Balenciaga’s Demna told Vogue a couple of weeks ago about his missteps at the house. He elaborated on changing direction and no longer focusing on viral, provocative fashion moments. He would refer back to the core of why Cristóbal Balenciaga once started his eponymous fashion house. Discover Balenciaga fall/winter 2023 below.
Cover image: courtesy of Balenciaga
Balenciaga fall/winter 2023
How to save a fashion house accused of showing and encouraging child abuse? It’s a challenging task. In a personal, elaborative interview with Vogue a while ago, Demna explained how Balenciaga would return to its core. He deeply regretted how everything went, and that feeling got even more severe when thinking about how Cristóbal Balenciaga once wanted the fashion house to be seen. It led to a minimalistic Balenciaga fall/winter 2023 show and collection stripped down from meme-worthy moments. A house like Balenciaga doesn’t need these kinds of moments to be the talk of the town, as it turned out. From last November to now, Demna went through “a hell,” he told Vogue. “I needed to have a show because I need to move on. I need to liberate myself—through my work and what I do, and put it out there,” he said.
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And so he did. It led to a show that “truly represents him as a designer,” showing how Demna masters the art of deconstructed tailoring. “Tailoring is deconstructed and reconstructed from pants, placing inverted waists at hems, or recasting them as cuffs, furthering experimentation with hybridity. Pants are doubled, with legs draped over legs to create fluid motion. These concepts are applied to classic separates, in denim, leather, and outerwear cotton,” explains the press statement. All tailoring pieces were created from reversed tailoring trousers, wearing double trousers below. It gave the surrealist view of models walking on four legs, showing that Demna didn’t leave his sense of meme-worthy fashion behind. What was absent, though, was the visibility of any logos – the thing that has made Balenciaga favorable by the greater public. Perhaps it’s too soon to wear a Balenciaga logo in public or because Demna stripped the brand to its core.
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How buyers and consumers will react to this new direction for the house will remain a surprise. But so far, the online critics are mostly positive. After all, fashion is forgiving, and the show must go on.
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