Meantime, predictive minds might leap to the elegant silhouette in black-full length, balloon-sleeved, quilted and lace-trimmed drama that Gvasalia swears was inspired by the shape of Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
Obviously, Gvasalia is keeping his creative powder dry for the long-deferred launch of the Balenciaga haute couture collection that he’ll show sometime this summer, pandemic willing. They’re lavishly time-consuming hand-made pieces which will cost in the thousands for the few-but then again, doesn’t that step into the place that “fur” occupied in the first place? A brown chubby jacket on Rome’s Spanish Steps, and a coat standing against London’s Houses of Parliament are the results of hundreds of hours of chopping up and embroidering recycled cotton. So, too his lookalike “furs,” which aren’t either animal pelts or petrochemical fakes. He added that even luxury fabric suppliers who’ve been hesitant about investing in research and development of more sustainable materials are now seeing it “as a bit of an obligation.”
“As creative directors, causes a chain reaction, and we have to use it,” he said over the phone from Paris. That’s big from a brand as powerful and as influential as Balenciaga, one of the major fashion actors of the universe which calls on suppliers who do significant volumes business with them-and which is centered by Gvasalia on selling to the millennial–to–Gen Z fashion public worldwide. Almost wholly, that is, except for outstanding issues such as the the use of glue to stick sneakers together. I don’t want to look at anything else.” So everything here, beginning with the pink hoodie, emblazoned varsity-style with the words GAY Pride and swathed with a matching stole, to the black drama of the puffed-sleeve gown-like silhouette at the end, is made from recycled and otherwise certifiably okay materials. “When I started this collection,” Gvasalia said, “I said only show me sustainable fabrics. Enjoy!īut the most radical content in this Sunday morning’s Balenciaga brand-blitz is invisible. You can tune into today’s simultaneously-posted “Feel Good” Balenciaga video and not see any fashion at all-just a stock compilation of running horses, kittens, children, and ahh-inducing landscapes.
You can see what you can see about Demna Gvasalia’s pre-fall collection.