NEW YORK, Dec 23, 2002/ --- Balenciaga's coming back to the Big Apple. 7th on Sixth confirms that Nicolas Ghesquiere plans to show his fall/winter 2003 women's ready-to-wear collection during New York Fashion Week.

The 3pm show on February 13 will be followed by an afternoon fete to celebrate the opening of Balenciaga's new Chelsea boutique.

Although 7th on Sixth has the show scheduled and bookers at Elite say the label is already calling to line up models, Balenciaga's flacks remain tight-lipped, refusing any comment until boss Pierre Rougier returns from his holiday in the new year.

Balenciaga put on its first New York show last February. With only 200 seats available it was one of the hottest tickets of the fall 2002 season. The event drew Domenico De Sole, CEO of the Gucci Group, which bought Balenciaga in 2001, from Italy, as well as celebrity fans like Sarah Jessica Parker. In October, however, Ghesquiere returned to Paris to present his spring collection, once again well-received. Gucci reported today that orders for that collection are already up 67 percent.

For last February's show Ghesquiere teamed up with Larry Gagosian to stage the spectacle in his cavernous Chelsea gallery.

Ghesquiere certainly seems to be a fan of that New York neighborhood; Gagosian is just two blocks north of Balenciaga's soon-to-open West 22nd Street boutique. Though 7th on Sixth can confirm that the label won't be showing in the tents come February, there's no word yet on the off-site location Ghesquiere has chosen this time around. Another Gagosian get-together would certainly make for a convenient trip to the store opening, but a spokeswoman for the gallery says as of now nothing's in the works.