Demna’s Balenciaga never fails to deliver an innovative show that grabs the headlines, especially when it comes to his appearances at Paris Fashion Week. While the luxury house took Wall Street by storm last season with its adidas collaboration debut, previous occasions included the emotional winter 2022 showcase in the French capital, a red carpet appearance for SS22 and an episode of The Simpsons for the same last season. With this in mind, celebrities arriving in Paris for Spring/Summer 2023 were in high spirits for Balenciaga, eagerly anticipating today’s show. Was it going to be another star-studded runway like Christine Quinn, Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and Naomi Campbell with the 51st Couture show, or was Demna going to subvert traditions and twist the narrative into something left field?
Well, for SS23, Balenciaga did the exact latter. Invited with the missing wallet of Natalia Antunes, a random woman whose identity now sets the tone for a mysterious Balenciaga show, it seems Demna is up to the task once again. Such scrambled messages have influenced shows before, from the smashed iPhone 6 for winter 2022 that explored consumption, to the wad of counterfeit money for Balenciaga’s Wall Street takeover. What to do with the lost and found bag of Balenciaga from “The Mud Show”? Only the track will tell.
Driven miles from the Parisian city center, Demna also subverts fashion week norms yet again: no hometown show, this is an effort, and one not to be discounted for a Balenciaga show often becomes. at the peak of the season.
So, as for “The Mud Show” itself. Attendees, including Christine Quinn, Kylie Jenner, Khloe Kardashian, North West, Anna Wintour and hundreds of others, sat in a covered warehouse submerged in a landslide. The walls and parts of the floor were covered in a thick layer of black mud, while ahead was a mud pit, 20 feet deep and cavernous, undulating in texture and height with numerous pools and pools of water. The swampy smell permeated the room, while couture Balenciaga coats and pointed heels of the couture crowd dragged through the sloppy substances.
In his show notes, Demna alludes to identity and self-expression, noting how nice it is to be different. He also says that “fashion loves boxes and labels more than anything. Luxury, non-luxury, street, couture, good, bad, buzz, viral, all the same, who cares. Putting fashion in the box of polished, exclusive and visually expensive is limited and quite old.
To conclude, Demna explains that he has “decided no longer to explain my collections or verbalize my designs, but rather to express a state of mind… The decoration of this exhibition is a metaphor for digging in search of the truth and of being with one’s feet on the Earth. Let everyone be anyone and make love, not war.
So with that in mind, the show couldn’t have been more natural if it had tried. Opening with Kanye wearing full safety, the models (including Bella Hadid) followed with all their might and a desire to ignite, splashing through the thick mud and water with determination. Elsewhere, babies were strapped to the chest in Balenciaga harnesses, tops were shiny and others were made of latex and displayed a 404 error code. Demna’s viral bag of Lays chips became a tote bag, while teddy bears became tote accessories and another bag became a glove-shaped wearable.
Dresses ranged from sporty numbers that hang from the neck to lamé glitter pumps, pleated and mud-dragged. The use of glitter dazzled on Space Shoe’s chunky platform clog iterations, while a slew of new runway-like sneakers and the return of the Knife Boot made numerous appearances.
To conclude, Demna sent a dress from Le Cagole. Like the boots and bag for which she is named, this full leather dress was adorned with le Cagole-isms, bag handles, and dangling accessories dangling from the bodice.
But throughout the show there was a kind of indifference; the energy of not really caring. These garments were quintessential Demna, the show itself daring to push the fashion’s pristine aesthetic to the ground. Only Demna could do such a thing and have us all smiling at the end, as she served up clothes that felt incredibly wearable, in the context of the mud pit and in real life.
Take a look at Balenciaga’s SS23 show above and stay tuned to Hypebeast for more Paris Fashion Week SS23 content.
For more standout moments, check out the Coperni Spray Dress.
Source: news.google.com