Balenciaga collection spring-summer 2009

PARIS, 12 June 2009 (AFP) – The luxury off-the-peg womenswear fashion house Balenciaga (PPR) announced on Friday 12 June that it had opened its first two boutiques in mainland China and expressed its intention to develop its implantation there.

The label, property of Gucci Group (the luxury branch of PPR), specified in a press release that it had opened an own name boutique in Shanghai and another in Hangzhou at the end of May.

The brand is currently present in China in several multibrand stores, stated a spokesperson.

“We have the intention of increasing our presence in China, where long-term growth prospects have revealed themselves to be solid and sound,” declared the president of Balenciaga, Isabella Guichot, in the press release. She specified that Balenciaga has created a subsidiary with a local partner as part of this goal and “projects opening at least two stores in the year to come”.

The boutiques will stock the off-the-peg collections and accessories designed by the artistic director of the house, Nichola Ghesquière.

According to the press release Balenciaga owns 26 boutiques throughout the world. The label is present in Europe, Japan, the USA, the Middle East, Russia and Brazil.

By Jonathan Fulwell (Source: AFP)