The redemption of Balenciaga at Paris Fashion Week

Creative director Demna chose creativity over (further) controversy

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  Balenciaga's autumn/winter 2023 show had some dresses with sleeves so long, the hands were completely covered. All photos: Balenciaga

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  Other dresses came with cage-like forms protruding from within

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  An oversized suit made out of trousers

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  A classic trench coat

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  Some men's looks were form-fitted and paired with huge boots

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  A man's tracksuit with padded shoulders

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  A puffer jacket pulled up high on the shoulders

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  A man's jacket pulled up high around the ears

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  A velvet tracksuit with padded shoulders

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  The Balenciaga show finished with a parade of shimmery evening dresses

All eyes were on the Balenciaga show that unfolded at Paris Fashion Week on Sunday. While every brand insists its latest collection is critical, that really was the case for the beleaguered luxury house.

The show was the first collection from the label after it was engulfed in a series of blunders last year, which left the house reeling and creative director Demna Gvasalia (who now goes only by his first name) fighting to save his career.

Balenciaga creative director Demna kept things uncharacteristically simple and elegant during Paris Fashion Week. AFP

At the end of last year, Balenciaga released an advertising campaign that made an uncomfortable link between children and the very adult world of S&M. As the brand rushed to pull the offending images of teddy bears in padlock necklaces and harnesses, a second, unrelated image seemed to be using legal papers pertaining to child sexual assaults as a prop in the background.

Rather than denounce both, the company instead threatened the freelance team that created the two sets of images for the house. Only days later, once the damage was done and he found himself cast into the wasteland, did Demna offer a full and unrestricted apology.

The brand and the designer have been lying low since. Parent company Kering stood by Demna and Balenciaga chief executive Cedric Charbit, stating that an internal investigation had found “no fouls from anyone, just errors of judgment”. However, with the industry distancing itself, this show was pivotal for Demna and his future with the brand.

Rumour has it that the designer had been all but ordered to deliver a safe, bankable collection that would reference the happier days under founder Cristobal Balenciaga. As the show began, it was apparent that Demna had taken heed, showing in a space that was not under ankle-deep water or in the midst of a swirling blizzard — as in the past — but rather one that was light, bright and entirely uncontroversial. Whatever the opposite of models trudging through mud is, this was it.

In the end, Demna didn't offer a carbon copy of Cristobal's archive, but instead cleverly reworked ideas with his own sure hand. The 12 opening looks were variations of the classic suit — across both genders — but with a twist. Jackets were supersized (so far, so Demna), but skirts and coat hems revealed the clothes were made from upside-down suit trousers, with the waistbands now at the bottom. This continued with trousers on top of trousers, literally stitched on to the front, so the extra legs swung about as the models walked.

Next came a series of dresses with high necks and gathered waists, inside which were cage-like shapes protruding from one side, hiding an arm. These were followed by Demna's signature pleated, high-low hem dresses, now with sleeves that stretched to the knees, rendering the hands again inaccessible, but in cheery floral prints.

Between these were men's looks, most notably jackets with more forms inside, but that echoed the built-in armour of protective motorbike jackets pushed high up around the shoulders. In leather and as a puffer, they presented an odd, Frankenstein-ish silhouette, setting up the following looks of what could have been skinny-fit long underwear worn with huge dirt bike boots.

A great coat made in polished snake skin at the Balenciaga autumn/winter 2023 show during Paris Fashion Week. Photo: Balenciaga

For this show, Demna had indeed dialled back time, not to the Spanish founder's days, bur rather his own earlier days at the house. He was savvy enough to rein in his wilder instincts, and focus on building a collection that speaks of cut, skill and clarity of vision.

Ending the show was a simple but elegant parade of seven straight-cut, high-necked dresses, with long sleeves that fell to the ground. Each was given a different surface treatment that shifted through velvet to crystals by way of lacework.

Will this show be remembered for its artful glory or heart-rending beauty? Probably not, but it felt similar in mood to Demna's first haute couture outing for Balenciaga, which was all of this and more. Here, in a parade of simple clothes with interesting detail, the creative director showed us again why he deserves to head the noble house of Balenciaga.

Having skirted controversy and failed so spectacularly with his terrible lapse in judgment, perhaps now the creative director will get back to what he does so very well: crafting remarkable and fascinating clothes.