Fashion is art and art isn’t a one-way street. Fashion isn’t just flowing dresses with floral prints, tweed jackets, or figure-hugging spandex dresses. There's more to fashion than these.
Art and fashion seek ways to express the human condition, and we know that the human condition isn’t always beautiful; sometimes, it is wild chaos.
That is the path Balenciaga’s creative director, Demna Gvasalia has taken. He is credited for some of Kim and Kanye's outfits including the recent picture of the Kanye in giant boots.
Balenciaga has been known for some bizarre designs like crocs heels, but nothing will prepare your mind for their new SS RTW 23 designs exhibited on the trading floor of New York Stock Exchange.
Like they did to Kim Kardashian for Met Gala 2021, all the models in this new exhibition wore masks of different colours.
They looked so alien that it was hard to even look at the clothes. When we got around to looking at them, they seemed rather plain and uninteresting.
Is Balenciaga using the old magic trick, ‘the more you see, the less you understand’ to market the most unremarkable outfits we’ve seen in a while?
Also, does the collection show that people will wear any overpriced fashion item once it is made by a famous fashion label?
Balenciaga also collaborated with athletic brand, Adidas (we’ve seen recent collaborations in the world of fashion like Fendi and Versace creating Fendace).
The result of the partnership with Adidas could be described as a lack of creativity or a genius idea - they simply just resurfaced old tracksuits.
No, seriously, if you go to your closet and pull out your father’s old Adidas tracksuit, you have the new collection!
The amazing thing is the collection is already sold out! Balenciaga's stock prices are also at an all time high.
The lesson from all these is appearances matter, and even the strangest appearance could be the most genius idea.