Balenciaga F/W 2008.09 Paris

[cutxpaste]

i love the ribbon fabric tops... i think this is a very good collection.

 

[Surfhus]

A little disappointing, even the shoes aren't that great

 

[Symetrie]

I adore everything in this collection, everything but the latex boots. It seems out of place.

 

[sarah13]

^ I'm pretty sure Balenciaga does it's own costume jewelry, which I remember reading that all of the jewelry shown was costume, not genuine.

Yay. That means I MIGHT be able to afford it. It was lovely. Particularly the bracelets.

style.com

 

[Bidwell]

Untouchable icy chic is purely Balenciaga. He's done one hell of a job.
I think this woman probably eats men for breakfast. Brrrrhh...

 

[Multitudes]

But why does it have to be fluid? There are plenty of designers who do fluid clothes that move on the body, Ghesquiere has never really been one of those people. Why should he start now?

Nobody has ever said that he had to do fluid, I just pointed out obviously differences between the "house and founder" and Ghesquiere.

I think the real strength of this collection is the fact that after years of frou, silliness and girlish excess, a designer is finally saying that you can retain your femininity without giving up an ounce of strength, you can be powerful without becoming androgynous. That's true modernity, and something that, despite the rush to make women-friendly fashion, many designers have forgotten.

I don't know where you've been looking?! but one doesn't have to look no further than the Belgians and the Japanese, and what they have been doing for decades! and if we throw Helmut Lang and Chalayan into the mix, you'll have living, creative and forceful design.

Another thing, you have to be careful when you start to throw around words like "modernity", one might argue that it predates the 1960s, and that would make your statement a bit nostalgic, and since it seem like you're desperately trying hard to convince us that Ghesquiere has revolutionized women's fashion and even feminists discourses, and brought something "new", you might want to be more precise!

yeah it's very stiff and really unwelcoming. even down to the make-up.

Yes, it even feel quite fascist,
but Laika's vulgare and Ale's sad, will also do here!

 

[Caffeine]

Nobody has ever said that he had to do fluid, I just pointed out obviously differences between the "house and founder" and Ghesquiere.



I don't know where you've been looking?! but one doesn't have to look no further than the Belgians and the Japanese, and what they have been doing for decades! and if we throw Helmut Lang and Chalayan into the mix, you'll have living, creative and forceful design.

Another thing, you have to be careful when you start to throw around words like "modernity", one might argue that it predates the 1960s, and that would make your statement a bit nostalgic, and since it seem like you're desperately trying hard to convince us that Ghesquiere has revolutionized women's fashion and even feminists discourses, and brought something "new", you might want to be more precise!



Yes, it even feel quite fascist,
but Laika's vulgare and Ale's sad, will also do here!

It's funny to read a man's complaint on women's clothing. No I don't think that it is stiff and I'll wear these in any given day...actually I do.

 

[sarah13]

And dissecting the word "modernity". The word modern as an adjective is relating to what is present. It is silly to try and make it stagnant to the 60's. Even for sake of an argument.

Perhaps we should even use "post-modern" or post-post-modern", but that is just as silly. I understood the intended meaning by the context of the statement.

 

[Spike413]

I'm not trying to convince anyone of anything, least of all to like a collection. And clearly I can't with you Multitudes, if you're going to dissect every miniscule detail of my posts to prove your own (admittedly vague) point. You're set in your opinion, so why would mine have any impact whatsoever?

When I spoke of girlish excess, I wasn't talking about a select group of designers, I was talking about fashion as a whole, the majority, at every level of the game. Not just the tortured and avant garde.

 

[Bidwell]

Cristobal Balenciaga NEVER did fluid. Ever. He was an architect, like Worth or Ferré.

His was walking sculpture for the body.

I think Nicolas has done a CONTEMPORARY reinterpretation of that school of couture.

 

[Miss Galliano]

ooh my god those lax jackets are gorgeous .. those draps tops are gorgeous.. i love these basics colours .. i love this collection !

 

[Caffeine]

Yay. That means I MIGHT be able to afford it. It was lovely. Particularly the bracelets.

style.com

based on my past experience their costume jewelry is quite expensive...so I won't expect much

 

[Nelia]

beautiful!!!!

 

[alicebee]

Loving all the accessories. The shoes are amazing!

 

[Multitudes]

It's funny to read a man's complaint on women's clothing. No I don't think that it is stiff and I'll wear these in any given day...actually I do.

I didn't know critique was gender specific! Are the male designer who makes clothing for women also funny to you? I've always found it interesting to hear women's critique on mens clothing, but then again, I have never found the gender of the "voice" to be the most important aspect. I do know you wear Balenciaga and I have seen, and it does make me a bit sad that such a beautiful woman like you would wear this!


Sarah and Spike don't flatter yourself, my points on Ghesquiere doesn't require any of your posts. I'm not dissecting anything here, I'm asking for precision and substance, because frankly throwing around these grand labels, making generalizations so nonchalant is the only vague thing around here, which makes your comment quite ironic ...

There is nothing vague about my points, its all about movement, speed and slowness, material, matter, shaping matter through which the body can again become expressive, exclusion of the feminine and the maternal(RE: Julia Kristeva) ... salvation in materialism ... vulgare, sadness and fascist ... it's all very physical, it's all in the violence of sensation!

But yes if there is no subsatnce, the impact would be absent! Maybe a shake of the head in despair!

Cristobal Balenciaga NEVER did fluid. Ever. He was an architect, like Worth or Ferré.

His was walking sculpture for the body.

I think Nicolas has done a CONTEMPORARY reinterpretation of that school of couture.

yes Cristobal Balenciaga was architectural and sculptural, but these terms doesn't exclude fluidity, I don't think you're looking close enough, his "sculptures" are very fluid,
and the key point in your sentence for the body!

And with that last sentence Menkes should feel threaten!
"I think ..." ...


And since we're struggling with the feminine here, Judith Butler(2004) would be appropriate ...

"It’s not that I’m in favor of difficulty for difficulty’s sake; it’s that I think there is a lot in ordinary language and in received grammar that constrains our thinking – indeed, about what a person is, what a subject is, what sexuality is, what politics can be – and that I’m not sure we’re going to be able to struggle effectively against those constrains or work within them in a productive way unless we see the ways in which grammar is both producing and constraining our sense of what the world is."

And a couple of glasses of redwine to release some tension around here
would be recommendable!

Have a lovely day, Ladies and Gents!

 

[cavanaugh]

its great that this collection is bringing out such strong opposing opinions, i love everything about this balenciaga collection and it is completely in tune with my personal aesthetic of feminine beauty.

 

[gius]

it was said the collection about creating lightness in this collection..
i don't feel it at all
it's very severe and heavy
a lot of embellishment

anyhow the prints are unusual, like simulated textures
i wonder what they are based on...

 

[Alexx]

It's funny to read a man's complaint on women's clothing.

What's being male got to do with it ? Thats an awful argument!

 

[Marnii]

Genius collection. I look the sleekness of it. It's what I think of when I think of that really expensive Parisian intellectual woman.

I thought the shoes were nice except I miss the perversity of this past ideas, shoe-wise. I wish they were HIGHER! When I think of Balenciaga, I think of models who can't walk properly because the shoes are that high

 

[FogUponLA]

Great interview between Suzy and Nicholas. I love his inspiration for the collection as well as ideals behind the Balenciaga brand.

http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid959009704/bclid860202145/bctid1433966054