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.

in defense: balenciaga spring/summer 2008

Although I declared Alber Elbaz's full on display of weightlessness and comfort for Lanvin the best of Paris, I was thinking in terms of clothes that express the perfect marriage between fantasy and reality. Those clothes can literally transport your way of thinking but also go with you in a literal sense. That's what I want out of clothes for myself as a man and I think women look undeniably sexy in as well. However, fashion, or Fashion with a capital F, wouldn't exist without those rare collections, or more specifically the presentations, that shoot at us like a driving and propulsive dart and dare us to rethink what we thought was possible. Nicolas Ghesquiere's Spring/Summer 08 collection for Balenciaga still stings in my mind and not for why most women can't wear it but the beauty of the execution and the relevant and prescient ideas imbued in each stitch. I think this was the most controversial and divisive collection of the season, more so than Marc Jacobs, because the grand standing theatrics and self-referential nods to celebritydom that Jacobs let hang over his collection are non-existent in Ghesquiere's collection. It's less coquettish and deconstructed in an obvious way where as there's a dangerous attitude in the clothes that seriously considers age, wearability, power, the future, optimism, and femininity in such wildly arresting ways that you can't help be bowled over by its genius.

Shape so it seems is the thread that agitates the most in the collection. The Pom-pom shoulders, the brisk hemlines, the hard-looking contours that make the models look stiff and unable to move, the emphasis on hips and bust, and all of the other fit and construction techniques Ghesquiere employs are not entirely meant to constrict and scream fuck off to any over size two, small breasted woman but it's a celebration of the form and its relationship to power in the modern world. The shoulders that jump off the figure reminded Ghesquiere's audience that women are just in control as their broad shouldered male counterparts. The Coke bottle silhouette is a welcomed respite to the current trend of sack and baby doll this that infantilize or shame women of their gorgeously natural curves. It's also achingly sensual in all of its close to the body, laced up purr. Ghesquiere wants us to keep thinking that shape is perhaps the most important factor of how or why people wear clothes. We want something to flatter or deemphasize or add, but what about a new shape that demands we think a little more into the future when the idea of luxury in relation to what we wear in the streets is no longer subjected to "wearable pieces." That's what I always find so fascinating in his point of view is his ability to look into the future but keep it contemporary and relevant. The notion of pants, top, and dress are arbitrary, so why not give them, and us, a new set of rules? There's more personality in a look that is less homogenized in its shape and form than the trend everyone is following. We'll go along with any new color, print, or material but to ask us to give up our shape is daunting and almost too authoritative. However, it keeps the idea of fashion going in that every season we can only see some variation on the skirt, blouse, pant, so why not give an exact point of view that is confident and unwavering in its proposition and a little thrilling in its exciting curiosity for newness and forward-thinking.

Perhaps Ghesquiere's greatest challenge will be the prints. The bold and beautiful floral prints that to me communicate an optimism about the world are fresh and alive. The world as we know it is full of shit and pigs but in that we can look at the truth and beauty in things and naturally, nature is a great reference point for an artist to expound upon. The world outside the window can be more attractive than some esoteric film reference or some tired homage to an ancient and influential designer. There have been rumblings about ageism attached to the idea of prints in that older women typically wear them, but would they wear a floral mini? This is a youthful and aggressive collection that shouldn't entirely alienate older women but it's hollow to think that older women prints prefer florals. There was a playfulness in those prints juxtaposed with the hard exterior of their couture inspired armor/outerwear. The pom pom accented shoulders or the mini-suits were harmless in their approach. This is a head on collision with florals and it's completely unashamed in its sweetness.

Ghesquiere has never not surprised or intrigued with his odd takes on futurism and luxury. This is the same man that envisioned $10,000 gold leggings that could have easily passed as costume from "Star Wars" (and that's a compliment). I like that he keeps forging forward so effortlessly and without regard for things that are safe and wearable. I'm not suggesting these clothes will look good on every woman, nor should they in their non-conformist shapes and prints, but you cannot deny Ghesquiere of his deft ability to incite and inspire us all.

*Check back for the rebuttal from Bitch, Please. In point/counterpoint style, the lovely scribe at Bitch, Please will reply with why she didn't like the collection. Take my side for now.

balenciaga

The expectation must be quite difficult to surpass for Nicolas Ghesquiere. Every season his design philosophy of futurism meets old school Balenciaga couture technology but chewed up and spit out in a modern, visionary, and directional way continues to not only impress and intrigue but keeps our expectations high, if not continuously higher. Balenciaga is typically the show that will be extremely relevant when it comes to trends for the season and what did Ghesquiere have in store this season? Flower, flowers, and more flowers. Floral prints might be too literal of a source of inspiration for spring but it was refreshing and very Balenciaga in its theme of a time that has yet to exist. However, the flowers were able to breathe romanticism and nostalgia into that concept and gave it a particular weight. History is a significant influence on Ghesquiere whether it be where fashion will be or where it has already been and once again managed to incorporate that into his outlook for spring 2008.

Ghesquiere is reliable for his unwavering eye and curious design propositions. Cohesion is something Ghesquiere understands very well and this show was no exception. The hems were blunt and to the point and the curved lines and wild shoulders of the mini-suits were hard and ultra-defined. The hard edge of the construction conjured up imagery of a knight's grand armor, but it was softened with an explosion of optimistic floral prints. There was a hint of equally contained but unrestrained sensuality with a concentration on lace up and corset inspired details. Ghesquiere pushed all of these ideas forward by using unusual looking fabrics and stiff gathering, folding, cocoon volumes and material pressed against each other so hard a bullet couldn't penetrate it. Deriving inspiration from the Balenciaga archives and car design, this was a precise and tough look but oddly ladylike and pure in its construction. Essentially, a Balenciaga woman is strong, empowered, and in step with the contemporary world. She will step over you in her shameless gladiator sandal.

Do we wish there was more range and wearability in this collection? If you're looking something to wear here you may want to switch DNA with Natalia Vodianova because bold shapes and ideas like this are not for your average woman, nor is it supposed to be. Peak into the future and you'll find a woman wearing something reminiscent of Ghesquiere's pretty and vigorous rumination for next season.


A little bit of catch up:
Gold Digger on:
Paul Smith
Julien Macdonald

And presently:
Bitch, Please on:
Jean Paul Gaultier
Vivienne Westwood
Dior