BALENCIAGA SS23: another apocalyptic scenario by Demna

After last season’s snowstorm, Balenciaga takes us to a mud crater in his new SS23 show. We are faced with another apocalyptic scenario of Demna, or just the natural evolution of snow on earth. The designer wanted to go down to the mud “to look for the truth, to have his feet on the ground”.

Wrapped in a huge security uniform, Kanye West opens the fashion show, a show in which men wear utilitarian pieces and most of the women, in contrast, wear ball gowns. The models paraded determined without hesitation to stain the clothes with mud. They were imposing their own vision of luxury and generating a satire on the fashion status quo.

If there is something from the fashion show that will be successful on the street, it will be the accessories. The repertoire of bags chosen by Demna was truly brilliant. A new bag composed of a sleeve and a tote wrapped under the arm, as if it were an extension to one’s own body. Other models wore inflatable bags on their arms or baby carriers (with very realistic fake babies). Sharpening the eye, we also got a glimpse of another accessory that we were expecting: the Lays potato chip bag. At last it has become an oversized bag. And what to say about the spiral fur scarves? They’ve been the ray of light on the runway.

Anyone who assumes that fashion is about glamour will have to rethink the concept, at least for Balenciaga. Although from now on you will have to draw your own conclusions. In the statement accompanying the Balenciaga SS23 show, Demna has made it clear that he will no longer explain his proposals. Fashion, as “visual art”, does not need a story to sell itself,” read the note in which he also stressed that he hates labels and hates being labeled.  

Do brands need to sell their proposals, to defend their identity? Maybe yes, maybe no… what is clear is that Demna will let everyone draw their own conclusions.