by The trailer for the new TV drama Disney + Cristóbal Balenciaga it’s a feast of mid-century elegance. The miniseries tells the story of the Spanish designer and fashion innovator, famous for his dress designs from the 1950s and 60s. His story is as well known as that of Coco Chanel or Hubert de Givenchy. However, the rags to riches story couldn’t be further from the house of Balenciaga today – arguably the most controversial fashion house of the modern age.
Cristóbal ended his brand in the 1960s but was revived again in the 1990s.
Under the supervision of current creative director Demna Gvasalia (known by his first name) since 2015, Balenciaga’s current iteration has pioneered a modern fashion idea: stunt dressing.
Among Balenciaga’s greatest hits is a towel doubling as a skirt, with a price tag of £695. There were also purposefully dirty trainers, a mud-covered catwalk, a collection modeled after The Simpsons and a bag that looked like Ikea’s £3.99 Frakta, but cost £1,790. All these things have caused outrage, gone viral and created a sold-out buzz.
But sometimes this tendency to encourage goes too far. At the end of last year, the brand was under fire and finally apologized for an ad campaign that showed children wearing teddy bears and contained legal documents related to child sexual abuse.
In March 2023, for his first collection since that scandal, Demna seemed to have turned over a new leaf, saying that he would no longer design collections that “push buttons”. But last month, however, Balenciaga put on a show in LA designed to satirize the “green juice and yoga” stereotype of city dwellers. It was next level stunt dressing. Models wore leggings and used their phones as they walked down a runway in front of the Hollywood sign. There’s even been a collaboration with Erewhon, the cult LA grocery store that’s frequented by celebrities, including Hailey Bieber, and known for its $22 jellyfish.
Balenciaga is therefore one of the most influential fashion houses with the younger generations. Nina Maria, who writes about fashion for publications including 1Granary, created by students at Central Saint Martins. She says: “Balenciaga has the kind of audience that would buy a towel skirt. If Chanel did that, I don’t think anyone would buy it… Demna knows how to engineer social media. It’s an immediate moment.”
Of course, it’s not the only brand that leverages viral influence to gain publicity and buzz. But Demna’s work was at the fore, showing how, in the digital age, fashion has changed from an industry primarily concerned with cut and silhouette to focusing on clothing that references memes in digital culture.
This can come from designs that are inspired by something within social media – like a “clapback” T-shirt that responds to a negative comment online, as with the recent Vaquera Fashion Woman T-shirt that reads “dress obscene” – or designs that aim to. be a trend, topic or meme. Examples of this in 2023 include MSCHF Big Yellow Boots, released in June, or Schiaparelli dresses with animal heads, worn by Kylie Jenner in January.
Denma was hired by Balenciaga in 2015 after his first year with Vetements, the label he co-founded with his brother Guram that famously sold out the £185 T-DHL shirt on the runway – arguably a moment that start the stunt dressing trend. . Maria says her satirical take on popular culture comes from her upbringing in post-Soviet Georgia, which gives her an outsider’s perspective: “Most Americans really took offense to the last show in LA because it made fun of the United States of America. But for him, America is a strange kind of culture and he loves to inspire.”
While Demma’s attitude may seem like the opposite of Cristóbal Balenciaga’s rarefied, elegant world, there are similarities. The founder of the house was also an outsider. As the Disney+ series will show, Cristóbal came to Paris in 1937 after the Spanish civil war, which meant he had to close his shops in his home country. Gaining clients such as Audrey Hepburn and Ava Gardner, he went on to compete with the French titans Christian Dior and Coco Chanel, and to be idolized by them: Dior is called “the master of us all”. He was also a radical – his shapeless “bag” suit in 1957 was controversial in the 1950s.
Cassie Davies-Strodder, who curated the exhibition Shaping Fashion: Balenciaga at the V&A museum in 2017, argues that the founder would appreciate the work of his brand in 2023. [their aesthetic] For many years, Balenciaga has made a point of pushing boundaries and moving with the times,” she says. “In this regard, I am sure he would appreciate the work of the current house, as it has influenced the zeitgeist and is once again leading fashion.”
There may, however, be some shelf life for Demna’s impact stunt dressing. Fashion critic Odunayo Ojo, known as Fashion Roadman on Youtube, recently posted a video titled ‘Should Demna leave Balenciaga? Out of ideas?’, discussing the LA show. Does he think Demna’s influence is waning? “Now? If he keeps doing the same thing, I think he definitely will.”
Ojo explains that there is a shift online in response to new collections from Balenciaga. “I’ve seen it transition from everyone saying ‘Oh my God, this is so funny’ to some people saying ‘OK, this is getting a bit stagnant’. And now I think maybe 60% of people are saying it’s stagnant.”
Davies-Stroder hopes the Disney+ TV series will bring one of fashion’s biggest names to the attention of a new generation. She says Cristóbal’s work has influenced current designers from Molly Goddard to Iris Van Herpen, but recalls the challenges of making sense of Balenciaga’s design before the V&A exhibition. “Especially among younger fashion enthusiasts, the name was more often associated with trainers than with couture craftsmanship. [Cristóbal’s] relevance today in terms of his compelling character and his continuing skill and influence.”
