Balenciaga S/S 2009 Paris

[dumbfairy]

I'm affraid I'll need a lot of time to like it and I'm really not sure I will

I refrained from posting when I first saw this and on a second viewing,I still don't like it. The lighting is odd

 

[ad110116]

Just sublime......

 

[Bidwell]

Betty Cooper:So

...if someone designs a 1940's or 1930's style dress we say: "oh its beautiful!"
But when we see someone designs a 1960's concept of the future we say: "oh its been done before...star trek...yawn"

I agree.
We live in a conservative retractive society where the future seems grim and scary not promising, so quaint retro is the opium needed to satisfy the masses.
Big, bold experimentation in fabric and form is just not appreciated at the moment but when it does, many more people will admit who was there first.
It may still have traces of past futurisms but his team have the will and the means to take it into unknown territory, like Chalayan, Victor Costa and McQueen (when he leaves the story books behind)

 

[Deleted member 7575]

Betty Cooper:So


We live in a conservative retractive society where the future seems grim and scary not promising, so quaint retro is the opium needed to satisfy the masses.

Well put. Very well put.

 

[Anjo]

Perhaps it's redundant with my avatar mais le defile est tres cool je l'aime bien!!

I love how Nicolas G pushes himself, like an athlete, to stretch the boundaries and create new things. But working for him must be hell!

 

[simple_elegance]

ugh...

 

[Spike413]

The is straight out of Space Mountain at Disney World.

Fun stuff.

 

[FashionTopFace]

see thats what I always mean u cant judge a collection well by just pictures u need to see moving images with the ambiance surrounding it

ty dior

 

[chessmess]

I admit, the presentation is gorgeous. It reminds me a bit of Alexander McQueen's old London collections where he used so much specialty lighting to enhance the collection.

But the clothes still haven't grown on me, and I agree with what the-smiths was getting at. Innovation to enhance the clothes is great, like the LBD's of last season that were made out of foam bonded fabric so that the shape was very structural, but the dress itself wasn't heavy.

But innovation for the sake of being innovative is kind of....well, what's the point? It's not as if this brand of retro inspired futurism is new to fashion, or to Ghesquiere. And it's not as if the clothes themselves are pushing fashion forward or changing your eye because they're so radical.

When you consider where the world is right now, this comes off as a beautiful presentation and nothing more.

I think it's interesting that you are saying its not as good because we've seen it before and it's not necessarily groundbreaking... when you loved fw08 so much which, imo, seemed like a slightly altered rehash of the spring before it. The seaming details were not new, the shoulders were not new, the foam enforcing was not new, the silhouettes were not completely new... The only thing he really toyed with was fabric and accessories.

i dont know, just an observation.

 

[Spike413]

^ I never said last season was new either.

But it felt new. No, foam bonded fabric isn't groundbreaking, but a classic, wearable, sexy little black dress made out of foam bonded fabric is. He managed to distill all of the innovation he'd been working on and all of the futuristic ideas he'd been playing with to create and enhance clothes for the here and now, not for the 1980's interpretation of the future, and not so futuristic that it's not apparent how it relates to today.

 

[ChillChaser]

Here's the video from Style.com. You can finally see those sequined dresses in motion.

http://video.style.com/?fr_story=7929800b0d72825e81bbb5a483a866f2051fcf62&rf=bm

 

[dior_couture1245]

^^Thank you SO much for the heads up! I just watched it and I have to say it made me love the collection 20 times more! The presentation is MAGNIFICENT. And the clothes are suberb...the way the light changed the colors of the clothes was sublime...

Plus, I loved how articular Salma Hayek was!

 

[Kanna]

After looking at the details and large pics at style.com, I'm so in love with this collection.. It's terrific and ingenious.

 

[mackos]

^^Thank you SO much for the heads up! I just watched it and I have to say it made me love the collection 20 times more! The presentation is MAGNIFICENT. And the clothes are suberb...the way the light changed the colors of the clothes was sublime...

I agree completely!

 

[rangerrick14]

In relation to most of the collections that were shown this is an important statement made. Techno fabrics, slim shapes; nothing new for Guesquiere but still a singular unmuddled vision of a modern woman. Of course the pieces will be hard to wear.

 

[helmut.newton]

I love it!!

I agree 100% with what Ghesquiere says when Tim Blanks asks him "It's really futuristic, isn't it?" and he says "It shouldn't be, it should be [of] today".

Exactly. We've had so many designers looking to the past over and over again - we've had 60's revival, 80's revival, now its 90's.

Why can't we finally move foward and innovate and modernize??

Brilliant, if not only for its modernist aesthetics!!!

 

[smurfling]

What a wonderful collection!

I love the opening piece, though I doubt you'd be able to raise your arms if you wore it. Still, that's something I'd be willing to sacrifice for being able to wear that dress. And goodness, those metallic pieces are beautiful!! I love the details. Those clutches are divine, too.

Also, those shoes are growing on me. Is that weird? LOL.

 

[blackie08]

It's growing on me but I'm disappointed with the shoes.
I always look to Balenciaga for shoes and this is kind of unwearable .

 

[Squizree]

Oh no!!! This stinks! I Balenciaga is like the ULTIMATE label when it comes to shapes and structures but this is just bad. Well not all of it. The multi-tinited dresses are super super cool, extremely fresh. But the shoes....wtf and the pants.....yuk. Im so disappointed.

 

[tctra]

I love it!!

I agree 100% with what Ghesquiere says when Tim Blanks asks him "It's really futuristic, isn't it?" and he says "It shouldn't be, it should be [of] today".

Exactly. We've had so many designers looking to the past over and over again - we've had 60's revival, 80's revival, now its 90's.

Why can't we finally move foward and innovate and modernize??

Brilliant, if not only for its modernist aesthetics!!!

But its not is it. That's what i was trying to say before. This is retro. It is reinterpretations of the pasts vision of the future. Tron, Star Trek, 2001 etc. And as we all know, nothing dates faster than how the past sees the future.

NG gets touted as the forerunner for pushing fashion forward, but i don't see that at all. Its certainly different to what his contemporaries are pushing out and he should be lauded for that, but lets not be mistaken - He too is looking to the past to develop his ideas.

I think the real forerunner is Chalayan who expreiments with fabrics and technology - a new notion of fashion. One of his recent collections involved morphing materials - now that was pushing the envelope to something extraodinary. And yet he doesn't seem to get much mainstream coverage. Maybe that's because his clothes are too far out there and challenging for us to comprehend right now. And for me that's a true test of a visionary, someone's who's really moving things forward. Because we are so uncomfortable with it, the idea of morphing materials and garments with flashing lights. It's ridiculous, right? Only until it becomes normal and we think back and go, 'well of course.'

The thing with NG's vision is that its familiar. It's 'futuristic', ok, but we are comfortable with this future, we can applaud this because we've seen it before - this is acceptable, we don't sit back and go, 'there's no way that'll ever happen'