No.el dense calendar of the Paris Fashion Weekthe Sunday appointment with the show of Balenciaga always reserves great surprises, including unexpected locations and avant-garde collections. While for the FW 2022/23 season Demna had told about his past as a refugee, transforming the catwalk into a metaphor of all the difficulties that those fleeing the war must face, for the Spring Summer 2023 the Georgian designer wanted to stage a reflection onidentity. By opening the show to those who, through fashion, have given voice to every side of their personality, without filters: Ye.
From Balenciaga a mud walkway
Yesterday’s show had already been announced as The Mud Show: the set of Balenciaga was in fact a huge field of mud and puddles, which for Demna wanted to be a symbol of digging in search of truth and the desire to stay with our feet on the ground. «One must have the courage and perseverance to reclaim one’s identity. Every day becomes a battle to defend one’s self. And the more you try to be yourself, the more you get hit. But how wonderful it is to be different from each other. […] I decided not to explain my collections anymore or to verbalize my creations, but to tell a state of mindDemna explained in the notes of the show. Adding: «Let everyone be what he desires. We make love not war. “
Ye’s debut
With a decisive step accompanied by the notes of a purely techno soundtrack, Kanye Westtoday Ye, opened the Balenciaga show. A long-awaited debut on the catwalk, given the close working and friendly relationship between the rapper and producer and the creative director of the maison, not to mention the recent threesome collection with Gap. The look worn by Ye, characterized by an oversized jacket with dozens of pockets and the writing Securitycombined with biker pants of skin, immediately gave shape to a dystopian and apocalyptic imagery. Impossible, in this case, not to think of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, of the advancing soldiers, of the armed forces making room in destroyed territories.
Ye opened the Balenciaga Spring Summer 2023 show
There Balenciaga Spring Summer 2023 collection it hid the most disparate reflections and references. There was the Berlin atmosphere of the early 2000s, with its techno scene; the reference to Supreme, with the Demna version of the box logo T-shirt; the homage to Vetements, with the teddy bag that resembled the one created by Demna’s brother, Guram Gvasalia. What emerged, in particular, was the cancellation of any gender norm, to reaffirm the importance of living one’s own identity: dancers, corsets, branded underwear, transparent mesh sweaters, there are no longer distinctions between female and male, between casual and elegant, between “high” and “low” fashion.
The viral details of the show
It wouldn’t be a Balenciaga show without accessories or details destined to make people talk about themselves. For this season, Demna has sent bags on the catwalk to wear by putting the arm in a sort of glove, wooden clogs like those symbolic of Holland, very realistic dolls in logoed pouches, bags of potato chips transformed into clutch, sweatshirts and jeans completely smeared with mud. The most striking look? The one who closed the show, a leather dress entirely made up of dozens of City Bag, perhaps the maison’s best known bag. A true work of art.
Bags to wear, plush backpacks, dolls and leather: four looks from the Balenciaga SS23 collection
Backstage at the show, Demna explained her vision of the luxury. “Is it a cashmere turtleneck or can it be anything? In my opinion it can. That’s what I’ve been trying to say for nearly ten years. Soiling the clothes with mud was a reference to this. It is blasphemous to put a thousand-euro shoe in the mud, but that makes it real. Otherwise it’s just a dream we aspire to ».
At Balenciaga Demna thus continues his reflection on the role and importance of fashion, keeping in mind the reality in which we live.
iO Donna © REPRODUCTION RESERVED