Led by the iconoclastic and creative director of the same name Demna, Balenciaga presented the collection in Paris through a video game and inside the Simpsons universe. But as of Sunday, Demna has yet to host a show on the runway in America, home to some of his first, most enthusiastic and most famous clients.
That’s why on Sunday morning E, who is known to have once cleared entire clothing stores of Balenciaga, walked the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange taking part in the brand’s spring show 23.
Demna, who wanted his first Balenciaga show in the state to take place in a landmark location in New York, has recently had a horrible sense of time: his presentations, which have recently turned into a brutal sense of anti-utopia, have had an amazing way of comparing the atmosphere of current events. His long-planned release in the fall of 22, where models dressed in blankets mimicked the passage of the biblical snowstorm, became even more acute amid the war in Ukraine and the ensuing European refugee crisis.
Similarly, it was grimly poetic that Demna held a show in the heart of Wall Street during a stock market crash that may be in recession, although technically it was a coincidence. “We’ve been thinking about what landmarks are in New York?” – Demna explained to a group of journalists after the show. Central Park failed, so they looked downtown. “I’m too busy trying on jackets and coats,” to read the stock market news, he said. However, as Demna often points out, the task of fashion is to reflect the world back on us. And he has a better understanding of how, when and where to do it than any designer working today.
(Less coincidence: Balenciaga will start accepting payments in cryptocurrency starting next month, according to a report this week, although Demna has admitted he doesn’t own them and doesn’t understand it.)
