On Tuesday night, Alexander Wang, the new designer for Balenciaga, arrived for the opening of its SoHo store at 148 Mercer Street. It was heavy on the Italian green marble and limestone.
“I wanted it to convey a sense of timelessness and history,” Mr. Wang said.
Guests admiring the vast and imposing space, which served as an architectural backdrop to Mr. Wang’s first collection for Balenciaga, seemed to think he succeeded. One compared the 4,120-square-foot space to a bank vault. Another called it “superluxury, like being in Paris.”
But timelessness and history can be tough to invoke in a former industrial neighborhood that became an urban shopping mall years ago. On the cobblestone street, which was closed to traffic and lined with towering hedges studded with peonies and roses, signs for Club Monaco, Versace, Vera Wang and Prada announced themselves like jealous siblings.
“For a while, everyone was dying to get out of SoHo to move to Chelsea,” said Anne Slowey, Elle’s fashion news director. “And now they’re moving right back again.”
But then, fashion and real estate trends are nothing if not in perpetual flux. That includes, of course, Balenciaga, whose former flagship store on West 22nd Street was shuttered by Hurricane Sandy a few days before its former designer, Nicolas Ghesquière, departed.
“Where will things go next? The Bronx?” said Susan Gutfreund, who has been observing the recent uptick of hip in her own Upper East Side neighborhood.
Just as the store was filling up with industry insiders, Mr. Wang and a small entourage absconded for a private dinner across the street at the new Balenciaga men’s store. Guests milled about looking for him and catching a glimpse of Julianne Moore, who wore pieces from Balenciaga’s fall-winter 2013 collection.
Fresh-faced models including Hanne Gaby Odiele, a SoHo neighbor who modeled in Mr. Wang’s first show for Balenciaga in Paris last February, and Julia Restoin Roitfeld, threaded the crowd. “Vintage Alaïa,” Ms. Roitfeld said of her outfit.
In the back of the store, Amy Sacco and Ondine de Rothschild tried on a black fringed Getaria hat, named for Cristóbal Balenciaga’s birthplace in Spain.
“Very Coco Chanel,” Ms. Sacco said.
“Or is it a lampshade?” Ms. de Rothschild asked.
A bigger question — would Kanye West show up as promised? — permeated the after-party across the street at the Mercer Hotel, where the pop star was staying in between yelling, “I am God!” onstage at his Barclays Center concerts this week.
While young guests danced to the music of the D.J., Questlove, Mr. Wang, who is 29 and likes to party, jumped around like a club kid. Friends screamed his name.
“Waiting for Kanye?” one asked him.
“He’s right upstairs,” Mr. Wang said.
The musician never showed. But the party, like the fashion house, endured.
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