Balenciaga S/S 2023 Paris | Page 4 | the Fashion Spot

Balenciaga S/S 2023 Paris

The more details I see online the more psychotic it gets omg this cannot be for real LOL I'm kind of obsessed. The levels of hypocrisy and trolling are on such a level that I don't think I even really understand what's going on anymore. On one hand it's so eye roll and pretentious but on the other I feel like I'm watching pure realism. There can be a lot of complaining from people (not necessarily on here) who claim Demna et al. are so bad and ruining fashion etc. when the ones complaining are literally on the same page as what's wrong with it. It almost reminds me of the Donald Trump phenomenon. For any lib/conservative American to deny "this is not who we are, we need to stop this" when it quite literally is who they are and who they've created... Oh look if it isn't the consequences of my own actions. It's just stupid to attack the tongue of the alaskan bull worm (sorry if you don't get SpongeBob references). I don't "like" this per se (just like I don't like Trump), but I'm kind of entertained at this point lol so all aboard the train that's about to crash!
 
Would love to see Baron shoot editorial utilizing this set. Models wearing couture gowns fighting in mud.
Wouldn't mind if they even went the route of the June 2002 edition of VI. Just a fashion punch up in the mud.

Demna Vs. A Box
Kanye Vs. Bernard Arnault
Michelle Lamy Vs. Tyrone
Tim Blanks Vs. Not being wanky
The Kardashions Vs. their old BBLs

Any other punch ups y'all want see???
 
The Kanye look/photo from this collection have been removed from Vogue Runway and Balenciaga's website. The NY Times also published the article below yesterday.

Can Balenciaga Break With Kanye?
The fashion brand and the rapper have had an intense love affair. But after Ye’s White Lives Matter shirt and antisemitic comments, the company may need to be heartless.

By Vanessa Friedman

Oct. 14, 2022
In all the noise that has been generated by and about Kanye West, or Ye, as he is now known, over the last 10 days — ever since he disrupted Paris Fashion Week with a new YZY show, then disrupted his show with a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt, then embarked on a public flood of attacks against anyone who dared to criticize his message that then escalated to antisemitic screeds on social media and Fox News — one voice has been particularly deafening.

In its silence.

Balenciaga, the brand whose show Ye opened on Oct. 2 with a surprise modeling appearance; the brand he collaborated with during his ill-fated Gap adventure and whose Yeezy Gap Engineered by Balenciaga products can still be found on store shelves; the brand whose designer, Demna, has described texting with Ye several times a day and who attended the YZY show with Cédric Charbit, Balenciaga’s chief executive, has not said a word about his statements. Even as Ye’s posts and avowals have become evermore incendiary.

As Serge Carreira, a lecturer on the luxury industry at Sciences Po university in Paris, said, “the whole industry is, in a way, guilty of complacency.” But when it comes to Ye, in thrall to his celebrity and codependent relationship with fashion, it is Balenciaga with which Ye has conducted the most enduring affair.

Up until now, that has worked to both of their advantages. Ye gave Balenciaga the aura of relevance and a new audience; Balenciaga provided the high-fashion embrace Ye craved. Together, they became a viral sensation. For Balenciaga, however, it could turn out to be a very dangerous liaison indeed. Not to mention a case study on the problems of mixing business and friendship as disparate creative worlds meld into one.

Adidas, whose almost 10-year partnership with Yeezy has been extraordinarily lucrative for both sides (even though he has publicly criticized the company and its executives) has issued a statement acknowledging their past work together but noting the partnership is “under review.” They are probably why Instagram and Twitter have locked Ye’s accounts, why JP Morgan has apparently stepped down as the Yeezy company’s banker and why Balenciaga’s failure to respond is particularly striking.

This is especially so in the context of social and cultural changes over the last five years, in which luxury brands have issued apology after apology for repeated missteps, lest they be seen as condoning prejudice or perpetrating a history of elitism and racism. (Balenciaga is owned by Kering, the French luxury group, which is a public entity.)

“I can only assume many people are wrong-footed, confused and possibly waiting — hoping? — for an apology of sorts,” said Luca Solca, a luxury analyst at the research firm Sanford C. Bernstein. But, he continued: “This reminds me of John Galliano. I see a one-way street implication.”

fired after a drunken antisemitic rant in a Paris bar, and who was later subject to a court trial (in France, inciting racial hatred is a crime), fined and forced out of fashion until he had gone through rehabilitation and made years of amends.

But therein lies the rub. In a typical ambassadorial arrangement between brand and celebrity, a famous person is under contract to be the “face” of a label, which could mean appearing in company advertisements or simply wearing its products on the red carpet. But the relationship between Ye and Balenciaga — which is really the relationship between Ye and Demna — is a complex mix of muse, collaborator, customer, fan, friend and celebrity that has been stewing for over seven years. It is more akin to a creative romance than any sort of professional agreement.

According to one insider, Ye has been known to refer to himself as Demna’s straight husband. And, as with any marriage, it is possible the Demna-Balenciaga-Ye connection is so intertwined and interdependent that they are not sure how to disentangle it.

(Multiple calls and emails to the brand were not returned.)

Ye and Demna met not long after Vetements, the upstart fashion label led by Demna and his younger brother, Guram Gvasalia, began to make waves in Paris in 2014. The label shredded the old codes of beauty and couture with a jolt of furious energy that caught the eye and imagination of Ye, who began talking up Vetements, and especially Demna, to anyone who would listen — including editors at Vogue.

Ye then enlisted both brothers to consult on Season 1 of his Yeezy brand, which made its debut at New York Fashion Week in February 2015. Only a few weeks later, he sat in the front row at a variety of Paris Fashion Week shows, including Dior, in a hoodie bearing the Vetements logo.

Ye and Demna shared a semi-apocalyptic aesthetic made to challenge the sacred cows of luxury and a sense of themselves as outsiders come to rewire the power structure of an antiquated industry for the era of the street. Not long after Demna was named the creative director of Balenciaga in late 2015, Ye, in the ultimate fox-in-the-henhouse move, tweeted “I’m going to steal Demna from Balenciaga.”

The New York Times in 2021 as “a very intense creative exchange” that took place mostly over WhatsApp and text messages. “For me, talking with him is like going back in time to the 8-year-old me who doesn’t have all these barriers and filters,” Demna told The Times. “And those kinds of conversations help me to evolve as a designer.”

Ye became a regular front-row presence at Balenciaga shows, and rumor had it he was the brand’s biggest customer. He had the Balenciaga/Crocs boots. He had the face mask. He had the destroyed denim jacket. He was there at Demna’s couture debut. This year, he put his customer profile on an Instagram story showing that he had, at that point, spent more than $4 million at Balenciaga in 2022 (in the years before that, not so much).

In turn, Demna is one of the only people whose opinions Ye trusts. As Demna told The Times, he was brought into the Gap deal in early 2021 in part to provide “reassurance” to Ye — he had released only two garments in 18 months — “so there could be a moment of letting go” and a full collection could actually appear.

In July 2021, Demna agreed to art direct Ye’s “Donda” stadium experiences, first in Atlanta and then in Chicago, using his vacation time to do so. In between, he escorted Ye’s estranged wife, Kim Kardashian, to the Met Gala. (She wore a Balenciaga wedding gown to the first “Donda” event and has appeared in various Balenciaga ads.) When Ye started dating Julia Fox earlier this year after he and Ms. Kardashian split, he posted videos of himself shopping perhaps for her in a Balenciaga store. The two men went mononymous around the same time.


It all culminated in Ye’s runway appearance as the opening model of the Balenciaga “Mud” show this month, which was seen as a viral triumph, according to Mr. Carreira. At least until Ye “turned abruptly into an outcast, putting his former blind disciples in an uncomfortable situation,” Mr. Carreira said.

It may be that Balenciaga is simply hoping that, in the current climate of short attention spans and regular social media scandals, the Ye controversy will soon be drowned out by someone else’s transgression, and the spotlight will pass them by.

It could be they fear Ye’s wrath, which often involves attacks and reposting private conversations in public, more than they fear social reprisals. His general position is that you are either on his team or not. It could be that Demna is unwilling to abandon a man who has both inspired and supported him.

But an individual standing by a friend in private is not the same thing as an executive at a public company incurring serious reputational risk by standing by a flamethrower in public. There are actually three entities in this particular dalliance: Ye, Demna and Balenciaga-the-brand. Their interests may not align. Someone may have to break up with someone.

“They need to make up their mind quickly, I would say,” Mr. Solca, the luxury analyst, said.
 
The Kanye look/photo from this collection have been removed from Vogue Runway and Balenciaga's website. The NY Times also published the article below yesterday.
Balenciaga needs Demna to cut ties with Ye, or if he refuses, dump with Demna and pull a "Blazy". This a PR nightmare.
 
The Kanye look/photo from this collection have been removed from Vogue Runway and Balenciaga's website. The NY Times also published the article below yesterday.

Anna Wintour after deleting one picture of Kanye West from Vogue Runway:

1*ZNo5WWJLd9_Wnj1jdMYnnw.jpeg
 
This is so bad and he has completely jumped the shark from when he first came to the brand.

When you go back and look at his earlier collections, there was a sense of humor, trolling and still some technique and design.

This is just trolling and seeing how far he can take it at this point.

What a crappy fashion season overall.
 
According to one insider, Ye has been known to refer to himself as Demna’s straight husband.

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes: It seems he spends too much time inside the closet (and not just looking for Balenciaga clothes to wear)...
 
I'm interested to see how this plays out. It's similar to but feels a bit more intense than the Galliano fiasco. There's no way you cannot publicly condemn his words regarding "death con" 3 on Jewish people, but in a way it kind of reassuringly confirms the parasitical nature of the industry (and rich people in general) that has no scruples to the point where they'll use a sick person just enough to get what they want and discard them when sh*t goes too far. If he in fact publicly praised hitler on camera in front of the entire office at TMZ 4 years ago and nobody said anything about it... ? why wasn't it big a deal then when it is now? This just makes e v e r y o n e look bad. Bravo Kanye. Let it burn
 
THB, Balenciaga under Demna used to be more creative in terms of research (colors, details, fabrics) and and selective about the VIPs associated with the brand. There were no Kardashians before ( Kim / Kanye / Bella ).
Also the crowd invited to the show is very different now. Chiara Ferragni, Jaime Xie would have never be part of the story back in 2016.

The clothes look more and more cheap and so is the crowd attending the show.
 
THB, Balenciaga under Demna used to be more creative in terms of research (colors, details, fabrics) and and selective about the VIPs associated with the brand. There were no Kardashians before ( Kim / Kanye / Bella ).
Also the crowd invited to the show is very different now. Chiara Ferragni, Jaime Xie would have never be part of the story back in 2016.

The clothes look more and more cheap and so is the crowd attending the show.

All of those people bring "value" to the brand though like in terms of MIV, etc, which is why all these brands keep using them. It's all about exposure these days. These brands want the maximum amount of exposure and so they partner with whoever has the biggest influence and follower count.

But in terms of star power there was only one contender on the runways in New York, London, Paris and Milan: Bella Hadid. The Vogue darling generated 852 per cent more views on her looks than any of the other faces on the circuit this season. To put this into context, her sister Gigi had 417 per cent more eyes on her outfits than the average model. It is no surprise then that brands – from household names, like Burberry and Ralph Lauren, to rising talents, including Coperni – book Bella to showcase their work. In terms of clicks, Hadid is pacing well ahead of the pack.
VOGUE
 
Interesting Galliano is brought up cause days ago I was wondering why that, pre-cancel culture, somehow had more dramatic consequences. It took place once, off-duty, intoxicated and he's done every imaginable thing to reedem himself (at least as a public figure). It's been over a decade and the sole mention of Galliano still feels like it should come with a disclaimer. The content was essentially the same but not as relentless, pervasive and seemingly lucid as Kanye's. So this slow turnaround, with clear ambivalences to release a statement and openly disassociate from him, got me wondering why and I attribute it to the pathetic commodity activism agenda of Vogue and these luxury labels, who really have zero interest in actual equality. Kanye's flag whenever he faces consequences for his conduct is 'NOOO, they're trying to cancel me because I'm black... everyone is racist and white, I'm just a targeted black man!' (yet all he obsesses about is white people..? but anyway). So is that the fear, that he'll scream racist accusations?

It definitely makes you think about how racism is more tolerated if it comes from another 'minority', as if discriminatory conduct only affected humans by race. Not unlike the attacks on Asian people by black people and there is no mention that we ALL need to eradicate it from our daily lives. Yes, some specific races have a longer and deeper history in carrying out horrible racist acts but the idea that racism AND harmful racism can only come from white people should've been flushed at this point.
 
Wasn’t fashion in mud done already by Meisel in VI?

Indeed, Raquel Zimmermann completely eviscerating a metallic green Roberto Cavalli gown by wrestling a male model in mud. Another shot sees a slightly more salvageable Escada dress on Julia Stegner. 2007 was such a good year for Meisel editorials lol

Timeless and classic, that Cavalli dress drenched in mud lives in my mind rent free because I adore that editorial - there's a story being told there and most importantly, everyone looks spectacular. Here we have a parade of what can only be perceived as a line-up of the creepiest and most unsettling looking people they could possibly find. It's hard to look at. The clothes don't help at all, but I'm starting to find humour in Demna taking the piss out of his clientele honestly. You just know that snack bags will be the next big thing lol People are that gullible.
 
Demna is not Galliano, and this is certainly not 2011.
Apparently, Ye's antisemitic rants are going over well with the kdz on TikTok (antisemitism has been CoOl on SM for awhile now).

Can this be actually good for Balenciaga's bottom line? Is there a limit to Demna's trolling? Is this it?
What do you think?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

New Posts

Forum Statistics

Threads
215,211
Messages
15,291,474
Members
89,148
Latest member
rebels45511
Back
Top