Balenciaga Reintroducing Haute Couture

[Melancholybaby]

Instagram/Balenciaga

 

[Benn98]

I find the move puzzling. I mean, if it had to happen, it really should have been under Nicolas and not Demna. I actually don't hate Demna's Balenciaga unlike many on here. His pieces for me is the true definition of RTW. It's for everyday living, urban, and there's always something I want in his collections. But it's not classic nor does it rely on craftsmanship, and some say it's too disposable. So I wouldn't think of him as a couturier. Or maybe I'm looking at this through a myopic lens, I dunno.
Also the brand's current space in the fashion retail space or even in pop culture is so far away from couture it's not even funny. No, this is a vanity move. Possibly one which may have fueled his departure from Vetements.

Unless you're Chanel, Dior, or any of the big players, couture is not the cornerstone of your business nor a big earner. It will cost Balenciaga more to set the entire thing up than to make money off it. Balmain is keeping a tight lid on their couture sales performance and that makes me wonder....

 

[dodencebt]

I am actually curious to see what Demna's couture is going to look like. I'm bored by his streetwear, but his more elevated attempts at Balenciaga - the velvet gowns from SS '20, the embellished gown on Stella from FW '19 - have been very interesting or/and pleasing to the eye.

 

[Melancholybaby]

Exclusive: Balenciaga Is Returning to Haute Couture

Now this is something to get the front rows at today’s Paris haute couture shows talking: Balenciaga, which hasn’t produced a couture collection since Cristóbal Balenciaga himself shuttered his atelier in 1968, is returning to couture. Artistic Director Demna Gvasalia’s couture debut will take place in July for the fall 2020 season.


“Haute couture is the very foundation of this house,” Gvasalia said in a statement, “so it is my creative and visionary duty to bring couture back. For me, couture is an unexplored mode of creative freedom and a platform for innovation. It not only offers another spectrum of possibilities in dressmaking,” he continued, “it also brings the modern vision of Balenciaga back to its sources of origin.”


Cristóbal Balenciaga occupies a special place in the history of haute couture. Christian Dior referred to him as “the master of us all,” and undoubtedly the Spanish designer was a master of silhouette, construction, and drape. The regal elegance of his clothes defined his era, and it’s no coincidence that he closed his doors in ’68, just as the changing mores and styles of the time were ushering in the new prêt-à-porter system.


Half a century later, Gvasalia is rebuilding Balenciaga’s couture foundation. Since his arrival in 2015 the Georgian designer has made a study of the house founder’s couture silhouettes. His spectacular first collection included suit jackets that slouched forward and puffers that shrugged back, both inspired by pieces he discovered in the archive. Fall 2017 concluded with a series of dresses lifted with very little in the way of modifications from Balenciaga’s iconic couture creations of the 1950s, and fall 2018 used a high-tech computer-enabled process for moulding suits into recognizably Cristóbal-ish shapes.

But this is something different. The house is establishing a dedicated team devoted only to couture and it’s replicating the original salons at Balenciaga’s historical address at 10 Avenue George V. “This project was possible due to the success of the creative vision of Demna Gvasalia as well as the exceptional results of Balenciaga these past few years,” said Cedric Charbit, President and CEO of Balenciaga, in the same release. In conversation, Charbit added, “We’re a French house, we belong to Paris. We have to do our job so Paris couture, the craftsmanship, the people, the houses… we have to keep this alive.”

There’s honor in renewing French tradition, of course, but Charbit sees the business potential of returning to couture, too. “We already have requests for couture,” he said. “So we know there is a customer. She’s there.” What’s more, couture’s made-to-measure methods jibe with the culture’s growing concerns about excess and waste in the fashion industry. “What I feel is right about couture today is the approach is sustainable,” said Charbit. “We don’t make things that won’t be kept forever. It’s also sustainable in the way that we treat each other. I feel that most of the luxury brands today have become brands only and they’re no longer houses. I like the maison concept. When you’re a maison you’re a family. All of us, we’re missing this. I’m glad we’re bringing back that link.”

The Balenciaga announcement comes at a pivotal moment for couture. On Friday, Jean Paul Gaultier took to Twitter to say that his spring 2020 couture show, scheduled for this Wednesday, would be his last. Under ordinary circumstances, Gaultier’s news might’ve prompted concern about the place of extravagantly expensive one-off tailleurs and gowns in a fast fashion world. Now, though? Gvasalia’s influence not just on the look of fashion, but also on how brands operate has been tremendous. He might just spark a couture renaissance.
vogue.com

 

[Lola701]

All the houses of Kering are reintroducing Couture it seems. First Gucci, then YSL and now Balenciaga...
Balenciaga will never as close to Haute Couture as it was when Nicolas was there (even if Joseph Thimister was good).

So I guess, it will be a glorified Redcarpet opération that will have less importance once Demna is gone.

 

[perfect blue]

I always knew he would reintroduce Couture since he referenced vintage couture Balenciaga from the first collection in 2015-2016. It seems like he felt bogged down by Vetements so he never committed to true couture. I'm not sure what he can do since almost every couture-type piece he's done for Balenciaga pretty much has been a remake of something Cristobal did. I'm curious though.

I believe what Nicolas did at Balenciaga was pretty much couture even if it was made under RTW. His techniques, materials, and craft were way too detailed and elaborate sometimes to be RTW in my opinion. He was the one to actually revive Balenciaga and make it relevant. Demna turned it into a more mainstream and urban brand though, which is fine because if it's the designer he is, then he should be himself.

 

[Salvatore]

Well I am happy as it just gives me more haute couture to look at.

 

[GivenchyAddict]

I wonder what Nicolas thinks of this news...

 

[jeanclaude]

I expect hoodies with "BALENCIAGA" embroidered by Lèsage...and that´s it!

 

[Benn98]

I wonder what Nicolas thinks of this news...

No doubt he'll be bitter. I mean, it must sting a little, surely. Plus he can't get MAS to say something snarky because unlike Wang, Demna's Balenciaga is a commercial success. It would look like sour grapes.
Just continue churning out more Salvador Dali on acid collections for 'real women' while your boss monopolises the fashion media.

 

[Lola701]

I wonder what Nicolas thinks of this news...

Do you think he cares at this point? On one hand he must feel a certain type of way because the Pinault have tried their hardest to lower his legacy at Balenciaga but bitter about this Couture thing?
He is on the top of the world now...

 

[MulletProof]

meanwhile hedi on his 3rd house still showing powerpoint presentations full of helvetica in every meeting to prove why HC is needed lol..

kind of saw it coming with these giant velvet dresses..

 

[GivenchyAddict]

^Well Nicolas has a huge ego. Even if he is on the top of the world, he can be bitter to see how open Pinault is about doing couture again for Balenciaga but did not allow him to have more freedom on how to operate at Balenciaga back then.

I may be wrong and he may laugh with MAS about this.

 

[mistress_f]

LOL, with demna at the helm? keep it

 

[Koibito]

Thinking optimistically let’s wait till we see the collection but i dont have much expectation in Demna. Maybe haute couture standard will reach a new low lol.

 

[StoneSkipper]

Thinking optimistically let’s wait till we see the collection but i dont have much expectation in Demna. Maybe haute couture standard will reach a new low lol.

After seeing the couture collections today, I think we've already reached that new low. I'll take this.

 

[Nomar]

I'm actually very excited about this because we've seen that Demna has the potential to create some very beautiful and modern attire. He's already some great reinterpretations of the archive so I'll be happy even if he just continues doing that, because at least the spirit of the house will still be there.

That said, I'm also not going to get my hopes up because it might just be another Heidi at Celine disappointment.

 

[GIVENCHYlover]

Demna Gvasalia: We had to delay the relaunch of couture at Balenciaga until January because you cannot do couture fittings on a screen. But I think one of the most modern things I can do as a designer today is to work on couture, because it’s exceptional; it’s something that you cannot massively produce. Conceptually speaking, it’s something that fashion has lost; something where you say, Wow—this is amazing. The massiveness of this industry has to be put under questioning. Maybe this is a more important change than a new look or a new silhouette.​

US Vogue September 2020

 

[Caffeine]

No doubt he'll be bitter. I mean, it must sting a little, surely. Plus he can't get MAS to say something snarky because unlike Wang, Demna's Balenciaga is a commercial success. It would look like sour grapes.
Just continue churning out more Salvador Dali on acid collections for 'real women' while your boss monopolises the fashion media.

Some of his older Balenciaga looks were already at Couture level with prices to match, so I don't think he misses it by a bit.
I have nothing positive to say regarding today's Balenciaga so I'll just bite my tongue!

 

[Lola701]

Some of his older Balenciaga looks were already at Couture level with prices to match, so I don't think he misses it by a bit.
I have nothing positive to say regarding today's Balenciaga so I'll just bite my tongue!

I think as a pure creative, he might miss it. He was obviously frustrated by the fact that Pinault didn’t see how major the expression of creativity that was his work, was important in the development and legacy of Balenciaga.
But Vuitton is very pragmatic RTW that he can do. I’m sure he enjoy doing what he does at Vuitton because he does not give his « all » like at Balenciaga and yet, his work and ideas are appreciated by the Arnault/Burke...That being said, Couture is still another world. It’s above what he does in Redcarpet fashion.

I would love to see him do Couture. I think he can brought a freshness into that world (they need it).