Rapper Kanye West opened the Balenciaga show on Sunday, which saw men in utilitarian or accessorized outfits carrying baby carriers and women in long dresses walking through the mud.
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Cap under a hood, leather trousers and a black multi-pocket jacket, clad in large sneakers, American artist and friend of Balenciaga’s Georgian designer Demna opened the show in Villepinte, north of Paris, far from the pomp of Fashion Week.
His ex-girlfriend and Balenciaga muse Kim Kardashian sat in the front row of the somber and disturbing show, which took place at a construction site with a heavy smell of mud.
The male models were the stars: sometimes in shorts and black bomber jackets, sometimes in a neon green set of shorts and a hooded sweatshirt somewhere between sportswear and interior outfit. White jeans were stained with mud.
Some of them carried baby carriers or colorful and childish handbags reminiscent of stuffed animals as accessories.
Others had large pink tote bags or square shoulder bags with an integrated sleeve, the highlight of this spring-summer 2023 collection.
The women, on the other hand, were chic for this mixed fashion show on the fringes of Women’s Fashion Week.
They were treated to heels to step through the mud, which the men in clogs and sneakers had to face.
Tight pink, white or black dresses, sparkling and transparent outfits in chromatic dialogue with mud, silver or train dresses: they seemed ready to leave this fear-inducing universe and party.
“Make love not war,” Demna wrote in the show’s statement of intent.
After recently announcing he was dropping his Gvasalia name in the fashion world, where he now uses his first name only, he said on Sunday he would no longer explain his collections.
As a “fine art,” fashion “doesn’t need a story to sell,” Demna said in her note, appearing to join the many designers who don’t accompany her show with a press release.
“I hate the frame and the labels,” continues the one who still likes to show the Balenciaga logo on his creations.
In March, the previous ready-to-wear parade by Demna, who fled Georgia as a child in the midst of the war with Russia, had been a lively tribute to Ukraine, which was witnessing the early days of the Russian invasion.
He then explained that fashion was losing its raison d’être and fashion week was becoming “absurd”.
This summer, Demna became one of the ambassadors of the United24 platform, which collects funds for the reconstruction of Ukraine.
Balenciaga has also put up a sweatshirt for sale, with proceeds going to help Ukrainian refugees.