Demna bids farewell to Balenciaga with a bold move to Gucci, Armani misses Paris show
Demna bids farewell to Balenciaga with a bold move to Gucci, Armani misses Paris show
Controversial designer Demna bid farewell to Balenciaga after a decade, presenting his final show in Paris, a study of the "bourgeoisie" before moving to his new role at Gucci in Milan next week.
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A model wears a suit at the Giorgio Armani Privé fashion show. |
The show featured a host of celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, and Kylie McLachlan, as well as Mrs. Bezos.
Backstage, Demna expressed his relief at "leaving this city that I love and hate forever," emphasizing his desire to "make couture relevant" before his departure.
Demna at Balenciaga: The Challenge of Couture and Social Commentary
Democratizing couture is a difficult task given its rigorous, handcrafted nature and exorbitant cost. But Demna used the show as theater and the clothes as costumes for social commentary. In this show, the focus was on studying dress styles appropriate for the "bourgeoisie" and the wealthy few who could afford them.
The show was held in Cristóbal Balenciaga's former apartment, restored to its cream-velvet 1960s glory, the same place where Demna presented couture in 2021.
The collection included a sugar-pink debutante dress made from the lightest organza in the world, and a sequined skirt suit inspired by Demna's grandmother's kitchen tablecloth. Mrs. Bezos would no doubt have been impressed by the elegant corset dresses, which were unsupported, "so they could actually breathe," as Demna put it.
Demna is known for upending conventional notions of beauty by casting models of all ages and sizes. Nine Neapolitan-style suits appeared without shoulder pads, worn by bodybuilders, because "clothes don't define the body, the body defines the clothes."
This was followed by references to Demna's most iconic works, including a seamless puffer coat and couture sneakers. Cristóbal Balenciaga was referenced in the shapes and long sleeves; the show closed with a cream guipure lace bell-shaped dress, a nod to Balenciaga's couture scale from the 1950s.
One of the few designers to have had such a broad cultural impact, Demna has served as creative director at Balenciaga since 2016 after stints at Maison Margiela, Louis Vuitton, and his own label Vetements.
Throughout his career at Balenciaga, Demna has sparked a frenzy around ordinary items like Crocs shoes and IKEA Frakta bags, upending the notion of good taste and irritating critics by placing four-figure price tags on worn-out sneakers.
Intended as a joke and a commentary on value hierarchies, the joke proved particularly lucrative for Kering, Balenciaga's parent company, which has become a billion-dollar brand.
For some, Demna has never recovered from allegations that he turned a blind eye to child exploitation in a series of ads featuring BDSM images and children in 2022. At the time, he accepted responsibility, although the scandal affected buzz and sales for a time.
Ultimately, this led to a shift away from his more mainstream designs, which were beginning to distract from attention, and a greater focus on his craft as a designer.
Demna succeeds the relatively safer designer, Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino. Demna's previous work will continue to polarize, but his legacy is undeniable. As Demna said, "I'm very hard on myself—but I couldn't have done better at Balenciaga."
Giorgio Armani's Absence Sparks Future Speculation
Was this Giorgio Armani's last collection ever? Last month, for the first time in his career, the designer missed his Milan shows due to declining health.
The plan was precautionary, a period of rest before this show. So the designer's absence from his show at the company's headquarters this week, coupled with the appearance of visibly emotional models walking the catwalk like Erté sketches, certainly sparked a lot of speculation.
In an attempt to quell the rumors, the 90-year-old designer explained his absence to a handful of reporters in an email: "Although I wasn't in Paris, I oversaw every aspect of the show remotely via video link, from fittings to sequences and makeup." He said his absence was at the request of his doctors: "Although I felt ready to travel, they recommended I extend my rest period."
Regardless of whether you can afford an Armani suit, one of his legacies is encouraging women to wear pantsuits. At the show, among sculptural jackets with rolled hems and flowing dresses with large bows, came tuxedos in a funereal black. They were ostensibly glamorous versions of the menswear he pioneered in the 1980s, but there was also a touch of glamour to them.
Keen to control the narrative of the £10 billion Armani empire, of which he is the sole shareholder, he was quick to remind us that “everything [we saw]... was done under my supervision and carries my approval.”