Balenciaga showed a grown and sexy collection for fall 2018, one which celebrated designer Demna Gvasalia described as a vision for the label he finally feels at home with. I had kind of, we can say, a creative revelation in October,” he told WWD following the Paris Fashion Week presentation. “I realized exactly what I wanted to show today.”
Using a tagged up mountain as a runway backdrop, the label for the first time showed a combined men’s and women’s collection that included a charity commitment to the World Food Programme with 10 percent of sales from t-shirts bearing the WTO logo donated to the organization.
Women’s offerings were dominated by an array of skirts and dresses, all of which tapped into the days of yore when women wore one set of looks for work and another one altogether for evening adventures. Notably there were no nods at all to day-to-evening-to-weekend tracksuits that define the current fashion era.
The label’s big statement piece for women came in the form of three over sized jackets with the white furry one looking like it was inspired by the mythical Yeti.
Men’s offerings included t-shirts for the Speed Hunters, a made-up boy band. The t-shirts were printed with a French phone number (33 156 528 799) leading to a recorded survey asking callers a series of question, including how what gender they identify by.
Notably, the brand’s equal parts celebrated/reviled Triple S sneaker was absent. Rather the label showed an altogether new sneaker featuring a colorful mesh upper overlaid with plastic cages.
Balenciaga’s fall 2018 men’s sneakers
