With all eyes on Balenciaga, one of Paris Fashion Week’s most anticipated collection launches, the brand’s creative director Demna used his platform to honor Ukrainians in a dramatic show that evoked a deep sense of unease with the future.
For the designer, the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Eastern Europe, where more than 1.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country, comes close to home.
Demna (who prefers not to use her surname) was born in Sukhumi, a town in Georgia that saw heavy fighting during the country’s civil war in the early 1990s.
The designer and his family were among tens of thousands of people who fled Sukhumi amid the conflict in the disputed region of Abkhazia, which is considered independent by Russia despite being internationally recognized as part of Georgia.
“THE War in Ukraine triggered the pain of a past trauma that I have carried with me since 1993, when the same thing happened to my home country and I became a refugee forever,” he wrote, in a note given to guests of the Fall/Winter 2022 parade, held this Sunday. (6), on the outskirts of Paris.
In a moving moment, the designer recited a poem in Ukrainian by the beloved poet Oleksandr Oles. No translation was provided, as Demna intended her message of strength to be heard by those who could understand it. In another gesture, Ukrainian flags were hung from guest seats.
During the show, models trudged through artificial snow and a biting wind, some holding large leather garbage bags (or garbage bags, as the show notes described them).
Although the collection was designed before the start of the Ukrainian War, it was hard not to draw parallels and, speaking to reporters backstage, Demna said the set and staging – a shocking and emotional production – deliberately reflected his own experience of conflict and displacement for 30 years.
Demna also noted that the set’s gravity was originally a partial commentary on climate change and how, due to global warming, snow may have to be digitally rendered in the future. A glass wall separated the audience from the circular stage, creating a kind of live broadcast.
The parade was not the first time Demna has responded to the war in Ukraine. Last week, Balenciaga posted an image of the Ukrainian flag on its Instagram account and stated that all channels in the company would be sharing details on how to contribute to relief causes. The post also announced that the label would provide resource guidance for verified information.
Balenciaga has since deleted that image from their grid and uploaded footage from the show. A link to donate to the World Food Program remains in Balenciaga’s Instagram highlights section.
The collection featured long trains and billowing silhouettes alongside classic pieces like turtlenecks and oversized hoodies. Skin-tight bodysuits were also on display. One model was wrapped from head to toe in yellow and black Balenciaga packing tape – an identical look that was seen on Kim Kardashian, who attended the event as a guest.
The show ended without an ending, as the models normally go out together for a last group walk. Instead, the latest model walked off the set with an intense, suffocating track titled “Storm” by electronic music composer BFRND. Lights in the fake sky above the set flickered and flickered, adding drama to the artificial mood.
In her note to guests, Demna said she had considered canceling the show altogether the week before, reflecting on the fact that “at a time like this, fashion loses its relevance and its real right to exist.”
“Fashion week seems absurd at this point,” he wrote.
But he came to the conclusion that canceling the event would mean “giving in” and “surrendering to the evil that has already hurt me so much… I have decided that I can no longer sacrifice parts of myself to that senseless and heartless war.”
Ultimately, the show achieved what the designer does best: it forced the viewer to ask questions, both of themselves and of the system – perhaps making a barbed suggestion that Demna’s Balenciaga mirrors the world, and often what it means. we see looking at us is going to be uncomfortable.
Source: CNN Brasil
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