Kim Kardashian modelling an off-shoulder faux mink coat impressed by Elizabeth Taylor. Nicole Kidman and Kyle MacLachlan nattering on the entrance row. And an look from Mrs Bezos herself.
The celebrities had been all the time going to align in Paris for Demna’s closing present at Balenciaga. And on Wednesday lunchtime, probably the most controversial and copied designer in fashionable vogue bowed out after a decade with a present that conformed to the thought of couture as a lot because it challenged it.
Backstage, Demna spoke with aid about “leaving this metropolis that I really like and hate for good” when he strikes to his new job at Gucci in Milan subsequent week. However earlier than then, he wished to “make couture related”.
Democratising couture isn’t simple. These things is handmade to exacting guidelines and wildly costly. However the plan was to make use of the present as a stage and the garments as costumes for social commentary. Earlier scorching subjects have included local weather change, swag-wars and AI. On Wednesday it was a research of the related costume codes of “La Bourgeoisie” – and the moneyed few sat right here who fork out for it.
The stage itself was Cristóbal Balenciaga’s former residence, restored to its plush Nineteen Sixties cream glory when the Basque designer launched couture in 2021.
On the glamorous finish had been a sugar pink debutante costume constituted of the world’s lightest organza, and a sequinned skirt swimsuit based mostly on – what else – Demna’s grandma’s kitchen tablecloth. Little doubt Mrs Bezos had her eye on the elegant corset clothes which got here with out boning, “so you’ll be able to really breathe”, he mentioned.
Well-known for flipping conventional notions of magnificence by casting fashions of all ages and sizes, out got here 9 Neapolitan fits with out shoulder pads and modelled by bodybuilders as a result of “it isn’t the garment that defines the physique, however the physique that defines the garment”.
There adopted references from Demna’s biggest hits, together with a seam-free puffer coat and couture trainers, whereas references from Cristobal’s got here within the shapes and lengthy sleeves; the present ended with a cream, bell-shaped Guipure lace robe which referenced the dimensions of Balenciaga’s from the Nineteen Fifties.
Few designers have had the cultural attain of Demna, who was made inventive director at Balenciaga in 2016 after stints at Maison Margiela, Louis Vuitton and his personal label, Vetements.
Throughout his profession right here, he has orchestrated frenzies round abnormal gadgets equivalent to Crocs and Ikea Frakta luggage, upending the which means of excellent style whereas infuriating critics by whacking four-figure worth tags on to distressed trainers.
Supposed as a joke and a commentary on the hierarchy of worth, it proved a very profitable gag for Balenciaga’s dad or mum firm, Kering, turning into a billion-dollar megabrand.
For some, Demna by no means recovered from allegations that he had condoned little one exploitation in a collection of advertisements involving BDSM imagery and kids in 2022. On the time, he took accountability, though the scandal dented each hype and gross sales for a while.
In the end, it predicated a transfer away from his extra viral designs, which had begun to distract, and he turned extra targeted on his expertise as a designer.
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He’s succeeded by the comparatively safer designer, Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli. Demna’s again catalogue will proceed to polarise, however his legacy is indeniable. As Demna mentioned: “I’m so arduous on myself – however I couldn’t do higher than this at Balenciaga.”
Was this Giorgio Armani’s final ever assortment? Final month, for the primary time within the designer’s historical past, the designer missed his Milan reveals attributable to to ailing well being.
The plan had been a precautionary one, a relaxation earlier than this present. So a no-show from the designer at his present on the firm headquarters this week, coupled with visibly emotional fashions ambling like Erté sketches down the catwalk, actually despatched tongues wagging.
In an try to cease the hearsay mill, the 90-year-old designer defined his absence to a handful of reporters in an e mail: “Despite the fact that I wasn’t in Paris, I oversaw each facet of the present remotely by way of video hyperlink, from the fittings to the sequence and the make-up”. His absence, he mentioned, was on the behest of his of his medical doctors: “Though I felt able to journey, they really useful extending my relaxation.”
No matter whether or not you may afford an Armani swimsuit, one in every of his legacies has been encouraging girls to put on trouser fits. And on the present, among the many sculptural peplums and slithery robes with outsized bows, got here tuxedos in funereal black. Ostensibly glamorous variations of the menswear he started within the Nineteen Eighties, there was additionally a finality to them.
Eager to regulate the narrative of his £10bn Armani empire, of which he’s a sole shareholder, he was fast to remind us that “the whole lot [we saw] … has been completed below my path and carries my approval”.