A month later, Demna Gvasalia’s Balenciaga Spring 2020 show is still resonating, its apparent indictment of power and corruption made all the more chilling for being wrapped up in a come-on to commerce. Gvasalia is the rare designer today engaging with sociopolitical issues and moving serious amounts of merch.
This Resort collection was presented in the Balenciaga showroom during the July couture shows. It lacked the imposing set, haunting soundtrack, and facial prosthetics that made the recent show so potent, but it bears all the hallmarks of Gvasalia’s clever renovation of this historical house, among them: outsize parkas with their cheekbone-grazing collars; easy-wearing printed tea dresses; a surfeit of souvenir prints, not just on those tea dresses but also on shell suits, pajama sets, and stirrup leggings; and inventive, essentially unisex tailoring, this time double-breasted and often lapel-less. The look-book-opening coat is stamped with the Balenciaga logo in the familiar block print, but even without it fashion people could identify the sloping shoulders, buttoned collar, and boxy, exaggerated fit as signature Gvasalia. It’s big enough to wear a Balenciaga suit underneath it, and that’s a real-world application of so-called power dressing if ever there were one.
Gvasalia uses these preseason collections as an opportunity to pump up Balenciaga’s accessories; his runways are refreshingly light on handbags compared to those of other labels. Here he showed the label’s popular phone-holder bags with reusable water bottles, which is arguably a better use for them now that we’ve hit peak plastic. And could he do for bedroom slippers what he did for dad sneakers? Just possibly, yes.
The look book concludes on a V-neck dress, simple save its silver foil fabric, the same silver foil fabric that Gvasalia used for a showstopper of a Spring 2020 gown that nods back at the house’s couture past. This iteration was for the girl—or guy—whose lifestyle doesn’t accommodate crinolines.
