Balenciaga has opened a new store in the international wing of Istanbul Airport—the largest airport in Türkiye and the second-busiest airport in Europe.
The 72-square meter space offers a custom range of current men’s and women’s Balenciaga bags, shoes, hats, scarves, and other travel accessories, such as wallets and phone cases.
The build follows Balenciaga’s site-specific Raw Architecture concept, inserting elements indicative of liminal spaces within retail hubs—creating a dissonance of textures that respond to existing structures.
Smooth, untreated concrete walls and shelving, a poured concrete floor, and industrial-style metal units of display and storage are balanced with a delicate lighting system, a backlit membrane ceiling panel, beige carpet, and cream-colored velvet seating—warmth that echoes the terminal’s storefronts, which are clad in curvilinear bronze borders. A corner façade is affixed with a lightbox on one side and two front lit Balenciaga logos on the other—large and small, above and beside a raw iron steel-framed entrance.
The new store is the first of its kind in the airport, open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is also the only duty-free Balenciaga location in the region, operated in partnership with IGA and Unifree Duty Free.
