Balenciaga Returns to Couture Week with 50th Collection

Demna Gvasalia had high expectations with her first Balenciaga couture collection: this was the first time the label had shown couture since the days of the house’s founders themselves, and the studio’s closure in 1968. It was also the first time the brand had included a men’s couture appearance.

Present at Cristobal Balenciaga’s original salon, which was renovated for the event, attendees included Kanye West (mainly wearing what looked like a YZY GAP Round Jacket, full face covering, and a pair of FOAM RNNRs), Bella Hadid, Anna Wintour, Edward Enninful , Lewis Hamilton, James Harden, Lil Baby, and a select group of fashion editors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNPNkHdjHvc

From a single mirrored door, the first look appeared in the music-free room, with no sound other than the model’s footsteps. A bit gloomy at first, a group of Gvasalia’s usual faces walked around the hall dressed all in black — a nod to Balenciaga himself, who usually opened with a black appearance, to focus the audience on the silhouette. This includes suits for men and women, tailored jackets, denim, and one essential look: a floor-high, double-breasted coat paired with a nylon puffer cape quilted jacket.

In Balenciaga’s signature form, the look becomes increasingly bold, angular, sculptural, and dominated by exaggerated and proportioned cuts. For example, the ankle-length double-breasted coat is finished with a clean houndstooth, but finished off with the extra wide shoulders that have become Gvasalia’s signature. Other models are seen wearing architectural cocktail dresses with shiny black hats on their heads, covering their faces.

Faux fur jackets teamed with ‘mom’ jeans, turtlenecks teamed with crocodile skin pants, men wore short heels and knee-high boots, and bags such as cardboard shopping bags for shoe boxes. Balenciaga Couture is a world of contrasts — and a sharp departure from the old high-society fashion typically featured in Couture. In one unforgettable exit, a male model appears dressed from head to toe Big Bird-like a yellow dressing gown.

As another nod to couture heritage, the final look is bridal, with the former being a dress at the front and a trouser suit at the back, and the final showstopper presenting a full length veil—a sheer white piece that falls from head and shoulders to the floor, trailing behind. model in the same scary way the show started.

Check out the Balenciaga Couture show in the gallery above.

And for more on the show, here’s a better look at the rumored YZY GAP jacket.