Presented in the Balenciaga showroom during Couture Week back in January, this combined men’s and women’s Pre-Fall lineup was so outsized that it warranted two visits (before and after a show) to view every look. In the center of the vast space were monolithic screens depicting larger-than-life people in the clothes—and this, combined with the near-total absence of actual people, Demna Gvasalia included, made for a feeling that was at once serene and sterile.
With no distractions, but also little context, the mind arrived at certain empirical observations. Texture, for starters: remarkably smooth and yielding padded leather wrap-front coats in yellow and burgundy (worthy of whatever splurge); the return of draped, crushed velvet ensembles that were tickly to the touch; a crunchy surface of dimensional lacquered flowers covering every inch of rounded tops; and wildly plush fake fur alongside colorful spongy knits and cool polka-dot silks. An overly descriptive summary, perhaps, but the satisfaction derived from getting to wear these whenever one wants should count for something.
If this was a collection that advanced ideas from Spring, it iterated on earlier seasons, too. Moulded tailored jackets and cinched-waist outerwear; all-over print dresses and sharply tailored pants; BB boots and sling-backs with both squared-off and pointy toes—what might have felt déjà-vu came across as reigniting desire. But by the same token, newness felt incremental: an all-over Balenciaga logo print in a woozy typography couldn’t help but stand out, as did a heavy silk treated with indigo so that it was a dead-ringer for washed, crinkled denim. Judo uniform detailing was transposed to collars of dresses and trenches alike as a sober, understated flourish. The kitten-heel thong sandals will be everywhere, even once the temperature drops.
Back when Gvasalia made his Balenciaga debut, he explained to Sarah Mower that he started by “making a list of garments.” Three years on, he seems committed to this approach. That the models are wearing headphones and staring down or speaking on their phones—one is even holding a Paris-size coffee cup—suggests that any of us should be able to project ourselves onto the looks in a very real, non-idealized way. And this will translate as soon as the clothes hit stores (which, given Balenciaga’s deliberate release of images, is today). In fact, for most of us, the only idealized aspect is imagining that this entire wardrobe could be ours.
