Balenciaga F/W 2022.23 Paris

[perfect blue]

This was his best show since his debut.

 

[brandon J pierre]

Fantastic show! If only we could see the clothes properly.

there nothing to see, you already seen it all!

 

[sore]

Can't wait to see Berlin Mitte hipsters trying to buy themselves some edge with those trash bags.

 

[Phuel]

THIS.


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.


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.

Fair enough point.

However, at this point in how these brands are so obnoxiously incorporated/cynical/greedy (and with steady customer-base that often couldn’t care less about any shallow idealism regurgitated to such numbing effect, let alone the insidious individuals supposedly in attendance) to push useless merchandise at such ridiculous prices, this sort of presentation is good enough within the context of how lowest of the low the industry has stooped. It’s an absolute case of visual preference— and I will gladly take Demna’s sensibility to the mess at Schiaparelli (simply the worst caricatural, casual fashion touristy of 1980s fashion wholesale. Lazily cut and pasted to the most shallow of commercial, common sensibility to appeal to 13yo gayz raised on a strict diet of only Drag Race/Gaga/Kardashian/Yaaaaaasss Queen clownery.).

Don’t care that the show’s original conception for this Balenciaga show was another climate warning (…Zzzzzz…), and that it changed to reflect the current Russian invasion on Ukraine is deservedly a worthy change— and from a Georgian refugee, it’s an absolutely valid protest— even if only in a performative gesture. Frankly, anything is more valid than the usual representation nonsense that’s become the equivalent of First World problems from an industry that’s even more shallow and greedy than ever. (Produce and force buyers to carry size 20+ and see how well that sells next to all the 2s and 4s-- if it even sells.)

The current state of fashion is embarrassing and it’s nothing I want strangers to know I’m passionate about of me. I’d gladly support and endorse another Demna’s Balenciaga/The Gap (if only critically since no way would I wear any of this nonsense), if the presentations are as consistently strong (even appropriated, repurposed from greater visionaries as this show is), before I would even bat a lash for the untalented waste that’s Pyer Moss, fully exploiting representation and guilting the impressionable and nothing more (that, I find so more insulting and people should really “wake up” to).

Support sustainability and the environment with upcycling/vintage; support representation/ethical principles through smaller brands that aren’t performative, and with local independent designers/tailors/dressmakers etc. High fashion is absolutely superficial and absolutely useless in the greater scheme of this world. And I’m with good with that, as long as the imagery is enthralling and thrilling. And this presentation… is superficially enthralling. Good enough for these dire fashion times.

 

[YohjiAddict]

It doesn’t interest me at all as clothing, which you can’t even properly see, it’s the same but done more lazily and that last dress is so ugly, it’s a sock with a giant train.

The set plus the performance aspect of the show, turns it into a memorable moment in a season where no one ventured to make something this ambitious or grand. Imagine Rick Owens’ last collection with this level of production, that would have been perfect. As it is…it’s just a pretty box filled with air.

 

[Wintergreen]

The same basic, boring disrespect to the Master's name. Nothing new.

Great marketing, though.

 

[Ravi Rampaul]

I am feeling chilly after seeing this on screen even after sitting in a hot room. Incredible show by the model . this reminded me of the winter dress i saw on a face book add 5 months ago. It was probably a long blanket hoodie much similar to military coats. but this is to be the part of this fashion exhibition now. I got one from an online store www.blankethoodies.net but i would prefer to buy a new one from a nearby store.

 

[JohannesL]

I bet Demna doesn't has the gut to oppose global political elites by doing this stunt again for the current war in ME. In retrospect, the set of the this show is one of the best in my recent memory.