A century after the legendary Basque designer Cristóbal Balenciaga Eizaguirre first opened up shop in Barcelona, the house of Balenciaga makes a grand return, opening a boutique on the city’s most fashionable shopping artery. Situated on bustling Passeig de Gràcia, rubbing shoulders with luxury industry peers such as Saint Laurent, Montblanc, Dolce & Gabbana and Bottega Veneta, the now Paris-based fashion brand occupies a spacious 365 sqm. (3,929 sq.ft.) spread across two floors of a monumental building. The store interior, designed by the brand’s in-house design team, adheres to the vision of creative director Demna Gvasalia, and is an extrapolation of sorts of the Balenciaga flagship store in the French capital, featuring aluminium, glass, concrete, sleek light fixtures and carpeting boldly embossed with its logo. The lofty ground floor presents the women’s ready-to-wear and accessories collection, and when going downstairs to the basement, by way of a staircase captured in raw concrete, shoppers find the more compact men’s domain. Here, the setting transforms, featuring somewhat bolder fixtures, materials, and last but not least, colours, notably the embossed carpeting in a bright blue shade.