Highsnobiety

We are often told that, at its best, fashion is supposed to tell us something about the Zeitgeist. This school of thought asserts that fashion is not simply about creativity, craftsmanship, and beauty, if you take an enthusiastic view of it, or materialism and conspicuous consumption, if you do not; that it’s not just an escapist exercise in fantasy, but a reflection of the world. And it is true that designers don’t always operate in a vacuum, and that socio-political issues sometimes make their way into fashion. But the question remains whether these excursions amount to anything substantial enough to support the claim above. Take Gucci and Balenciaga, arguably two of the hottest brands today: the worlds they present are polar opposites, a la-la-land and a dystopia. Which means that we are either living in a completely schizophrenic world, or that fashion is not a medium that is capable of mastering a coherent response to the world around us.

Gucci, the champion of juvenility, mostly sees the world as a carefree, cutesy utopia where flowers bloom and butterflies flutter across high-priced denim. Its stock in trade is sensory overload via fabric and color clash that recalls a tween’s room, and its nerdy quirk is meant to endear. In the Gucci world, problems never go beyond the level of a Wes Anderson film. By and large, neither war, nor political strife, nor social ills exist there.

The Balenciaga universe is the inverse of Gucci’s – dark and dystopian almost to a sensationalized degree, like a news channel that keeps the viewers glued to their screens through fear mongering. Its past shows include references to an impending climate catastrophe, a possible break-up of the European Union, celebrity worship, and lately, the war in Ukraine. Demna has literally covered in black both Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, the latter one at the Met Gala, no less. Whereas Gucci has collaborated with Disney, literally confirming its Disneyland-of-fashion status, Balenciaga has collaborated with the Simpsons, the knowingly humorous and politically charged cartoon.

Your Highsnobiety privacy settings have blocked this YouTube video.

The two brands’ respective philosophies – if they may be called that – extend down to the clothes. At Gucci, colorful dresses, whimsy track suits, monogram galore, a maximalist fantasia bordering on an aesthetic seizure. At Balenciaga, bleak, washed oversized hoodies in earthy tones and stomping boots, a mix of expensive poverty and post-apocalyptic grit.

How can both brands be so extremely popular despite such diametrically opposed outlooks? After all, we are not talking about cult brands that cater to a niche audience with a tribal mentality, which would explain this phenomenon. These are behemoths that cater to the monied masses. Though Gucci outsells Balenciaga five to one, the latter is still an almost two billion dollar brand that commands the attention of not only the entire fashion industry but legions of customers across the globe.

To find an explanation, perhaps one needs to look a bit closer. Because, despite their diametrically opposed aesthetics, there are similarities between the two of an order that is less concerned with presentation. Both are major corporate brands with large marketing budgets, and both take advantage of traditional marketing vehicles that manufacture demand. For all the praise heaped on Alessandro Michele and Demna for their creativity, both Gucci and Balenciaga engage in celebrity marketing (witness the latest Balenciaga advertising campaign with Justin Bieber and Kim Kardashian), carefully courting famous musicians, actors, and influencers. Both advertise relentlessly and are heavily featured in magazine editorials across the globe. And as far as the clothes go, both produce heavily logoed goods in overwhelming quantities. On my recent visit to a Balenciaga flagship in Paris, nine out of ten garments hanging on its racks had a logo on them. Ditto, Gucci.

Though it’s not impossible that there are enough fashion fans that subscribe to either the cheery view of Michele or the dark one of Demna, the more sensible answer is that most fashion customers simply don’t care. Which would certainly explain why the two brands collaborated last year by plastering each other's logos onto their garments and breaking the internet in the process, even though the collaboration made as much sense as Alien crashing Frozen.

“Fashion only cares about itself,” a fellow journalist has told me more than once, a statement that rings true every time I see someone on the street wearing Gucci sneakers with a golden bee paired with an oversized Balenciaga hoodie. What’s important to the final consumer, it seems, is that they are wearing the right brands. What the brand has to say about the world doesn’t really matter.

We Recommend
  • At Balenciaga's Winter 2024, Anything for Demna's Aesthetic
    • Style
  • Who Deserves Credit for the Paparazzi Fashion Campaign?
    • Style
  • Luxury Brands Every Highsnobiety Reader Should Know & Where To Buy Them
    • Style
  • The Best Staple Tees in the World, Ranked by Weight
    • Style
  • Cole Sprouse in Balenciaga’s Towel Skirt? Now, That’s the Suite Life
    • Style
What To Read Next
  • Veja's New Running Shoe Is a Surprisingly Slick Crossover Sneaker
    • Sneakers
  • The Trader Joes Tote Bag Is No Stanley Cup
    • Style
  • Ghettotech, Bootytech, Sextech, meet the Detroit trio HiTech
    • Culture
  • Kendall Jenner in Business Bottega Is Best-Dressed Material
    • Style
  • 2024, the Year of the Beautiful Celeb Couple
    • Culture
  • A Love Letter to Ferrari's IYKYK Super Car
    • Culture
*If you submitted your e-mail address and placed an order, we may use your e-mail address to inform you regularly about similar products without prior explicit consent. You can object to the use of your e-mail address for this purpose at any time without incurring any costs other than the transmission costs according to the basic tariffs. Each newsletter contains an unsubscribe link. Alternatively, you can object to receiving the newsletter at any time by sending an e-mail to info@highsnobiety.com

Web Accessibility Statement

Titel Media GmbH (Highsnobiety), is committed to facilitating and improving the accessibility and usability of its Website, www.highsnobiety.com. Titel Media GmbH strives to ensure that its Website services and content are accessible to persons with disabilities including users of screen reader technology. To accomplish this, Titel Media GmbH tests, remediates and maintains the Website in-line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), which also bring the Website into conformance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.

Disclaimer

Please be aware that our efforts to maintain accessibility and usability are ongoing. While we strive to make the Website as accessible as possible some issues can be encountered by different assistive technology as the range of assistive technology is wide and varied.

Contact Us

If, at any time, you have specific questions or concerns about the accessibility of any particular webpage on this Website, please contact us at accessibility@highsnobiety.com, +49 (0)30 235 908 500. If you do encounter an accessibility issue, please be sure to specify the web page and nature of the issue in your email and/or phone call, and we will make all reasonable efforts to make that page or the information contained therein accessible for you.