Balencaiga. Resort 2020 - Paris Fashion Week.

(Images from the designer and the public domain. Credited to the photographer/company where applicable:  Balencaiga)

As the fashion industry begins to turn inward, caught in a flux from expansive ambitions to slowing down of not just as a catchphrase but also within the markets that maybe now running out of puff.  With luxury branding which has almost completely become reliant on China and HK for sales (ironically blaming the slowdown on the recent HK protests), maybe trying to figure out the next play.  With the recent showings from Gucci and Bottega Veneta, which can also seen in their profits  - have all but plateaued.  This could be the prompt in reestablishing internal markets, aimed at the so called hyper-conscious 'Western' consumer who loves their brand names, but with the lessening spending power of Asian markets.  More so the demographics of the newer generation who have a thirst for designer name tags, even if it means just one piece, mixing it onto, as mentioned in previous reviews – thrift shop styles.  Although degrees of originality are apparent when viewed from the streets, it is amusing to see the multi billion fashion conglomerates, emulate these mix and match styles.  But, then, it could be asked; who is emulating who?  In  laying a claim to emerging styles will only evoke the ouroboros and all its tedium, when at the end of the day money talks.   And China's credit splurge in the West could be winding down dramatically.

Balenciaga's Resort 2020, in light of Michele Alessandro's stunning Gucci show for Milan Spring 2020, has decided to walk the path of the second hand looks and thrift sensibilities, under the designer banner.  Playing around with Alessandro's 'anti fashion' hedonism, creative director Demna Gvasalia's ensemble offers the same predicaments, it must be reminded that both mega brands are not setting a tune to social political cues.  Instead they are aware that designer consumption is well and alive in the West, just in higher expectations via Depop resellers.  As mentioned, we love our brands.  It's just most of the time we can't afford them.  Without the polarized viewpoints that if one is to stand back and study with just enough cynicism, they all sound the same under different branding.  There is no counter culture.  Despite Gvasalia's hyper-real Spring Ready-to-Wear 2020 showing (prior to the Resort collection), a mock European Union meeting, set within odd so-called inclusive aspects of professional (normal?) people walking in tandem with the models on show.  Humorlessness in its attempt at surreality, it failed short of impression. 

However his Resort 2020 which opened as a prelude to the Spring showing offering a more grounded perspective, albeit chasing the trend on the street. With its oversized thrift styles, Gvasalia has ensured that he the finer aspects of Cristóbal Balencaiga's iconic modernist styles hold true.  In similarity to the Spring collection, apart from the outlandish, the stripped back, layered concepts are there on show with its casual and formal overlays with couture moments intermixed.  The collection holds it own, yet this was prior the RTW styles so there is an extended reflection of similarities, which maybe Balencaiga's stockpiled patterns and fabrics being reused.