balenciaga

When looking at a Balenciaga collection there's always a superbly executed high wire act being demonstrated with each seam, cut, and focused idea. The clothes always have such an interesting interplay between ideas, history, and Nicolas Ghesquière's own personal tastes. The balance between something hard/soft, sexy/demure, high/low shot, old/new, fantastical/wearable, becomes a form of fashion that is totally new and unseen. Ghesquière is one of the few tastemakers and true thinkers in fashion that gets us to think differently about what fashion means and what it will look like in the streets. Not everyone can afford the luxury of Balenciaga, but his influence is everywhere in those modish coats you see at Gap or H&M or those knockoff bags available at your local Target or Forever 21. His reach and touch is a sign of someone great. His fall collection did not disappoint. The provocation and freshness was there in a collection that was take on a perversely beautiful idea of bourgeois eroticism. Exposed flesh and a bit of kink made for one of the best collections of the season, if not the very best.

Last season, Nicolas Ghesquière sent out a controversial line up of models with slicked back hair, murderous gladiator heels, and armor like minidresses covered from seam to hemline in exploding flower prints. Fashion followers are still reeling from that show in all of its romantic rigidity. The look was too total for some or too constricting for a variety of body types. Understandable, but the runway is a forum for discussion and mood for Ghesquière. The hemlines, floral prints, and accessories will remain and bare their imprints for the season to come, and that is his genius. His prescient and engaging mind spells out the trends before the language is even created. For fall Ghesquière recreated midcentury looking architectural shapes with little black dresses that looked as if he took a pair of scissors and exposed his favorite parts of the female form. Pants were slim enough for the '80s with velvet tops swirling around the bust like a big paint stroke. Shoulders on jackets and coats were rounded to a slim point just above at the wrist. Delicate diamonds created an interesting frisson against the slick and naughty PVC coats. There were sportier pieces that had a wetsuit effect without looking too harsh. The last few looks consisted of Japanese screen prints but cut with such strong precision it could have been done by a laser.

With a collection with such vigor and vitality, it's almost a challenge for everyone else to catch up. Ghesquière's mind is essential to fashion continuously evolving and shifting us in new directions.