Balenciaga. Fall 2021 Couture – Paris Posted (A.Glass July 9, 2021)

 

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(Images: Balenciaga 2021)

Whilst studying Demna Gvsalia’s street styled avant garde take on Balaneciaga, to which he had morphed his former brand Vetement’s that he started in 2014, as an antifashion imprint onto the famous fashion house.  There has to be a retrospective in lieu of a pandemic that has floored and at the same time dismantled sociological and economical structures across the board, it was always going to be a challenge to bring back and redevelop aesthetics that reflect our turbulent times beyond any novelty.  And this is the sticking point for any risqué fashion designer, the counter culture or at least what we deem as rebellious nature as a cultural aspect of our society, pretty much doesn’t exist in our 21st Century digitalized world any more or less than a romanticism and nostalgia of the 1960s onward.  Demna, who is of Georgian heritage, along with his brother Guram, continue to guide the Vetement’s brand, have been able to impose an exclusivity to what they portray as antifashion statement, by redefining its purpose under the banner of luxury branding.

This Gvsalia imprint has worked extremely well, to which Demnsa when he left his brand Vetements in 2015 to join with Kering as the Creative Director for Balenciaga, with 6 years at the helm, debuting in 2016 with his Fall collection.  He has cleverly pushed the boundaries of the prestigious fashion brand, despite Balenciaga being utilized in brand name only under a conglomerate holding company, the streamlined and exclusively targeted street styles with its over sized fits have a weaved narrative that is distinctly Demna.   The subversive is always there, from his intelligent critiques of social media networks, egotism and fame, to a cultivated take on fashion which has matured from the “antifashion” statement, but not diluted. Demna offers a poignancy that very few fashion designers can muster up.  In its importance to ask the question.  Why chase markets?  In which Demna may hold that answer after deleting all of Balenciaga’s social media channels.  

In a build up to Balanciaga’s first couture showing since Cristóbal Balenciaga closed his Maison in 1968, I wrote an article for OVERDUE magazine  titled: “AZZEDINE ALAÏA COLLECTOR — ALAÏA and BALENCIAGA Sculptors of shape” for Couture 2020, detailing the relationship of couture master Azzedine Alaïa  (1935-2017) and Cristóbal Balenciaga.  I feel it is important before reviewing Demna’s couture debut to look at some of the history of Cristóbal Balenciaga, excerpt as follows:

“…for the late Alaïa, we have to go back to a part of his history that occurred in Paris to really understand his love for Haute Couture. And ironically it is this significance of Ready-to-Wear, as a growing industry in the late 1960s which was the precursor for the famed Spanish Couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga in 1968, in a very reluctant and solemn way, he decided to close his established Maison whilst informing all of his clientèle that he would no longer be crafting couture dresses. In this process of Balenciaga’s end of such an illustrious career, he carefully began to itemise and collect the many dresses and coats that the Spanish Master accumulated over the years of his atelier, producing some of the finest and most impressive of 20th century Couture. Four years later in 1972, Cristóbal Balenciaga passed away at the age of 77 in Xàbia, Spain. Prior to his death, a young Alaïa was contacted by Balenciaga’s General Director by the name of Mademoiselle Renée, entrusting the aspiring fashion designer with Balenciaga’s impressive backlog of fabrics and dresses. Offered by the Director to alter and modify Balenciaga’s archived outfits, to which legend has it, Alaïa refused, instead, he gratefully took the impressive array of Couture dresses offered to him back to his small Parisian apartment. Laying them out onto his bed, he then gave an oath that he would never alter these beautifully hand crafted and styled pieces, rather Alaïa decided that he would embark on a mission of passion to collect and archive as many of the Couture greats, so that they may be stored and appreciated for the mastery which they reflect…”

After 53 years since the couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga closed his doors to the salon, in a prelude to Balenciaga Couture 2021,  his original Maison had been restored in Paris.   Of one the very few crowd attended shows since the pandemic of 2020 Demna revealed his homage to the late master designer, what should be, a sombre, yet significant occasion.  Drawing from both Demna’s modernist and futurism cuts and Cristóbal’s brilliance, there is no doubting the skills that Demna has shown as a designer, although the imprint is very much a simulacrum of past resonance, the collection never the less feels renewed.  While being intertwined with Demna’s gentle redefining of couture, he has respected the past mastery, which is an important lesson to adhere, yet seldom is it done with any consideration.  The ghosts of the past must be treated with respect. For his first Couture showing for Balenciaga, Demna has been able to achieve his reverence to the late Cristóbal Balenciaga.