It always takes time to find your way around when you start a new job: Demna Gvasalia took two years at Balenciaga to finally feel at home and develop a vision for the historical house.
Though the set for the runway, showcased during Paris Fashion Week, with its fake snow mountain covered in graffiti slogans lifted from the brand's A/W 2016-17 collection ("The Power of Dreams", "No Borders", etc), logos, smileys and peace signs, pointed at snowboarders (though it was more probably a take on Salvation Mountain, in the Colorado Desert, California), the backbone of the collection moved from Cristóbal Balenciaga.
The collection opened with second skin devoré mini-dresses for women and devorè body-con gloved turtlenecks in bright shades such as fuchsia for men, matched with plain black trousers.
Fabrics were draped around the body in these first looks, but then the inspiration morphed from softly hugging to rigidly tailored.
Models walked around the snowy mountain in jackets and coats that emphasised the waist and traced accentuated hourglass silhouettes around the hips. The shapes were the same for both men and women's wear and offered a unified vision of the two collections.
There was actually technology and not tailoring behind these pieces: Gvasalia scanned Balenciaga's curving Basque jacket and then scanned the bodies of the models in 3D. The shapes were then digitally altered, 3D-printed and turned into moulds.
One layer of traditional fabrics such as tweeds, devorè and houndstooth, were then bonded onto the lightweight foam structure of the jacket.
Construction was reduced to the minimum, that is two seams on the sides and the armhole, giving a glimpse of what the 3D technology may produce in future and of how this technique may eventually be used to develop properly wearable designs.
The results pointed at a future of robots and machines with silhouettes that may flatter some body types and vilify others, Gvasalia's tech tailoring seems indeed to flatten the human body, giving it a sort of alien shape.
The 3D printing madness may shift Balenciaga towards the future, but the process to make these jackets and coats is still long and extremely expensive; the same thing may be said about proper bespoke tailoring as a suit requires measurement and fitting sessions, but, for what regards this technique, there is still a lot of experimenting to do.
After the sculptural came the oversized with models wearing what looked like hoodies, bombers, raincoats, jackets, parkas, denim jackets, windbreakers and garish faux furs one of top of the other.
The inspirations for this part of the show came from snowboarders, layering to brave extreme weather and refugees leaving everything behind and wearing their entire wardrobe (well, Chalayan did this a long time ago and was more conceptual and clever as in his case he imagine people leaving their countries wearing their furniture...).
The results were matryoshka-like (with random echoes of Viktor & Rolf's Haute Couture 1999 presentation and of their A/W 2010 collection), with one furry red coat layered with a parka reproducing Balenciaga's bubble dress. There was actually a trick in the designs, as they were actually one fused-together gigantic piece and not several pieces piled up together.
There was also plenty of more wearable and hip merchandise on the runway: two classic and rather boring menswear shirts were emblazoned with a number in the style of the Beagle Boys - +33 156 528 799. The number is actually a real Balenciaga hotline: dial it and it will ask you to answer a 20 question survey about gender, marital status and so on, before deleting your answers in classic Gvasalia style (so ironic, isn't it?).
Among the designs for trendy fashionistas there was fake concert merch such as T-shirts and hoodies celebrating fake boy band Speed Hunters; tops with the rainbow flags to show support to the LGBT community, and T-shirts, sweaters, hoodies, caps and bum bags with the slogan "Balenciaga supports the World Food Programme" and "Saving Lives, Changing Lives".
This is the logical development of Vêtements' windows at Saks Fifth Avenue and at Harrods highlighting action against environmentally damaging overproduction in fashion (very "Venus of the Rags" by Pistoletto if you ask us), but Balenciaga has pushed things forward pledging to donate 10% from the sales of these garments with the WFP logo to the organisation (the company has already donated $250,000 to the WFP). Honourable aim, how could you disagree?
Yet with Gvasalia's overpriced DHL-shirts in mind, these pieces may cause some controversy: is it indeed immoral to buy an overpriced WFP shirt, as only 10% of what you're spending actually goes to the programme or is it absolutely fair?
There was actually another note that was rather questionable in this collection, but to spot it you had to dig in the accessories category.
The latter featured designs inspired by speed and races such as tire-shaped bangles and earrings and belts with dangling plastic keychains and car keys; then there were Gvasalia's trademark pointy-toed sock boots (or are they pantashoes, a concept that seems borrowed from the "tants", a combination of table and pants, and the "frelts", a friend belt and four-legged acid jeans, in kids' programme "Regular Show"...), and bags that, rather than ordinary straps, integrated thick chains of the kind you may use to secure a bike or a scooter. The accessory offer closed with large weekend bags and totes with a picture of a cute dog hugging a cat.
And that's where you spotted an issue: the picture actually comes from stock photo site Dreams Time and you can download it for free or you can buy the rights to use it.
While this is not a crime, it seriously makes you think: can you buy a stock photo, put it on a luxury item, and sell it at improbable prices? Probably yes, it depends from the license you bought for that image, but apart from this issue (what does the license bought by Balenciaga for this image cover?), there is another issue, a more serious one.
If a manufacturer of fake designer goods buys the same image and the same license and starts printing it on a similar bag, that fake is not a fake, it is real. Yes, it is a copy for what regards the idea, but it is still legal since whoever buys the license for that image, is allowed to use it.
In a way using a stock photo for a luxury bag seems to facilitate the process of making a copy: if you copy the Balenciaga logo you are producing a fake, but if you pay for the license for the same stock image and you put it on a bag, well, you are as legal as Balenciaga, and technically you are not producing an illegal copy of anything (after all, that image is not exclusive to Balenciaga).
Undoubtedly this collection showed a will to experiment with volumes and technology, also given by the fact that Gvasalia may have more time now since he is only focusing on two shows a year for Balenciaga in which the men and women's wear lines have been reunited. Yet this faux pas still shows that Gvasalia may pass for an ironic prankster who, like Alessandro Michele at Gucci, loves playing the "real Vs fake" game, but may actually be taking the piss out of consumers.
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