THIS.
It was an uncomfortable watch, and veered perilously close to using a humanitarian crisis as an aesthetic.
The Guardian
The staging of the show was incredible and very FASHUN in that kind of Zoolander way, but to be honest, this whole creative exercise makes absolutely no sense. For a start, the clothes are quite
average compared to what he has done before. In fact, I thought his previous collections would have made more sense in the context of this show. For example the closing looks of the A/W 2018, where the models were wearing (what seemed like) all the clothes they had in one look, almost as if they were escaping from somewhere in a stage of urgency with everything they had.
But then I read the notes about the show, and suddenly it all made sense. This was nothing to do with refugees and the crisis in Ukraine. It was about the
climate emergency. The whole Ukraine thing was tacked onto the end in the process of making this show to be topical and make headlines.
When the show was planned six months ago, the snow scene was intended as a comment on the climate emergency. “It was about what snow might mean in the future. And by the future, I mean now – when there are ski resorts that don’t have snow any more,” said Demna, who no longer uses his surname, Gvasalia. “But then it took on a whole different meaning, because of the crisis we are in.”
The Guardian
I don't know, the whole thing feels very
uncomfortable to be honest. I find what Kering and Balenciaga doing to be very performative in terms of activism. A big customer base of Demna's is Russian and a lot of his top top clientele is Russian. Look at the women who were buying from his first Couture collection. I am sure that most of them have very dubious links to the people in power there. Are they going to be banned from future shows? Or refused access to his couture? OF COURSE NOT. Because at the end of the day $$$ talks.
On the surface, the company will take a stance to seem all ethical and moralistic, but behind closed doors, when all that money is being transferred into the bank accounts of Kering/Balenciaga via that same Russian clientele to pay for the Haute Couture and the high end pieces, do you honestly believe Kering will take a stance there and knock back all that money? I don't think so.
And that issue in itself leads to other questions being raised, like, at which point do ethics and morals end when it comes to money in the fashion industry? I know
for a fact that there are
actual arms dealers attending these fashion shows and sitting front row. Where is the sense in that? You invite and court these customers but at the same time denounce war, which is being fought with weapons traded by these same people that are your clientele? Sorry, but these brands are so full of sh*t!
Wake up people. It's all theatre intended to get clicks and likes and shares on social media and in the press. It's shameless.
