Balenciaga. Pre-Fall 2025 - Paris
When Demna Gvasalia drops the garish aesthetic and its in jokes, while attempting his version of wu wei ("effortless action"), the Georgian designer, and if you haven't been aware of by now, who is also the creative director of Balenciaga, actually ends up devising something unique, and by all definition, striking, for the Balenciaga brand name. Kering, the mega conglomerate who owns the Balenciaga, share price has plunged year-on-year down over 30%, mainly due to China's slowdown and operational costs going upward. Are we going to see luxury brands pull back from large extravagant shows that have been the norm post-COVID, open up-the-economy hyper consumption of 2022?
Yet, there have been moments of lavishness on the runways of 2024, while at the same time lookbooks returning ala during the 2020 pandemic, whether or not this is a cost effective motivation of the industry is disputable, but there is no doubting, as mentioned that the luxury markets are under financial pressure. And this could be seen with the rumours of Kering's rival Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton (LVMH) owned by French billionaire Bernard Arnault, who is up there as a Elon Musk rival to whom could be the richest man alive, maybe shifting its manufacturing base to the U.S., from France. Wooed by Donald Trump 2.0, in his vain effort to turn America into a 1950s esque manufacturing powerhouse redux, with lower tax rates for companies to set up shop there.
And Kering, has already sold its "The Mall" business, an Italian based shopping chain of its Luxury brands, including Balenciaga, to the U.S. retail investment group Simon Property Group. However, low tax rates are one thing, lower operational costs are another, also if a Made in America pair of Balenciaga pants is exported to China, Trump would want to ensure that the American Dollar is way cheaper than what it is, but then you'll have inflation in America forever. So, will Americans in turn, buy the Made in China Balenciaga knockoffs? As its financially poor citizens become the manufacturing hub for the world?
Demna has, in a lot of ways, obsessively questioned American consumerism and exceptionalism within his Balenciaga statements, although at times they have been contradictory, the gist of Demna's backlash has been pricing out consumption, which was the postmodern art technique first instigated Forty years ago by the 'Italian art Radicals', such as Archizoom and Superstudio. The idea, create one off uber-garish art pieces and sculptures and price them out of reach of everyone. But, the question remains of Demna's motives, which I have asked many times with my past Balenciaga reviews; Would you pay over $1,600 USD (inflation adjusted) for a pair of 'destroyed' Balenciaga sneakers? Clearly, business will always be business, despite Demna's artistic intentions.
For Demna's Pre-Fall 2025 lookbook for Balenciaga, he has kept the collection raw and as unstructured without it becoming an overtly Avant-garde exposé, with drapey wraparound scarves, and those Balenciaga/Vetements oversized, exaggerated shoulder pad looks. Be it, Demna's reworking of streetwear, now over ten years old, influenced by the underground Eastern European rave scenes of the early 1990s, to which the attendees weren't as slick looking compared to their Western counterparts, continues to be the Balenciaga hallmark. In its charm of the slightly worn and disheveled styles, with his troupe of bedraggled looking models. Demna's paradox marches on, with or without being bankrolled by Kering, although it obviously helps, is his collaboration with Italian sports car company (have you heard of them? Sarc.) Lamborghini, with a limited run of only 630 'Lamborghini Temerario' t-shirts worldwide, which portrays their 2nd hybrid car. And Scholls, the orthotic foot care company that has been around for a 100 years (no sarc, true!), be it the Balenciaga x Scholl's sandal/heeled hybrid shoe and the odd looking "zero sandals".
There is no doubt Deman's Balenciaga holds an appeal, and he still has shown to be able to mix irony with the hyperreal, into a captivating impression. The Pre-Fall 2025 lookbook was shot entirely by Demna with his phone, inside Balenciaga's Paris showroom at the tailend of 2024. And yes, we await the limited run of an oversized Balenciaga t-shirt that reads "Trump is a Fascist" with a younger looking Trump in his 1980s heyday, dancing at a nightclub.
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(A.Glass 2025)
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