Bally opens first London “maison”

The very first “maison Bally" has been opened in London, where the brand moved its headquarters last year. The 4,300-ft2 flagship store was recently inaugurated at 45/46 New Bond Street in a three-floor townhouse.

For the project, the Swiss luxury footwear brand has not held back. It enlisted star architect David Chipperfield to develop a new store format that will also be rolled out in Bally’s other flagship stores, with the brand aiming to open a dozen of these “maisons” in major cities. Bally also presented its newly revamped digital platform as it aims to further develop its omnichannel.

The store’s design was inspired by archived photos of a Bally store from the 1920s designed by modernist architect and furniture designer Marcel Breuer. The brand, which has previously worked with renowned architects such as Robert Mallet-Stevens, Andrée Putman, Le Corbusier and Karl Moser, has continued on a similar path by collaborating with David Chipperfield Architects, which also designed the store’s furniture.

In the same vein, new management has drawn on the brand’s heritage in its marketing efforts, aiming to go beyond the products in order to get to the heart of the brand. The goal? To shed new light on the brand through design and architecture.

The maison has begun to put together a furniture collection with Swiss designer and architect Jeanneret Switzerland. It has also purchased one of the last wooden “demountable” houses by French architect Jean Prouvé in collaboration with Pierre Jeanneret, presenting it at the Art Basel exhibition at both its editions in Basel and in Miami.

Celebrating the modernist movement, Bally is presenting a clean and precise image that showcases a functional and modernist aesthetic. Its strategy has been accompanied by the launch of an online magazine, "Function & Modernity", dedicated to design, lifestyle and travel, headed by Thomas Erber.

"Some of these pieces have been integrated into our showroom and have directly inspired our creative director Pablo Coppola. We want to present something solid that is anchored in our DNA. Everything has to make sense: the aesthetic, the design. We're creating a whole lifestyle around Bally," said CEO Frederic de Narp.

"The London store is the starting point of a new era. Everything has been revamped, from the advertising to new packaging, through new collections and services available in the new store, including a floor set aside for unique services for made to measure footwear” continued Bally’s CEO.

On the second floor, customers can take advantage of new services such as made to order, made to color and a “shoe care” service, not to mention a shoe shine! The basement, meanwhile, is home to the men's collection while the ground floor is set aside for women's fashion.

The brand is currently distributed through 400 multibrand clients and 300 single brand stores, 100 of which are located in airports. China, where it has 60 points of sale, is its biggest market.

Bally opens first London “maison”

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