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The designer who brought haute couture back to Balenciaga

2021-07-19T09:28:07.727Z


In six years as creative director, Demna Gvasalia has made Balenciaga one of the most influential and desired fashion labels. Now it presents the first haute couture collection produced by the legendary brand since its founder, Cristóbal Balenciaga, closed his workshop 53 years ago. We talked to the designer about a proposal that celebrates historical legacy and creative freedom, and dynamites the rules of fashion.


“If this continues, in 20 years fashion will cease to exist.

All brands make very similar products and then put a logo here or there and send it to the same

influencers

[prescribers]. It's a shitty mentality. We live in a digital apocalypse ”. The man defending this speech is the one who turned a t-shirt with the DHL logo into a cult object; that he created a video game to accompany the presentation of one of his latest collections, and that a month ago he “hacked” —with permission, yes — several Gucci designs. One of the most transgressive, influential and provocative designers in the luxury industry. And although his claim sounds catastrophic, Demna Gvasalia (Georgia, 40 years old), Balenciaga's creative director for six years, seems happy and relaxed. He has just presented the first haute couture collection produced by the house since its founder closed his workshops 53 years ago. There is light at the end of the tunnel.

One of the models from Gvasalia's first haute couture collection for Balenciaga. The current creative director of the firm developed a natural tint exclusively for the image as a whole.

For the most modern of the moderns, the key to the future of fashion lies in its past, specifically in this elitist and traditional expression built around unique garments, handmade, made to measure and to order, with prices comparable to those of a car.

“Five or six years ago haute couture was dead.

But now I think it is more relevant than ever.

Freedom within

prêt-à-porter

[industrially produced clothing] is practically impossible due to the speed at which it has to be manufactured ”, he declared from his Parisian offices in the old Laennec hospital (17th century), where he received us four days before of the parade.

The Georgian designer, during a costume fitting for his latest collection.

In his opinion and that of masters such as Giorgio Armani, some of the values ​​that define this discipline - artisan work, decent working conditions and good production times - are aligned with the wishes of more and more consumers, especially the youngest. “It is true that only a minority can afford it. I do not mean that I am proposing a solution for mass consumption in the form of 10,000 euro jeans, but it represents an ideal model of where fashion can evolve to stop polluting the air, screens and minds, and offer something valuable " . According to Valerie Steele, director of the museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, the Georgian also "has understood that haute couture is the space where true innovation in fashion emerges today." So,Among other reasons, Gvasalia has decided to relaunch this division at Balenciaga, the firm owned by the Kering group (Saint Laurent, Gucci, Bottega Veneta), which it has managed to turn into one of the most relevant, desired and copied companies in the world. The man who has stamped the name of the Basque creator on football shirts and fanny packs is the designer who has brought haute couture back to the Balenciaga house.

Cristóbal Balenciaga adjusts one of his models, in Paris in 1968. Henri Cartier-Bresson © Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson / Magnum Photos / ContactPhoto

He has done it in the same salons in which the

Spanish

couturier

—who revolutionized fashion in the 20th century— showed his designs more than half a century ago, but in front of only 120 people.

"As many guests as they usually go to a small birthday in my country," jokes Gvasalia.

The creator was unwilling to present this project digitally.

Says

online

shows

make him feel

jet-lagged.

. "It's like you're a cook and you make a dish one week and the next week people come to tell you that it was very good." On July 7, he was able to receive the glowing praise in person. Not only the clothes, but the atmosphere of the show, which passed in complete silence and with a cast of models with striking physiques, thrilled its small audience. Miren Arzalluz, director of the Paris Fashion Museum and author of the book

Balenciaga, the master's forge,

recalls that in the parade time stood still. “Cristóbal Balenciaga was very dramatic and Demna was too; just that nowadays you have to raise the drama to the nth degree to make an impact, "he says.

The tailoring work and volumes connect the proposals of Demna Gvasalia (as in the model in this photo) and the founder of the brand, Cristobal Balenciaga.

For it to be in person, the show had to be postponed several times, and in the end the creator had almost a year to refine his proposal.

What started as a tribute collection - "I had to do it, Balenciaga's legacy is too great," he says - it ended up including trench coats, denim jackets and T-shirts - "it took me a lot of work and effort to think about what a haute couture t-shirt should look like. ”-.

Also men's clothing.

“For me it is very old to consider that haute couture is only for older ladies who live in a

palazzo

. Why? This is not a gender-fluid proposition. I just wanted to erase the idea of ​​sex. I also want a tailored suit, ”he says, wearing black from head to toe, with a wide short-sleeved shirt, tapered pants and shiny shoes with a huge Balenciaga logo on the instep. Along with these tailoring pieces, Gvasalia also covered some historical creations under what the fashion historian Valerie Steele defines as “a postmodern prism”: a black dress wrapped in gazar and created by the Basque master in 1967, another made of petals from 1950 , a semi-fitted orange suit from 1952, her legendary wedding design from 1967… “You've defined what you think haute couture should be today; among other things, a complete wardrobe for the whole day, not only princess dresses, but also pants, shirts,which is what Cristóbal Balenciaga did ”, explains Miren Arzalluz.

Despite criticism from the most orthodox, the risky interpretation of the Georgian designer has managed to connect equally with the fashion expert, the football star or the millennial, the consumer most persecuted by the luxury industry and who is already responsible for 70 % of brand sales.

As the fashion critic and collector of classic Balenciaga pieces Hamish Bowles summarizes, "Gvasalia has managed to develop several product categories with great commercial success, in addition to creating a strong and highly influential aesthetic vision."

Translated into figures: 1 billion euros of revenue in 2019 - double what was collected when it landed at the firm - and 70 new stores since 2015.

'Vogue' photograph of a 1948 Cristóbal Balenciaga design Clifford Coffin / Condé Nast / Shutterstock

The proposals of the current creative director and the founder of the house have more things in common than it might seem when comparing a

baby doll

dress

with the monstrous Triple S sneaker. According to Bowles, “both are interested in capturing a modern attitude through the innovation in silhouettes and textile research ”. After all, the monumental shoulder pads that Gvasalia made fashionable are nothing more than a dramatized interpretation of square

baggy

backs.

with which the Spanish "distorted the female body already at that time", as Igor Uria, director of collections at the Balenciaga Foundation, recalls. While the rest of his contemporaries, led by Christian Dior, marked their waists with voluminous petticoats, Cristóbal Balenciaga (Getaria, 1895-Xàbia, 1972) proposed the balloon dress as an “abstraction of the female body”. The oversize that defines Gvasalia's sweatshirts was already present in the four-pointed dress. In short, both bear witness to their time. For this reason, Valerie Steele considers that the greatest difference between the two is not so much aesthetic, but also historical: “Cristóbal Balenciaga was a genius, but he could only be a specific type of dressmaker, not the creative force behind a brand of the century. XXI that combines

ready-to-wear

luxury,

marketing

and now also haute couture ”.

The Immaculate Conception of Aranjuez (1675-1680), by Murillo (first photo), and, a night ensemble by Cristóbal Balenciaga from 1965 (second photo).

This dialogue between painting and fashion was part of the exhibition 'Balenciaga and Spanish painting' at the Thyssen Museum in Madrid (summer 2019).

Gvasalia is inspired by pieces like this for her collection (third photo).

Album / Jon Cazenave (Balenciaga museum)

In the fifties of the 20th century, the master from Getaria developed a rigid fabric, the gazar, with the Swiss house Abraham, which due to its configuration helped him to create large volumes. "It was a revolution that would later lead to other materials in the sixties such as zagar and superzagar," says Uria. For her first haute couture collection, Gvasalia has collaborated with some of those original Balenciaga suppliers, including Abraham, but the mythical gazar has resisted her. “I tried and tried and tried, but now it doesn't work. It is too poetic. On the other hand, I have discovered embroidery, something that I don't usually work with and that is a whole world ”. For the Georgian designer, this innovation today involves the sustainable materials with which he already makes around 80% of his

ready-to-wear collections.

. "Five years ago I had quite a few problems because it seemed as if you dyed them at home with boiled onion." Two years ago he asked his team to only teach him sustainable textiles. The experiment seems to have worked. “I don't want to see other things that I know I'm going to love, like Japanese tech materials, and that I'm going to get frustrated because I can't use it. Although I think: 'Are they really necessary?' We are not a ski clothing brand ”. But it is the comparable proof that wanting, sometimes, is power. “If we all did the same, it would be like a domino effect. No producer would make non-ecological fabrics if nobody bought them ”.

First photo: Zurbarán's painting 'Fray Jerónimo Pérez' (1633), one of the many works of the Spanish pictorial tradition whose echoes resonated in Cristóbal Balenciaga's work. Second photo: Cristóbal Balenciaga's gazar wedding dress from 1967. Third photo: Gvasalia's interpretation of this piece in her July collection.Oronoz (Album) / David Bailey (Condé Nast, Shutterstock)

Although the problem, he says, is not solved by organic cotton alone. Sustainable consumption is, in his opinion, the key: "Obviously, the fashion industry does not want people to stop buying, but I think companies are obliged to have an educational conversation with their customers and offer them other options." Gvasalia concedes that haute couture is not. Also that it is "difficult" to defend this attitude within a large corporation of luxury companies. “I think fashion is not political enough for the times we live in. Everything revolves around money and business, and that is the problem with the industry for me. You have to take advantage of the ability to reach a global audience for more than just selling handbags. I may not make a big difference, but at least I talk about issues that I think are important. "Topics such as climate change, homogenization of the digital society, job insecurity ...

First photo: Cristóbal Balenciaga's dress for the 1960 summer collection, which inspired Demna Gvasalia for one of her latest creations (second photo) .Balenciaga archives

Gvasalia's political sensitivity is not surprising if a biography is reviewed that connects him again with Cristóbal Balenciaga: both designers lived through a warlike conflict.

The Basque settled in Paris in 1937 fleeing the Spanish civil war.

Georgia's blew up when Gvasalia was 10 years old.

The designer crossed the Caucasus with his family in the direction of the capital of the country, Tbilisi, and when the road became impossible by car, they changed a

Kaláshnikov

for a horse so her grandmother could continue the journey. Later they would move to Berlin, and from there Gvasalia would go to Antwerp and its prestigious Royal Academy of Fine Arts before finally arriving in Paris and founding, in 2014, Vetements, the rebellious clothing firm with which it captured the attention of the entire sector. and now run by his brother Guram. A brand that questioned the traditional values ​​of the fashion industry and in which the current Balenciaga designer focused on garments, not on creative discourse or conceptual narration: on clothing. The one that, according to her own words, literally saved her life. "When I was younger I had to deal with a lot of homophobia in Paris, so I dressed as a security guy or a policeman to try to dissuade others from attacking me." Hence, perhaps,the dramatization of everyday life that works in its collections and the deployment of roles that usually flood its catwalks: the mechanic, the soccer player, the cleaning man, the

skater

… “The proof that fashion continues to be a powerful communication tool is that once on a bank in Switzerland [where she currently lives with her partner, the musician Loïk Gomez] the security guy threw me out.

I thought I was a homeless man because my clothes were three sizes larger than normal. "

Demna Gvasalia, Creative Director of Balenciaga since 2015 BFRND

Gvasalia laughs heartily under the mask.

He says he is no longer the "dark designer" he used to be.

“It may be love or just that I'm getting older.

I no longer do things because I have to prove something, but because I love them.

And besides, fashion is no longer my priority as it was five years ago.

I really like it, but I could live without it. "

Balenciaga did.

He closed his workshop in 1968, driven, among other reasons, by the strength of a new type of design,

ready-to-wear.

, manufactured industrially and cheaper, that neither understood nor cared.

He died four years later.

He said: "The way of life that allows the existence of haute couture no longer exists: haute couture is a luxury that is impossible in our time."

But his is still relevant and inspiring to fashion half a century later.

Source: elparis

All news articles on 2021-07-19

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