The Business of Fashion
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
PARIS, France — Balenciaga shows give good curtain. The walls of the venues for Wednesday morning's men's' show were the kind of grey vertical slat blinds you find in high-rise offices. Corporate decor. Because, according to Demna Gvasalia, "corporate" was le mot juste for the collection. Balenciaga recently relocated to the same building where parent corp Kering is housed. Now Gvasalia swims in a daily sea of collar-and-tie convention. "He's the kind of man who might go into the office to work on Sunday", he mused. But where other free-thinking peers might find "corporate" a dirty word, especially as the March of the Trumpkins corrals democracy into one giant business opportunity for oligarchs, this designer embraced it. "It's a reality." And an opportunity for him as well, he added, "to take away the rigidity of the corporate suit." He insisted he was after warmth, cosiness, comfort.
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Couture week delivered a dizzying mix of the surreal and clothes actually meant to be worn by clients, writes Angelo Flaccavento.