Balenciaga will present a selection of looks taken from the 50th haute couture collection in an exhibition at the Tank Museum in Shanghai, China.
The classic museum exhibition is transformed into an haute couture salon, a showroom, a grand hall, and even a banquet hall for a five-day program of displays, tours, and performances. The couture collection and salon is located at Tank Shanghai, a museum formed of a group of five former aviation fuel containers at the site of the former Longhua airport, that was converted by Open Architecture.
Balenciaga's internal architecture team, which was responsible for the design, transformed the museum into a fabric-wrapped couture salon, showroom, grand hall and banquet room. From the museum's paved courtyard, views to the interior are shrouded by floor-to-ceiling, cream-hued curtains that wrap around the exterior of its sunken level. Replicas of salon furniture used in Balenciaga's first couture shows in 1930s Paris fill the space, while mirrors are placed in openings between the curtains to infinitely reflect the rooms they occupy.
"I'm proud to share with China this very important moment celebrating the culture, craftsmanship, and heritage of Balenciaga in an exhibition featuring my first Couture collection.” — Demna Gvasalia
