Balenciaga Marks Le City Anniversary With Damien Hirst

Balenciaga has opened the 25th anniversary of its Le City handbag with a limited-edition collaboration with British artist Damien Hirst. The capsule, nicknamed Damienciaga, puts Hirst's multicoloured spot paintings, butterflies and sticker motifs across the bag, and it's available online now.

The material facts are the bag's own. Nicolas Ghesquière designed the Le City in 2001, borrowing from a motorcycle jacket: lambskin, buckles, whipstitched braided handles and long zip tails on a slouchy, unstructured body. It was a deliberate break from the structured, logo-heavy bags around it, and it became one of the defining handbags of the 2000s. Balenciaga's archive holds 879 workshop-made examples of the design.

Hirst's pattern folds his two best-known devices into each other. Rows of round spots are arranged into the shape of a butterfly, and other versions use mandalas built from butterfly wings and imagery from his Spin Paintings. The black Medium skips the print and carries embroidered patches instead. Every piece carries a hand-lettered Damienciaga signature. The range covers the Le City in mini, small, medium and large, plus wallets, pouches, card holders and micro bag charms, and it extends into ready-to-wear including bomber jackets, hoodies and sneakers.

The prices are printed on Balenciaga's own site. On the US store, the Hirst Le City starts at $2,450 for the Mini and runs to $3,990 for the Large, with the patched Medium listed at $3,750. In the UK, a Large in black lists at £2,750. Nothing about the run is sized for volume: it's an anniversary capsule, and the anniversary is the sales mechanism.

The anniversary also has a building. Le City House, an immersive installation of archival designs, photographs and memorabilia, runs at the house's historic Paris address, 10 Avenue George V, from November 10 to 19, 2026, with personalization services including handle re-lacing and custom monogramming. It then travels to New York, Tokyo, Shanghai and Beijing. The anniversary campaign features Nicole Richie and Rachel Sennott, two of the bag's best-known carriers, which tells you who the house thinks still owns this bag's meaning.