Balenciaga’s 51st Haute Couture Collection
COURTESY OF VOGUE RUNWAY
Presenting the dystopian thrills of the fashion multiverse, Balenciaga’s haute couture opened its 51st show. The invasion of the spiked high tech collection encased in black neoprene was produced by Demna Gvasalia. His introduction to his second couture collection for the house, “This year I decided that I needed to put more of myself into it, and kind of find a new future, you know?” The lineup started with a futuristic idea, almost representing gazar in 2022. Invention is central to moving the art of couture forward. Gazar was the sculptural silk which Cristobal Balenciaga invented with the fabric manufacturer Abrahams in 1958, in order to create the magnificently voluminous gowns he became known for. Demna shaped the hyper-molded scuba and dresses into a second skin. Engineered with a new kind of neoprene, made in collaboration with a Japanese manufacturer using, he noted, a “limestone” technique “which is more sustainable.” (Vogue Runway).
A highly recognizable Demna Balenciaga signature, Kim Kardashan has been the silhouette vehe of the house. Faces were revealed in the second half of the show, along with Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa, Naomi Campbell, and Bella Hadid. The sensation started with the dark, tailored elegance of Balenciaga couture aesthetic. Demna took the streetwear Balenciaga once was and elevated it to a designer fashion status. Hoodies, sweatshirts, worn-out denim, and parkas— some made of upcycled originals, others shot with aluminum to create crinkled couture-like volumes—followed the dystopian Balenciaga neoprene tribe. (Vogue Runway). The brand continues to find ways to connect couture with a democratically-based youth constituency. “There are items that will be ready to buy already. After the last show, people started to ask me, ‘how do we buy it?’ People, especially from the younger generation of maybe up-and-coming couture customers, don’t know, and we want to establish the dialogue (Vogue Runway). The arc of the show was “going from the future into the past” explaining the extravagance and drama of the train trailing celebrity-walked finale.
Gloved bodysuits, dresses, gowns, denim, outerwear, gloves, turtlenecks, the architectural details of each look has carefully been curated to divulge the brand image. While the more slightly traditional couture was presented, the caviar-colored face shields identified themselves with glitter diamonds, angelic all-white looks, gloves, and futuristic gilded earrings. The more casual side of the show -the mainstays of the brand- were exhibited in a twisted, tangled, sculpted, upwards motion of aluminum bonding.
