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While Demna’s Balenciaga may be famous for its off-centre attributes and “meme-worthy” sensations, his persistence to corrupt the orthodox makes it tick every time. His debut collection, Fall 2016, perfectly showcased a compelling discordance between the temptations of high fashion and the modest, at times average, realities of life.
It was imbued throughout the collection’s atmosphere without using spoken words, texts, or an extensive set design.
Instead, the creative director achieved it by focusing solely on the garments, accessories and casting. Run-of-the-mill denim jackets, puffer windbreakers, trench coats, ‘gaudy’ floral dresses, and the infamous wet-market stocked totes — all unassuming pieces of daily wear — were disassembled and sewn back the way an experienced team of couturiers would, and worn on unsigned, inexperienced models scouted from the streets of Paris.
It was a performance of prohibition that has unmistakably resulted in a compelling rendition of counterculture that was once considered lost in the French fashion scene.
Again, this was quite the case with Spring 2023 — Demna’s thirty-first collection for the House and his first show in New York City. It tugs at the same thread, but this time approached on a much larger scale. The preceding Winter 2022 collection was staged with an extensive show space; the concord-discord methodology first introduced seasons ago has now been received by a larger, global audience.
True to his counterculture inklings, the new collection utilises the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange as its runway, where models pranced between actual desks of Wall Street financial analysts and brokers while dressed in fetish, latex bodysuits.
Much of the collection roves around the fantasy of duality, where we first notice it as a contrast between the imagery of salaried men (stiff, uniformed) and displays of fantasies (liberation), as well as the new collection layered on top of the latex that covers the models. But it is the Balenciaga / Adidas collection that showcases this the most.
Just as familiar and ordinary articles of clothing were once re-contextualised in the language of couture, the new collection borrows sportswear codes to place further emphasis on its polarity.
Several looks spot a team badge or trefoil logo on ready-to-wear, shoes, bags, jewellery, and accessories. Even more iconic are the Adidas-branded iterations of the Triple S and Speed Trainers and a Balenciaga-brand iteration of the Stan Smith sneaker.
Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our November 2022 issue!
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