Balenciaga Resort 2023 New York

[Cocteau Stone]

There’s something about this particular show that I can’t get over. I know we know the current state of fashion is grim, but this feels especially bleak and jut such a bummer.

Maybe this is the Libra in me, but it just isn’t fair that Ghesquiere presented such complex and innovative collections year after year during his tenure at the house…and then Demna gets to trot this out. If you were the head of a fashion house like Balenciaga and you’re presenting a collection, wouldn’t you want to maybe…push yourself? All that heritage and all those resources and that’s what you come up with? Again, such a bummer.

It’s also crazy that this is normalized. A Parisian luxury fashion house doing this would have been reviled 15 years ago, 10 years ago even. Remember when fashion writers used to actually speak their minds and express their honest opinions, and it wasn’t just descriptive word salad conducted under the watchful eyes of LVMH and Kering? Pathetic.

It's like designers know our expectations are getting less and the bar is set lower, so they're seeing how far they can push it or at least how long they can get away with it. I had a feeling this would happen with Demna even when he was at Vetements. He's been at Balenciaga for 7 years, nearly half the time that Nicolas was there, and this is what he's got to show for it. It is a shame if you ask me.

It isn't just here though; it's anything creative at the moment. There has developed this dominant set of homogenised ideas of creativity, identity, diversity and "button pushing" that can be churned through an algorithm to yield profit. It's depressing. But there's going to be a moment where the boil is lanced and panic will ensue.

 

[CholoChic]

They knew it is so boring so they had to mask it to make it conceptual.