Excerpt: Balenciaga. Pre-Fall 2025 - Paris

 

"...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..."

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Full review:  chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/02/balenciaga-pre-fall-2025-paris.html

(A.Glass 2025)