MOUNT BALMAIN: Balmain has moved its London store, but it hasn’t gone far.

The brand, which opened a flagship on South Audley Street in 2015, has moved around the corner to 94 Mount Street, with neighbors including Simone Rocha and Marni. 

Balmain’s new, 1,077-square-foot store houses the women’s, men’s and accessories collections, and there is also a private suite for VIP appointments.

The store soft launched earlier in March, with creative director Olivier Rousteing officially cutting the ribbon this week with a cocktail for customers and a small, private dinner for friends and collaborators.

“Knowing that London is such an important destination for both British and international fashion lovers, it was very important for me and my team to create this special, one-of-a-kind environment, where we could welcome our guests into a distinctly Balmain universe,” said Balmain chief executive officer Jean-Jacques Guevel. 

Guevel said the interior of the new store was “directly inspired by the look and feel of Rousteing’s fitting rooms, where he and the house’s artisans oversee the final touches needed to perfect each new collections’ offerings. By channeling that unique house space, we not only have the opportunity to present our latest designs, we can also take advantage of that interior design to spotlight what truly sets today’s Balmain apart.”

The Mount Street space has in the past housed Pringle as well as an art gallery. The new store sits across the street from Scott’s and is a few steps from the Connaught Hotel, Christian Louboutin and Creed Fragrances.

To mark the opening, Rousteing held a private dinner at Apollo’s Muse, Richard Caring’s new private members club, with guests including Jourdan Dunn, Maria-Olympia of Greece, Poppy Delevingne, Isamaya Ffrench and Sam McKnight.

POWER COUPLE: To mark the centenary of the Villa Noailles, the modernist home built by art patrons Charles and Marie-Laure de Noailles in the southern French town of Hyères, Chanel hosted a musical performance on Thursday at the 7L library in Paris, in the space that used to be Karl Lagerfeld’s photo studio.

Shelves lined with a staggering 33,000 books provided the backdrop for a preview of “Ressusciter la Rose,” the opera based on an original idea by Jean-Pierre Blanc, director of the Villa Noailles and founder of the annual Hyères International Festival of Fashion, Photography and Accessories.

“The place where we are tonight is unique,” said Bruno Pavlovsky, president of fashion and president of Chanel SAS. “It reflects its creator’s immense culture and insatiable curiosity for all the arts, including music, song, architecture, design and dance.”

Performers including French singer Camélia Jordana sang excerpts of the work, composed by Raphaël Lucas, dressed in white costumes created by artist Jacques Merle and embroidered by Montex, one of a stable of workshops owned by Chanel.

Members of the Wonsembe acrobatics troupe tumbled through the room as part of the spectacle, which will be performed in full on Sept. 16, 17 and 18 at the Villa Noailles.

It was part of a program of satellite events in Paris, Hyères and Marseille to mark the kick-off of the centenary celebrations, a multipronged affair that will also include a documentary film by Karim Zeriahen, and an exhibition dedicated to the wardrobe of Marie-Laure de Noailles.

“If people still talk about the Noailles today, it’s because they played a huge part in our country’s artistic activity in the early 20^th century, and they had this extraordinary aura that few other art patrons enjoyed, at a time when the Culture Ministry did not exist,” Blanc told WWD.

“They supported these artists not just for one-off events, but almost their whole lives, by providing for them financially and nurturing their artistic endeavors, and that is really exceptional,” he added.

Among the artists the couple hosted at the Bauhaus-inspired villa, designed by architect Robert Mallet-Stevens, were Man Ray, Luis Buñuel, Salvador Dalí and Jean Cocteau.

Lagerfeld was among those fascinated with the place. In 1995 he published a book of photographs of the Villa Noailles, which had fallen into abandon before its 2003 renovation, and in 2015, he was the artistic director of the Hyères Festival. “Karl Lagerfeld changed the course of my life,” said Blanc.

Chanel is a major sponsor of the centenary, and 7L will publish new editions of the poems and novels of Marie-Laure de Noailles, who traveled in the same circles as founder Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel and regularly wore the designer’s haute couture creations.

In Paris, several galleries and institutions launched teaser events on Thursday. The India Mahdavi gallery is hosting screenings of “Les Mystères du Château de Dé,” a 1929 film shot by Man Ray at the Villa Noailles, while the Galerie du Passage has photographs of Marie-Laure de Noailles by the likes of Willy Maywald and François-Marie Banier.

Purchased by the city of Hyères in 1973, the Villa Noailles is set to undergo another round of renovations starting next year.