Four takeaways from Demna’s post-scandal Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2023-2024 show

Carry on, there’s no scandal in sight – that could have been the motto of Demna Gvasalia’s low-key Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2023-2024 show. She announced it in vogue in February : ” The show will be more about showcasing the collection than creating a moment “. It is therefore not surprising that the artistic director of this maison of the Kering group has chosen to present on March 5, 2023, as part of Paris Fashion Week, a refined collection, with a minimal scenography. A way to bury the era of scandal the which culminated in a controversial double campaign in November 2022 with, on the one hand, children wearing BDSM teddy bags, and on the other, businesswomen on desks, one of them occupied by a document on child pornography .

Demna at Balenciaga: eight years of scandal and then calm

Back to basics, then, for Demna (he no longer wants us to use his surname), head of Balenciaga’s artistic direction since the end of 2015. Eight years are starting to be a long time given how much the luxury industry likes to play musical chairs with designers who they do three short years (the usual length of contracts for this position) and then move on to other houses.

Balenciaga autumn-winter 2023-2024, the clean slate for Demna

In eight years, Demna had accustomed the fashion sphere to scenography of impressive, sometimes scandalous technical means (like the show in the mud, after which even recreated a blizzard). But now the Georgian designer has decided to make a clean slate, choosing to drape an auditorium in pristine canvas, like a new blank page. And it wasn’t just any auditorium, but that of the Carrousel du Louvre, built precisely in the ’90s to host fashion shows: another sign of Demna’s desire to start from scratch.

Demna tries to return to the essence of Cristóbal Balenciaga

As also announced by vogueDemna also wanted, through this new show, to return to the very essence of Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895-1972), nicknamed the ” designer of designers so much this sample of black, who knew how to sculpt architecturally, inspired his contemporaries. Thus, the first seven looks were completely black, first shades of gray appeared, then navy, and finally more colors (like the total jeans look of step 16, the beige of the trench coat of 18, distorted floral patterns for steps 27, 29, 31, 33, 35, python for look 43 and leopard for 45). The cobalt blue suit (strong trend of 2023) with almost pagoda shoulders of the 40s look was the liveliest passage of the collection. We could therefore read in this dedication to black, and in the array of most of the oversized silhouettes, a tribute to Cristóbal Balenciaga. And since the latter was a god of cutting, Demna rubs it precisely deviating the trousers to recreate other garments: if we look closer, we can then see the belt loops at the end of the sleeves, for example, or even the legs that seemed to hang from the shoulders, as if the mannequins were walking on all fours.

No flashy logos, no paparazzi snatching people at the post-scandal Balenciaga show

If assistance numbered nearly 700 people for this post-scandal Balenciaga autumn-winter 2023-2024 show, you certainly haven’t seen it bludgeoned everywhere on social networks. And this is partly explained by the desire for discretion of the designer who has not invited the usual crowd of people for this type of event. Incidentally, the collection didn’t even feature ostentatious logos. We can therefore read in it a form of break with the cult of the clearly visible brand established by Demna at Balenciaga until then. Something to address another audience, less logomaniac. It is therefore the end of an era, and the beginning of a new one for Balenciaga and Demna.