Presented on a flooded catwalk, DemnaGvasalia’s latest collection for BALENCIAGA conjured the end of days
, held at La Cité du Cinéma film studios on the outskirts of Paris this past weekend. Guests arrived in almost complete darkness; as the lights rose, a flooded catwalk appeared – around which the stadium-style bleachers were half-submerged. Above the runway, a vast LED-lit ceiling conjured stormy skies and burning flames, eventually zooming out to reveal the earth as if looking down upon it from outer space.
Out into this combustible abyss Gvasalia’s protagonists strode, oil-black water lapping at their ankles. They wore black, too: a stream of capes, hoods, robes, and gowns, cut with monastic austerity. They had emerged from the designer’s memories of attending the Eastern Orthodox Church as a child in Georgia, where the traditional institution continues to wield considerable influence.
If Cristóbal Balenciaga was propelled by the sincerity of his belief, Gvasalia likes to meld the sacred with the profane . Here, he imbued the priest with a frisson of teenage sex appeal. “I went to church every Saturday,”. “I remember looking at all these young priests and monks, wearing these long robes and thinking, ‘How beautiful’. You see them around Europe with their beards, hair knotted back and backpacks ... I find it quite hot, but that’s my fetish.
Then, it all went black. The show left a lingering question: what next? “In spite of all that’s going on in fashion and the world, I still love this,” Gvasalia assured backstage. “I suppose until the day I die, this is what I am passionate about. I love making clothes.”
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