Balenciaga marks Le City bag's 25th year with Damien Hirst capsule

Balenciaga is celebrating 25 years of its Le City handbag with a limited-edition capsule by the artist Damien Hirst and a run of pop-up shops that opens first in Paris, Vogue reported Monday.

The anniversary puts the house's best-selling bag at the center of its message during a change in creative leadership, after the departure of Pierpaolo Piccioli and the appointment of Martine Rose. Le City, created by Nicolas Ghesquière, has outlasted the tenures of Alexander Wang and Demna, who offered his own Neo City version in 2020.

The Hirst line, branded Damienciaga, moves several of his best-known works onto the bag's Arena leather. The rarest pieces are painted by hand in the manner of his Spin Paintings. Designs built on his colored spots, butterfly mandalas and embroidered patches will be more widely available.

Le City House stays in Paris for nine days before opening in New York, Tokyo, Shanghai, Beijing and Seoul on a staggered schedule through the end of the year. The Paris space, at 10 Avenue George V, includes a workshop where artisans personalize bags and assess older ones for refresh services.

The bag began as a motorcycle-inspired design that Ghesquière was developing in 2000, when Kate Moss saw an early version and wanted one, according to Gaspard de Massé, Balenciaga's heritage and cultural director. The house's archive outside Paris now holds some 879 Le City models that were never carried.

De Massé told Vogue the bag is neither ultra-luxury nor mass market. “It occupies this interesting space somewhere in between.” Hirst called it “one of the most iconic bags of the last 25 years” in an email to the magazine.

Balenciaga rebuilt the bag in 2024 from 25 hand-assembled panels. On its U.S. website, Le City currently sells for $2,590 in the small size and $2,990 in the medium, with the Hirst pieces arriving as the pop-ups open city by city.