Balenciaga. Spring 2025 - Paris Fashion Week

A trend that has been on and off since 2018 is the amorous styles, and since the end of the pandemic, it has been mostly on.  And if one is to sift through the last Four decades of societal trends and its history of the carnal, it is no mystery that the sexual revolution of the 1960s was one of the most significant and necessary impacts on our society than not.  Fast forward into the 2000s, and society has, in a hyperreal way, converted back to a 1950s template of that material desire for financial stability, marriages, mortgages and pragmatic spending that the 50s inspired, but it came attached with conservatism.  Yes, we are more conservative than our forbearers of the last Four decades and their hedonistic cues that were the 1970s and 1980s.  And one could argue further that the taboo under a societies restriction of sexual freedom, has lead to an extremity of modern pornoagraphy, with its commercialization of sex through the many digital marketplaces, has made it a lot more misogynistic and aggressive towards women.

Are we moving towards a renewed sexual revolution?  A new counter culture?  Is the controversial and antithesis Fashion designer Demna Gvasalia of Balenciaga fame leading the charge?  Despite an illusive counterculture which has yet to materialize, after Two decades of feigned financial stability through bloated mortgage markets and a prefabricated structured economic and society template which, although many may not want to admit, has aligned with Christian fundamentalism.  Mirroring, as mentioned, the 1950s, but with a broader commerce.  Demna's romanticism with backlash, within his artistic shock value has been seen more as a trivialisation, than any rebellious gesture.  However, the Georgian born Fashion Designer offered a hint pre show, before revealing his Spring 2025 collection at the Cour du Dôme in Paris, by saying "The time has come for fashion to have a point of view"

Yet, Demna despite his blunt appeal for a "point of view" ambiguity is still very much his guide for the Balenciaga showpiece, and his latest runway showing for Paris Fashion Week, included that same captivation of oddness we have seen from many Demna inspired Balenciaga runway shows.  From the quirky dinner setting, through to Demna's attempt at creating a social scene at ease with itself, less sexual tension, and more relaxed and open.  Maybe, Demna is reminiscing those late 1970s or early to mid Eighties settings, that did actually set the tone for a tryst later that evening.  But, gone are those days.  Only to replaced, yes in our strange conservative, hyperreal setting of social media ambitions, of staring at mobile phone screens, hyper anxiety, depressed mania episodes, and those psychosis laced 'party' drugs to get through the evening. 

These contrasts on display for his latest collection, could be Demna offering some ideas to the restless, while they await on the sidelines.  Be it that romanticized lower Manhattan, 1980s and 1990s Thrift store styles (not many of these store's exist anymore), which are evident throughout his Spring 2025 collection, seen as the thrown together mix and match, ad hoc formal/streetwear arrays, which have become more evident with Demna's latest Balenciaga showings, claiming that he, "likes the mess".

So, the core of the Spring 2025 collection very much remains within Demna's earlier manifestations of his Vetements roots, and when he debuted for Balenciaga in 2015, revealing his offbeat Eastern European 90s rave styles, that are becoming a lot more deconstructed, which is clearly his stalwart template for Balenciaga.  What I find appealing with his newer looks, is his attempt to enclose the Thrift, and those exaggerated rave styles between that open hedonism of the 70s and 80s, seen with the lingerie, stylized gowns and cocktail dresses.

Does the fusion work?  I would say, yes it does.  And more importantly, there are ideas on display that can be drawn from Demna's latest offering.  Which could aesthetically inspire, and subsequently cost less than a pair of 'destroyed' Balenciaga jeans selling for $2,500.

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(A.Glass 2024)