Kering presents the exhibition “Balenciaga by Demna”. It is accessible until July 9, 2025 and traces the career of Demna Gvasalia as the artistic director of the fashion house belonging to the French luxury goods group from 2015 to 2025.
The installation has something religious, it is created cross -shaped. It begins with the photocopy of the first email between Balenciaga and Gvasalia. In it, the brand announced that it is not interested in working. Ironically, “Balenciaga by Demna” shows, as the Georgian designer: in it managed to create an original artistic field. This takes off the house from other luxury brands and makes it a hyper -modern brand.
The exhibition shows that Gvasalia’s main source of inspiration is everyday objects. The designer gives this a luxurious dimension: the passport and the boarding pass, US dollars, shopping bags or, even more striking, a chip bag that became a bag.
The creative process of each individual piece – accessory or clothing – is explained by Gvasalia itself via an audio system. One of the chips tells Gvasalia that they have come to the studio without a bag. Gvasalia then stowed the personal objects in a chip bag. This brought the marketing department to new ideas.
Another fundamental aspect of Gvasalia’s stylistic narrative style, which is followed by the previous one, is reuse. A principle that certainly comes from Gvasalia’s experience with Margiela. A dress made of compiled bras, a jacket made of worn leather boots, T-shirts or hoodies that were put together into a dress, as well as cowboy boots that have been converted into a bag are inspiring examples of upcycling.
“Demna by Balenciaga”: The reconstruction of a contemporary cultural heritage
Part of the exhibition is also the now iconic speed trainer from 2017. “This is the first sneaker that we designed at Balenciaga. “I wanted to just put on a sneaker that you can just put on without having to tie or anything like that. Simply a light, practical and convenient shoe. Since then, he has developed into a product that has completely redefined our way of designing shoes and has led to a completely new aesthetic of sneakers worldwide.”
Or the bell dress made of solid Guipüre tip from the haute couture. “It has no visible structural elements, apart from a few invisible threads placed inside. This creates a real modeling of the silhouette, inspired by the paintings of Velázquez,” comments Gvasalia. “The dress was designed and processed as fluently and seamlessly as possible. Then it was shaped with a technique called ‘Blocking’, a process that took almost an infinitely long time.”
The references to sportswear and workwear are clearly recognizable, as are the deconstructed suits with wide shoulders. But of course it is not allocated to the scandal that surrounded Balenciaga. The visit ends with a “Merci” of the designer in French and the handover of a catalog in the magazine style to the audience, which summarizes all exhibited pieces.
Gvasalia’s further career at Kering as the artistic director of Gucci is indicated using a bag from the Gucci × Balenciaga collaboration “Hacker Project” (2021). On the monogram of the former Italian house says “This is not a Gucci bag”. What will the future IT bag of Gucci be? The answer is still pending.
This article was used with digital tools translated.
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