We’re going to say it now, because it’s worth quickly dispelling any doubts. The video that you can see here in its full 10-minute version, at least for us, is pretty cool. It is the umpteenth (definitive) demonstration of how Balenciaga and its creative director, Denma Gvasalia, are not just overturning the codes of luxury, as many publications and insiders rightly write and say. Meaning, they have turned these codes inside out, stripped them of their self-referentiality, and knocked them down, starting not with a rewrite, but with a completely new narrative. So, take ten minutes and see what they did in Paris. Basically: they defeated the entire fashion system with a 3-0 score.
Look what Balenciaga did
Self-irony pushed to the limit of sarcasm. The seriousness of fashion expressed without taking itself (exasperatedly) seriously. The desirability of luxury which, in the light of its unattainability (yes: the economic one), is pilloried and overturned by 180 degrees. Fashion that rediscovers itself by relying on the faces of the inhabitants of the “most depressed city in the United States”: Springfield. Because yes: for Balenciaga, the icon of Summer 2022 is Homer Simpson and all his fellow citizens.
See what Balenciaga did, pt 2
Yes, there was a fashion show too, and you can see it in its entirety in the video below. It certainly couldn’t adhere to the usual catwalk clichés. Since the highlight was the Simpsons short film, the 64 looks designed by Gvasalia’s team were presented on the red carpet leading to the screening venue: the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Models were walking before the photographers in a film festival setting, and mingled with the guests. Then, everyone in the audience waited to unveil the mystery of an idea of fashion and luxury which, in a daring play of parts, became the prelude to its own desecration.
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