excerpt: Balenciaga. Couture 2025/2026 - Paris

 

"After 10 years, Demna Gvasalia has held his final show, and to be a complete finale for Balenciaga, it was a couture showing, which in his ten year tenure, Demna was only able to offer five couture collections, including this one, to be his last.  Considering, although in name only, that Balenciaga was a couture exclusive under Cristóbal Balenciaga, before Ready-to-Wear became the runway favourite for the fashion industry template, followed by other seasonal collections.  Demna's homage, in its irony, is of course in name only, in the shape of Demna's Balenciaga, be it of his exaggerated, postmodern pieces, with only a slight nod to the late Cristóbal himself.

The transfer of Demna from Balenciaga to Gucci under Kering, the holding company who owns both these luxury brand names, was not a creative decision, but solely a business one.  Kering, which is owned by French Billionaire François-Henri Pinault, in desperation to its falling share price, which has plunged 37% in one year, mostly due to Gucci's collapsing sales, and mostly to do with the Chinese consumer tightening their belts, since in our strange hyperreal world, we no longer have recessions,and inflation is called high costs of living.  The luxury sector, like everything else, is unable to bypass the reality that capitalist markets eventually do go bust..."

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(A.Glass 2025)

Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/07/balenciaga-couture-20252026-paris.html