Show Notes: A Poignant Commentary On The Ravages Of War At Balenciaga
According to Demna, "this show needs no explanation".
Demna’s 360° Winter 2022 show for Balenciaga took place on March 6 against the backdrop of a worsening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine.
It has been reported that over 1.3 million Ukrainians have fled their war-stricken country to seek safe shelter in neighbouring European states. To compound the situation, four million Ukrainians are expected to make an exodus from their homeland according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
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Many would not disagree that talking about fashion in the context of these turbulent times would seem rather inconsequential right now. Indeed fashion doesn't exist in a vacuum as Balenciaga has shown – the brand has been posting news updates about the situation in Ukraine for the past few days on its IG Story and urging followers to donate to the World Food Programme.
Demna admitted in a letter penned for the show’s guests how he had almost canned the runway show. “Because in a time like this, fashion loses its relevance and its actual right to exist”, he noted. It’s a poignant reminder of how the designer still carries the scars of growing up as a refugee himself when he fled the civil war in his home country of Georgia in 1993 as a child before settling down eventually in Germany.
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The Russian invasion of Ukraine “triggered the pain of a past trauma” he noted – but cancelling the show would be “surrendering to the evil that has already hurt me so much for almost 30 years”. Instead, what transpired on the runway was a powerful reckoning fuelled by resistance, defiance and, as Demna put it, “victory of love and peace”.
Ahead, we share some of the notes we jotted down from this show which is bound to be one of Demna's most iconic presentations.
There was much interest in the show invite when guests started sharing unboxing videos and posts on their social media feed. Rather than the typical letter invite, Balenciaga delivered boxes of cracked iPhone 6s that were imprinted with the names of attendees on the casebacks. Virtual invites sent to the press featured a screen capture of the iPhone screen that showed a wallpaper of Earth taken from outer space.
The show was allegorical. Guests were ushered to a pitch-black venue that lit up to unveil a glass amphitheatre housing an Artic tundra. Models who were dressed in Balenciaga’s trademark silhouettes of baggy jeans, hybrid stretch dresses, bodysuits and oversized and shrunken tops made an arduous 360° trek on the snowy trail, pelted by blustery winds and snow – some visibly shaking in the cold. (The initial concept for the set was meant to allude to the climate crisis but it took on a totally loaded meaning in light of current events.)
If walking in the face of strong winds is physically demanding, try doing so in stiletto boots in the snow. The knee-high boots, some almost waders-like, were worn by both female and male models as they trudged on.
Balenciaga is known for appropriating everyday ordinary items and turning them into It bags. We’ve seen it with the Barbes bag that reimagined those large market bags as well as other riffs on bags such as the ubiquitous blue Ikea shopping bag and plastic grocery bags. For the winter show, Demna turned to the trash bag as the starting point of the season's key bag. One can read that choice in the context of his original intention of the show as a commentary on the callous actions towards the environment with the amount of waste we generate. But one can also read into how the trash bag is often used by refugees as a means to hold all of their prized possessions as they make the run from the evils of political violence.
A Ukrainian flag T-shirt and a note from Demna were placed on every seat at the show. And just before the show started, Demna's voice permeated the space as he read a poem in Ukrainian by Oleksandr Oles, regarded as one of the country's greatest poets. The closing looks were models dressed in a yellow tracksuit and a baby blue column dress with a train that waved fiercely against the unrelenting wind – a fitting salute to a country close to Demna's heart.