Excerpt: BALENCIAGA. PRE-FALL 2022

"If there was ever an era, in my opinion, that heralded in the beginning of that digitally enhanced, over ambitious entrepreneurial boulevard of broken dreams, it had to be the mid 1990s which, in all of its glory, was the dawn of the Internet. Now, over thirty years later in 2020, that 90’s imprint with its residual fast paced, excesses that everyone-could-make-it, has flopped into the mess that we have today. The overstretching of markets, where popular culture has been multiplied into a simulacrum and divided up on social media to serve as a countless marketing channels.  Morphing into hashtags and catch cries with its tedious and one sided Culture War that is showing no signs of abating. However, this digital social media backlash and cult of celebritydom to which, in a feigned way, creates an impression that everyone is equally connected within the cyberspace paradigm, has been explored by Demna of the many seasons during his tenure with Balenciaga.  

There is no doubting, aesthetically, Demna’s Georgian roots in growing up within the Communist Caucasus through the 1980s and as a young teenager in post-Communist Georgia, when it finally gained independence in 1991, has been reflected with his fashion designs. In his sardonic and subtle poke and Western excess, allowing his collections to be cleverly orchestrated with an added commentary on our obsession with the supernumerary, whilst designing for the prestige Balenciaga brand under the conglomerate Kering group. One could say that Demna also holds a degree of contradiction in his backlash of designer fashion by creating uber-styled clothes for international markets..."

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Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2022/03/balenciaga-pre-fall-2022.html  

(A.Glass 2022)