His Future Is Now

His space-age vision thrilled on the Paris runway. Now, Nicolas Ghesquiere is ready to take on L.A.

Booth Moore
August 3, 2008

It's a cloudless day in L.A., and Nicolas Ghesquiere is showing me around his greenhouse. It's actually the new Balenciaga store in the pool blue shadow of the Pacific Design Center, but it could well be some otherworldly garden. Here, in this spectacular tinted glass space on Melrose Avenue, the color-daubed dresses and tops from his spring collection hang like hothouse flowers.

"When you drive by at night, it looks like the whole store is blue and moving," Ghesquiere says, gazing out at the cacti in front of the Space Age meets California Organic building, which he designed with French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.

For a Parisian, he's really got this L.A. thing down.

The truth is Ghesquiere, 35, is no stranger to this city, where he has been shooting the Balenciaga ad campaigns for four seasons, holing up at the Bel-Air for a week at a time and planning the store, the second Balenciaga location in the U.S. He even has a list of favorite spots: Matsuhisa, Sunset Tower, the Polo Lounge, Arcana bookstore in Santa Monica.

"I understand why people live here," he says.

JOURNEYS; 36 Hours | Santa Monica, Calif.

By STUART EMMRICH

Published: June 14, 2002

"5. Shopping Mecca

Take a walk down the Third Street Promenade, a bustling thoroughfare of restaurants, fashion boutiques, bookstores and movie theaters. In between buying a pair of baggy cargo pants at Abercrombie & Fitch or grabbing a decaf latte at Barnes & Noble, stop by Arcana Books on the Arts (1229 Third Street) to browse through its magnificent collection of rare and out-of-print books on 20th-century art, architecture and design, with everything from the collected works of the architect Richard Neutra ($150) to a beautifully packaged history of the influential midcentury arts magazine Flair ($250)."