Moodboard (1st Published on 6/2/23 12:39 PM): The raw architectural design of the new Balenciaga store in Hamburg, Germany. The concreate interior has been made to look, worn, water stained and weather beaten. Akin to a disused factory space left to the elements of time.

 

___

"...Demna's artistic backlash of fashion, is not in reflection of the ludicrousness of that once starving artist who after many years, begins selling his or her art at Five digit figures.  Even though the 1980s and early 1990s NYC art scene holds a variety of examples of that rarity from 'rags to riches'.  Demna's simulacrum of 90s artistic romanticism, is just that, a romantic inclination of an era that came and went.  If Demna's homage to the 1980s and 1990s is portrayed as an overpriced destroyed sneaker, it would be Kering, the holding company for Balenciaga that appears so far to be writing blank cheques for Demna's artfulness of the Balenciaga brand name.  So the questions have to be asked.  Is Demna's clothing for Balenciaga considered artwork?  And why would I collect it?

On April 17th 2023, the German urban designer studio 'Sub' was commissioned by Kering, under the guidance of Demna to design a Balenciaga store in Hamburg, Germany, to which the Pre-fall 2023 lookbook appears to have been photographed.  A stripped back and raw space, that is not stylized Brutalism in its design but rather an impression of decayed urbanism as in a worn looking underground carpark and a weather beaten factory space, which includes curtains made to look water damaged.  Demna's Balenciaga in its overall concept holds an attractive absurdism, that as a viewer one may look through the hype and see an obvious duplication of artistic concepts.  A luxury brand infusing itself with decay and deconstruction, where if one wishes could take and rework themselves without buying into the Balenciaga product."

___

(A.Glass 2023)

Please also refer to my full Balenciaga Pre-Fall review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2023/05/balenciaga-pre-fall-2023.html