The New Balenciaga Is Gonna Look a Lot Like the Old (As In, Really Old) Balenciaga
What does Balenciaga's new creative director, Pierpaolo Piccioli, mean for the future of Balenciaga? Most likely, something that looks a lot like Balenciaga's past.
We're talking Cristóbal, we're talking Nicolas Ghesquière, but we're not likely talking about Demna.
The year was 2015, the era of logomania, of Supreme x Louis Vuitton, of Virgil Abloh and Alessandro Michele and Riccardo Tisci. Not-yet-mononymous Demna joined Balenciaga from his upstart Vetements imprint and singlehandedly thrust then-undersung Balenciaga into the forefront of a war between streetwear and luxury.
A prescient blend of elegant packaging and ultra-casual dress codes, Demna's Balenciaga forced critics to contend with the notion that ripped jeans and track jackets were as luxurious as Gucci bags and Hermès belts. (Why not? It's merely another breed of conspicuous consumption.)
Demna's tenure at Balenciaga made the company tremendously successful but also brought the heightened scrutiny that comes with newfound visibility. A series of willful, or at least incidental, scandals led to one that Balenciaga couldn't shake and with it, a loss of vitality. Balenciaga never recovered. Though it remains quite potent, the damage was done.
Now, Demna is off to Gucci and former Valentino head Pierpaolo Piccioli is at Balenciaga as of July 10. And you can bet that the Italian designer is planning to turn back the clock.
“In all its phases ... Balenciaga has never lost track of the house’s aesthetic values," Piccioli tellingly said in a statement. Take this as a not so subtle hint that Piccioli, whose time at Valentino was demarcated by couture aplenty, is planning a Cristóbal revival of sorts.
This ought to cheer the many snobs who never stopped pooh-poohing Demna's artfully provocative Balenciaga couture, which winked at the house's couturier founder with sportswear balloon jackets and sack dresses made of puffers. (In the Instagram comments of Piccioli's Balenciaga announcement, one such type smugly asserts "No more sneaks and hoodies," as if Piccioli didn't do plenty of both at Valentino.) These folks failed to acknowledge the divisiveness spurred by Cristóbal's own radical innovations but, oh well — let them wring their hands over Gucci, instead.
Piccioli will likely be far more overt in his paeans to the Spanish house's founder, given his predilection for not only couture but the trappings of conventionally luxurious luxury.
Good news for non-Demna types. Bad news for Demna types.
At Valentino and with projects like his Moncler collections, Piccioli asserted a form of overt opulence that will go over well with anyone who bounced off of Demna's Balenciaga.
Lots of flowers, dramatic gowns, billowing pink suits, and even some terrifically saleable stuff: Piccioli is the man behind the Valentino Rockstud, remember.
Though Piccioli is more a modern couturier than a classically trained garment-sculptor in the sense of Cristóbal Balenciaga, his eye for appreciably sumptuous indulgence is well aligned — Piccioli's Fall/Winter 2021 Valentino couture show, for instance, was heralded as "a work of art."
This sets the foundation for the new Balenciaga, which I suspect will look a lot like the old Balenciaga.
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