excerpt: Balenciaga. Spring/Summer 2026 - Paris Fashion Week

 

"This is the first Pierpaolo Piccioli debut collection for Balenciaga, with Demna Gvasalia already revealing his debut for Gucci at Spring/Summer 2026 in Milan, being less of a switch of creative directors, but more of a rebranding of the main brands under the Kering banner. However, the switch that has occured, is the former designer for Gucci, Alessandro Michele as Valentino's new creative director, with Piccioli's sleek, modernist, couture inspired Valentino tenure from 2016 to 2024, now fusing with Demna's antithesis backlash looks for Balenciaga, and Michele's thrift, mix and match stylizations for Valentino, you would be forgiven to feel slightly confused what the outcomes will be.

And how similar and dissimilar each designer will offer to their said designs, after spending over 5 years with each of their former brands, building a style portfolio, it is an unknown. But, undoubtedly they have left an imprint, which has to be, either redefined or removed all together. A big ask, particularly in the world of conglomerate owned fashion houses, who look at share prices, rather than styles, as precursors to move a creative director along or keep them. So the key question in relation to Demna's 10 year run with Balenciaga, to be replaced by Piccioli's, as mentioned, modernist boxer shapes, is: Can he raise Demna's already high bar?..."

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(A.Glass 2025)

Full review: chiasmusmagazine.blogspot.com/2025/10/valentino-springsummer-2026-paris.html

Pre-Fall 2026 review soon.