Balenciaga S/S 2006 Paris

Suzy weighs in... Balenciaga = show of the season. Duh! :smartass: I can't even look at anything else anymore. Dior, Westwood, Miyake... whatever! Nicolas has rendered pretty much every piece of sh*t from New York and Milan meaningless.

Stellar Balenciaga

By Suzy Menkes International Herald Tribune
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 5, 2005

The Balenciaga show was so powerful, so clear in its message, so faithful to the heritage of the legendary couturier and so opulently un-copyable that it may turn out to be the major statement of the spring summer 2006 season.

The designer Nicolas Ghesquière has a vision that is as crystal clear as his embellishment was deep and dense. Encrustations of blond lace, high pleated collars, pearl pins, crests topped with a royal crown - and that was almost within one outfit - made Tuesday's exceptional show an ode to embellishment.

Yet it was at the same time rigorous in its silhouettes, whether they were the ultra-narrow pants that paired tiny jackets or the stand-alone dresses, whipped up like a meringue from stiff fabrics with the minimum of seaming. These light-handed clothes were grounded by hefty sandals, some set with beach pebbles as just one of the many decorative flourishes.

"I was trying to do a collection that was scissor sharp, bur ornamental, decorative and embellished - even putting in the mix baroque swirls and Louis XIV," said Ghesquière backstage.

This audacious mix of construction and decoration was one of those shocks that set fashion on a different course. Just when a reprise of minimalism was on the agenda, the influential Ghesquière found another approach - and one that seemed to throw down a decorated gauntlet at the fast-fashion copyists. Sure they can edge the hipline of drainpipe jeans with lace and print baroque patterns on pants suits, where the jacket could have belonged to a Spanish courtier but the pants taken from the jeans generation. Yet who but a star designer and a luxury house could engulf a puff sleeve in a froth of lace or trace lace around a skinny frock coat that had the French actress Emmanuelle Seigner sighing and dying for it in the front row?

The Balenciaga show was exceptional among the many attempts to revive a brand, because Ghesquière keeps the integrity of the Spanish master yet makes it modern. The great divide between old and new is the sense of a body in motion, as the models strode out in pants or in dresses that held their sculpted shape, yet revealed the body's silhouette underneath. Lace evening dresses that might have looked like honeymoon nightgowns were so beautifully worked that you felt the inspiration had come from a mantilla in a Velásquez painting or from the archives that Ghesquière is now using with an easy confidence.

"He keeps the integrity of the house in such a modern way," said the stylist L'Wren Scott, whose long, lean legs seemed fashioned for Ghesquière's skinny pants or even the loose, playful page-boy knickers. "Balenciaga's heritage is so admirable," she said. "And in the cut and attention to detail, everything has the spirit of Balenciaga."

Although this collection had the detailed workmanship (and probably the high price tags) of haute couture, the only way a luxury house can survive today is to reach for fashion's summit. François Henri Pinault and Robert Polet, Balenciaga's parents from PPR and Gucci Group, both said that their lips were sealed on figures but that "Balenciaga is performing even better than we expected."
 
thanks metal,

i am nominating him king for a season and i beg you to second that metal
 
well metal, unless chalayan or mcqueen, or theyskens by a longshot comes with something that moves you from the soul, i am willing to bet my money and property on this being the collection of the season
 
softgrey said:
so they even make it above a size 10...?... :unsure:

i don't think so....


:ninja:

You got me wondering ... I found thru size 14 on the first page of my Yoox search ...
 
Ok, so this collection is growing on me. I think at first I was just a bit startled because I don't think I've ever seen something so "done" by Nicolas before. I mean, most of the collection is beautiful, the long lace gowns, the ivory Louis XVI jackets and cropped pants, the fitted trousers/blazers (I could've lived without the first few white dresses, they just didn't seem to fit with the rest of the collection)

I'm dying to see Style.com's detail photos, some pieces I just want to see up close.

One thing is for sure though, this was probably Nicolas' bravest collection in a long time.
 
The collection's so good it should be illegal...I love the opulent approach and the almost couture like detailing; the silhoutte is mind-blowing and the intepretation and Victorian clothes, the tailoring are impeccable and original...Bravo, it was the best visual orgasm so far of the season...:heart: :heart: :heart:
 
I love how this collection just makes the current emphasis on clean minimalism look just plain hungry. This is overbearing, sensual and passionate, a very nice surprise.
 
I really want the tank with the pearls ... how much do you estimate it will retail for?
 
i'm with you zamb, without a doubt... this is the best collection of the season, and ghesquiere's best.
 
I'm definitely with the minority here.:smile: This looks too much like a costume theme party, but beautifully and expensively sewn of course. Not one new idea here about the century we are living in, and how women want to look today, i.e. not like Marie Antoinette, or am I missing some important new milestone??? Valentino, McQueen, even Undercover have done frou-frou to death this past few seasons anyway. So what's new?

I've nothing against frills - when NG first did it in '93 amidst the Prada-esque minimalism, it was geuninely breathtaking, as there was a mix of punk/baroque sensibility and the frills were distressed but beautiful, a bit glam rock, the cut and construction were a bit of a puzzle that makes you want to take a closer look. This collection is just very elaborate frou, straight out of a period film, as someone mentioned.

Opulence always has its appeal, of course, rococo and baroque are still the most preferred decor of any age, but it's not taxing on the imagination.

I already own lace blouses and victorian jackets, so there's nothing here that makes me drop my jaws. I wonder if Rochas, YSL, Lanvin are headed the same way. Paris in a "let them eat cake" mood?:unsure:
 
I'm looking at it again and the collection is even better that I remembered. I'm so sad I can't afford to buy any of it :(
 
I'm not quite sure on this. I find the pants quite Gucci to be honest. and those stripes-makes me think of a clown. However I do find his take on victorian/edwardian/rococo to be quite fresh. I'm not sure I see a correlation between that and the pod dress. It is a very beautiful collection, but I'm still trying to make sense of it. Agree that the prices will undoubtedly be sky-high but you can see the quality within it.
 
J'adore! J'adore! I love Balenciaga, this almost made me cry of delight (ok I may be a bit of a whimp today :wink:.
 
fashionista-ta said:
You got me wondering ... I found thru size 14 on the first page of my Yoox search ...
yoox is very misleading. They call size FR34 a size 4 :sick:
B's FR34 is indeed smaller than a size 0 in America :ninja:
 

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