The year Balenciaga came into the world was in this time. It’s in the metaverse, in a room with glass walls in a city that hasn’t been named. Demna Gvasalia and I meet there. However, even though the buildings look like Singapore from the Jetsons, they are actually from Singapore itself.
The avatar, who is also the creative director of Balenciaga, said that when he or she came into the room. Then, “What do I have on? Jacket: What kind of jacket? I’m sure it’s not too big.
In addition to the warm-up jacket and T-shirt, he had a silver chain around his neck, gold hoops in both ears, a black baseball cap, and a five-o’clock shadow. In other words, he looked a lot like the real-life designer, who usually wears all black, a baseball cap, and hoops. The hoodie wasn’t as big as he might have liked, and his skin looked like that of a cartoon, even though he’s 40.
My outfit, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be up to par.
Was your avatar chosen? A man who now goes by the name Demna (he doesn’t have a last name) asked. I said I had, but there were very few clothes to choose from, and most of them looked like they came straight from Talbots or Topshop. There is a blue three-button polo shirt on you, Demna said. and laughed. This is how it looked to him when he waved his arms around in front of his face. He said, “I have to get used to this.”
He was actually in Paris, at the Balenciaga offices, in which he spends a week every month for a week. He spends the rest of the time at home outside of Zurich, with his wife, Lock Gomez, their two chihuahuas, Cookie and Chiquita, and his collection of Princess Diana porcelains there. When I was in Brooklyn, I went to the city.
As soon as the Balenciaga fall 2022 show was revealed on the brand’s website, avatar me and avatar him were interviewing each other face-to-face in cyberspace. It was only a few hours later.
During the pandemic, fashion talked a lot about how to change the system and start over with a new look and new ideas. Demna, on the other hand, was one of the few designers who took advantage of the chance for creative destruction and reinvention.
Demna, the designer behind the VR show “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow,” also made a Balenciaga collection for the popular video game Fortnite. She also “hacked” into her sister brand, Gucci, by “stealing” (with permission) some of its most famous designs and reimagining them; and she pulled a fast one on gucci by making a Balenciaga dress look like a Gucci dress.
On that note, he also brought back couture to Balenciaga after 50 years. He did this by dousing the building blocks of the basic wardrobe, like T-shirts, jeans, and bathrobes, with elegance and turning them into entrance-making clothes. He went to the Met Gala for the first time with Kim Kardashian; Justin Bieber, Elliot Page, and Isabelle Huppert all joined the Balenciaga family; and (in his down time) was the creative director of Balenciaga.
In doing so, he made Balenciaga the brand that best reflected the complicated mix of technology and nostalgia, elitism and accessibility, that was prevalent in 2021. As a part of the Kering luxury group, it is now number three in terms of sales, after Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent, says Kering CEO François-Henri Pinault.
The Georgian designer who made his name at the fashion show Vetements by shoving his nose up at the establishment and its pretences has become its prophet. Why did Facebook ask Balenciaga for fashion advice on what to wear in the metaverse when it changed its name to Facebook?
