of war, occupation and suffering, he had decided to make a bold bet on a better future in a newly liberated France. He was young and bold—only 31—and I think that his youthful optimism, energy and spirit helped him make it through a time that was filled with shortages, outages and non-stop worries.
Yes, today we are facing some big challenges and concerns. And it’s not just a pandemic. In fact, we’re facing a multitude of enormous issues that we have all avoided dealing with for way too long. But I’m optimistic. My personal story itself makes very clear that change and progress is possible. Someone like me wasn’t supposed to end up in the position that I ended up in—me, being here, now—it shows that change can happen, things can improve.
But there’s a long way to go and the need for us to fight for true change becomes more and more obvious every day. That need and desire for change is the message that I see on the streets now and believe in. There’s a new generation that is aware of our power and our possibilities and that’s why we see that empowering diverse mix on the street, pushing for overdue changes. They give us all hope.
Of course we all are very aware of the retail challenges today—believe me, we’ve had more than a few meetings about those concerns! But we also know that New York is an amazingly resilient city.
Pierre Balmain used a special monogram for his own Balmain boutique’s decor decades ago. Why did you want to bring it back?
There’s something about powerfully graphic monograms that has always attracted me, ever since I was a teenager. The house archives show how Pierre Balmain has been playing with ideas around a “PB” monogram since the sixties, and I’ve long wanted to do something with his designs from fifty, sixty years ago that are still so fresh.
While preparing for our new Madison store we started exploring the look of our first American address, which was in the same neighborhood and which opened 50 years ago, in 1970. That space held a special carpet that Pierre Balmain designed, relying on an entwined “p” and “b”. And Pierre Balmain seems to have really liked the look of his design—he brought it back to Paris for the revamp of our Paris flagship [at 44, rue de François Premier].
And then he adapted those monogram designs, in order to use them on several of his men’s and women’s accessories, ready-to-wear and couture designs in the early ’70s. We always need to adapt and be right for the present. So, we’ve updated Pierre Balmain’s fifty-year-old pattern for our latest accessories and designs, making sure that they are very right for today’s moment and reflect today’s Balmain.
Ha! What don’t I miss?! It seems so surreal that we’re shut off from each other. And it already feels like this has lasted years. I can’t wait to get back to seeing my American friends, of course. But most of all, I miss the city’s amazingly dynamic spirit. That buzz of New York always gets me. The moment I land on its street, I feel that much more alive, awake and excited.
It is clearly a city apart— always changing, always evolving, with a young, diverse and engaged population that I believe reflects both the potential and the true beauty of today’s world much more than any other place that I know of. When I first came to New York, a long time ago —during my very first year as Creative Director of the house—my entire team kept laughing with me, because I couldn’t stop exclaiming, every single time we saw or did something new: “I love New York!” And the city still gives me that same thrill, years later. I CANNOT WAIT TO GO BACK.