Croc heels, 'BDSM' bears and towel skirts: Does Balenciaga have a Demna problem?

Over the last few years, Balenciaga has gone from a fashion house I just kinda sorta knew about to an empire I could not escape – especially on social media.

I don’t recall it having any impact on me during my fashion formative years (i.e., high school and onwards), but to be fair, the beginnings of my fashion journey leaned more towards Markhams than Margiela.

It was a dark time and I do not want to talk about it.

I only really began checking for the brand after American Horror Story: Coven’s Myrtle Snow (Michelle Page) screamed out ‘BALENCIAGA!’ as her final words before she was (unfairly) burnt at the stake.

Retrospectively, that is what has come to define my overall thoughts on Balenciaga: part camp, part pop culture, part c*nt.

As my knowledge and relationship with fashion grew, so did my respect for Balenciaga, despite it still not my cup of tea (I’m more of a McQueen and Schiaparelli kinda girl).

To say that its current creative director, Demna Gvasalia (now just Demna), wasn’t the primary reason for that would be a lie bigger than these thunder thighs (OnlyFans dropping soon).

Similar to what Olivier Rousteing was able to do for Balmain, almost single-handedly, Demna has been instrumental to Balenciaga’s revival in the digital era – even managing to, like Rousteing, resurrect its couture line after over 50 years of dormancy in 2021.

Using his masterful craftsmanship, thought-provoking intellectual design that panders to the fashion girlies, and, of course, a knack for controversy marketing, Demna’s ‘anti-luxury’ approach to a legacy house thrust Balenciaga back to the forefront of the fashion-conscious and contributed to it breaking its first billion in revenue in 2019.

Under Demna, Balenciaga became the fastest-growing house under French luxury group Kering - its owner, so, then, what went wrong?

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF BALENCIAGA

Make no mistake, boundary-pushing splashed with some controversy is nothing new to Balenciaga.

Established during the 1910s, Spain-born Cristóbal Balenciaga, the couturier Christian Dior deemed “the master of us all” became by the 1950s one of the most radical voices luxury fashion had ever seen.

With a focus on architectural design and a negative spacing between the body and the garment, The New Yorker writes, “[Cristóbal’s] designs were so abstracted that people tended to describe them using metaphors”.

Transforming European fashion that at the time was super into soft femininity and the hourglass figure – which Christian is credited as a pioneer of - Cristóbal made luxury fashion daring, resembling sculpture over silhouette. Even Ms Coco Chanel herself called Cristóbal the “only one among us who’s a real couturier”.

However, like many European fashion houses of the time, Balenciaga was not without its controversies – most notably its link to Nazi Germany during World War II.

According to Understitch, who did a deep dive on the brand’s then-continued rise, during World War II, the Nazis gave French couturiers the option to side with them to “stay in business or be forcibly shut down”, resulting in brands like Chanel, Hugo Boss, Louis Vuitton, Dior, and Balenciaga having heavy ties them.

It’s also further alleged in The Dressmakers of Auschwitz by Lucy Adinton that these brands, though none are named in particular, used Nazi slave labour to help produce their garments, which would notably be worn by high-ranking women in the administration.

Though there’s a strong argument to be made that these brands' hands were forced if they had any hopes to keep their doors open, Cristóbal in 1972, years after shutting Balenciaga down when he retired in 1968, designed the wedding dress for Nazi General Francisco Franco’s daughter. He died two weeks later.

The fashion house was then fully re-opened in the latter half of the 1980s after Groupe Jacques Bogart acquired its rights, seeing mild success until 25-year-old Nicolas Ghesquière became its head designer in 1997.

During his 15-year tenure, Ghesquière has been credited for turning Balenciaga into the fashion house it’s known today, getting acquired by Kerring, who also owns Gucci, Saint Laurant, and Alexander McQueen, in 2001.

However, after Ghesquière’s “mutual parting” with Balenciaga, the Business of Fashion reported that he said in an interview with System Magazine in 2013 that the “directionless” brand ultimately left him feeling “too alone” and “lacked culture”.

"It all became so dehumanised. I began to feel as though I was being sucked dry, like they wanted to steal my identity while trying to homogenise things. It just wasn't fulfilling anymore."

Balenciaga then sued him for a breach of contract for $9.5 million, which was ultimately settled out of court in 2014.

Shortly after Ghesquière’s “departure” as Balenciaga’s creative director, Alexander Wang, 28 years old at the time, became its new head to much fanfare.

Wang ended up parting ways with Balenciaga in 2015 after only three years, even though, financially, the brand had seen “double-digit” growth during his tenure.

However, though not necessarily in a financial flop era, Understitch criticised Wang’s short stint as “beating a dead horse with the minimalism”, Hypebeast said it “didn’t produce anything memorable or spectacular”, and Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) called it a “pallet-cleanser”.

Personally, I’m not a minimalism girlie, so my thoughts on Wang do not lean in his favour.

Either way, it’s safe to say that under Wang, Balenciaga became a success in the streets, but a bore in the sheets – a far cry from its roots with Cristóbal and its revival with Ghesquière.

THE RISE AND RISE OF DEMNA

Though not particularly glowing, WWD was in their That’s So Raven bag when they predicted Wang’s stint to have possibly “[allowed] the next designer in to work more freely, beyond the shadow of Ghesquière.”

Enter, Demna, who in October 2015 was announced by Kering as the new – and still current - creative director for Balenciaga.

Like Ghesquière and Wang, Demna was a rising star in the industry, being appointed at just 34 years old.

And like Wang, his appointment made waves. It was kinda groundbreaking, seeing that he had only two years prior co-founded Vetements, having previously worked for Margiela and Louis Vuitton.

However, unlike Wang, Demna, to describe his tenure as an unremarkable pallet cleanser would be a straight-up lie – even if you’re not a fan.

Balenciaga’s then-CEO, Isabelle Guichot, said Demna’s appointment “adopts a unique vision of the designer's role today, and thus recalls Cristóbal Balenciaga's own vision”, with Kering’s CEO, François-Henri Pinault, echoing the assurance in Demna’s unique approach to design, adding that he was “convinced” Demna would “lead Balenciaga to a successful future”.

And from the bat, Demna came out swinging with his Autumn/Winter 2016 womenswear show – immediately making it known that he would not be content with being content.

Using bold, grandiose shapes inspired by Cristóbal’s archives, merged with the streetwear-based ‘anti-luxury’ design codes he established with Vetements, Demna’s debut collection received critical acclaim from the industry. Elle called it “unexpected”, The Guardian said he was “reinvigorating Balenciaga via strategic disrespect”, while The Cut titled their piece on his debut simply as, ‘And Just Like That, Balenciaga Is Back’.

Pretty much everything Demna touched afterwards cemented Balenciaga as not only the “coolest brand in town”, but also one of the most talked about, producing some of the most notable fashion moments of the last decade, including the Triple S sneaker, the Croc collection, beaten up Converses, the Bernie Sanders logo, the broken iPhone 6S invitation to the Autumn/Winter ‘22 show, Kim Kardashian’s tape catsuit, the Simpsons episode, both his couture shows, and so. much. more.

A key to his success not only at Balenciaga, but as a designer in his own right, is arguably the meticulous craftsmanship and intellectuality that underscore his often-controversial designs.

Often Duchampian in nature, Demna’s design language panders to the fashion-interested, who then trickle their enthusiasm to the masses, grounding it in a way that transcends social media.

“My Balenciaga is for those who understand, value, and enjoy what I do. It is for the people who are not afraid to be different... It is for someone who truly loves fashion - not for people who have time to debate Met Gala looks for hours,” Demna told GQ in 2021.

“If one needs to debate it for hours,” he continued, “it means they do not understand what fashion really means, and their debate stays in that tiny box of their personal comfort zone.”

In short, to Demna’s Balenciaga (and its legion of fans), those who get it, get it, and those who don’t, don’t matter.

To the industry – and, in turn, to Balenciaga - Demna was not only a genius and a trailblazing provocateur, but he was also a visionary.

You could not escape Balenciaga or its influence, no matter what you did, and it was remarkable to watch in real-time.

THE SCANDAL

On 21 November 2022, June Nicole Lapine took to FKA Twitter to express concern over what she implied to be child exploitation at Balenciaga.

“Balenciaga just did a uh... interesting... photoshoot for their new products recently which included a very purposely poorly hidden court document about 'virtual child porn'. Normal stuff,” read the post.

The photoshoot, or rather, photoshoots, in question were pulled from two Balenciaga campaigns.

The first one centred around the usage of a child in their 2022 holiday campaign, where they could be seen stoically standing before a host of Balenciaga products designed for adults and holding their teddy bear bag that was geared in what could be, understandably, read as fetishwear.

In the second one, which was for an entirely separate campaign promoting Balenciaga’s collab with Adidas, the (very c*nty) Three Stripes handbag is un-assumably positioned on top of a stack of documents in an office-like set up.

The problem, there, for Lapine was that one of the documents referenced a real-life court case, United States v. Williams, where the US Supreme Court upheld the PROTECT Act, a federal law that criminalises advertising, promoting, presenting, or distributing child pornography.

Building her case, Lapine highlighted that Balenciaga wiped their Instagram feed, which, to her, constituted guilt, despite the brand’s now well-known habit of wiping their feed upon the release of every new collection.

The ensuing sh#tstorm after her arguments went viral was the first of its kind of this magnitude in the era of social media.

As Balenciaga’s artistic head, Demna was at the forefront of what seemed like a never-ending barrage of critique, with the last time a designer receiving such universal condemnation being after a video leaked where John Galliano – Dior’s creative head at the time - could be heard making wildly antisemitic comments.

On 22 November, team Balenciaga posted an apology on their Instagram story, with the brand saying they “strongly” condemned “child abuse”, and that the two campaigns reflected a “series of grievous errors” that it took full responsibility for, subsequently removing them from all platforms.

The brand also said it would be taking legal action against the parties responsible for “creating the set and including unapproved items” in its Spring 23 campaign.

On 28 November, Balenciaga filed a $25 million lawsuit against the parties who oversaw the Adidas campaign (namely the production company, North Six, Inc., and the set designer, Nicholas Des Jardins) for what is essentially defamation, alleging their “inexplicable acts and omissions were malevolent or, at the very least, extraordinarily reckless”.

It, however, did not take legal action against the parties responsible for the holiday campaign, and later dropped the $25 million lawsuit.

On 2 December, almost two weeks after Lapine’s post, Demna finally addressed the scandal, apologising in a “personal message” via the Instagram fan-made-turned-official-support-account, @DemnaGram.

“As much as I would sometimes like to provoke a thought through my work, I would NEVER have an intention to do that with such an awful subject as child abuse that I condemn,” it read. "I need to learn from this, listen and engage with child protection organisations to know how I can contribute and help on this terrible subject.”

Shortly after, current Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit issued his own “sincere” apology, announcing a series of actions the brand would take to “learn” from its “mistakes”.

“At Balenciaga, we stand together for children safety and do not tolerate any kind of violence and hatred message,” it read.

THE 'TOWEL SKIRT'

After Demna and Charbit issued their apologies, it was, understandably, pretty quiet at Balenciaga.

Though the storm had simmered down entering the new year, the scandal had an undeniable impact on the brand.

Lyst, which ranks fashion’s most popular brands quarterly, announced Balenciaga had dropped seven spots from its #4 placement in Q3 of 2022 - taking it out of the top 10 in Q4, and then further plummeting another seven spots to occupy 18th place in Q1 of 2023.

Then, Kering confirmed that Balenciaga had a “challenging end” in Q4 of 2022, after “outstanding” growth in the year prior to the scandal, which it said “continued” to affect it “in certain regions”, particularly in the US.

So, seemingly, with everything to lose and prove (again), what does a designer previously on top of the industry do to come back from his fall from grace? For Demna, it was a moment to reflect and return to his roots.

“This was particularly hard to live [through], a mistake to learn from,” he told Vogue in February – his first interview post-scandal. “This experience has forced me to reevaluate a lot of things in the way I, we, work, in the way we create and communicate images, the way we interact with our audiences, and the way we learn from our mistakes and move forward… [and] as creative director, I will have to question absolutely everything now.”

So, for Balenciaga’s return – though it hadn’t really left, despite the controversy, it took to the Carrousel du Louvre in Paris for its Autumn/Winter 23 collection in March, a show that was notably pared down, something Demna had alluded to in the _Vogue _interview.

“I have decided to go back to my roots in fashion as well as to the roots of Balenciaga, which is making quality clothes—not making image or buzz,” he said. “[In December], I reconnected with where I started… I am back to making jackets - that’s where this [Balenciaga] started, and that’s where I started as a designer.”

And to his word, A/W 23 felt like quintessential Demna: muted tones, exaggerated silhouettes (particularly at its shoulders), minimalist, streetwear-based design, and, of course, a bunch of jackets and coats.

“Fashion to me can no longer be seen as entertainment,” Demna wrote in his show notes, “but rather as the art of making clothes.”

Though it did feel like somewhat of a return to form, or “roots”, in this case – and it was a very pretty, back-to-basics collection with some truly spectacular tailoring and craftsmanship, it did feel more like a Vetements interpretation of classic Balenciaga than it did Demna’s reimagining of Balenciaga.

Gone, at this collection at least, was the wit behind the design, the intelligence that sparked conversation, and the “instinctiveness” Demna had told Vogue he had to rethink.

“The provocative aspect of my work often got misinterpreted and misunderstood, and I no longer feel like applying it to my designs. I often used some kind of wit in my design language, and it has often been deemed provocative. For me, it was more about having fun and not taking fashion too seriously.”

The loss of something “fun” could truly be felt in the collection, because, for the first time since his tenure began, Balenciaga lacked a “conversation” piece. Though stripping away his design language to its bare bones made sense (and was arguably what corporate wanted to avoid any tiny hint of controversy), for the first time since his tenure, Balenciaga felt… dull.

It should be noted, however, that the “back-to-basics” motif was echoed by the likes of Prada, Dior, and Loewe.

“It’s a message that feels timely and pertinent, a welcome reset in pursuit of an industry that is slower and more intentional,” wrote Harpar’s Bazar. “The end result may have been simple and may not have evoked the usual social media-melting chatter of collections’ past, but its austerity struck the right note.”

Honestly, fair – and it seemed to work out for Balenciaga after it rose to #16 for Lyst’s Q2 of 2023 Index, and then again to #14 for Q3, right under its cinematic sister, Dior. A far cry from top five, but progress, nevertheless.

A potential problem, for me, is that the ensuing collections felt more of the same, almost to the extent that if you mixed some pieces from all of them into one collection, it would be tough to decipher which piece was from when.

That’s not to say that Demna has become an uninteresting designer without the “provocation”, but with the “fun” removed, and a focus on “simplicity”, it risks verging on harkening back to what made Wang’s tenure unremarkable.

Retrospectively, Demna seemed to agree on the tameness of the show in another Vogue interview in October, likening it to a showcase of “fear”, more than a showcase of his growth as a designer.

“I look back at it, and I really hated it. It’s a good show, but it’s very polished. In many ways, it was a show of fear. I don’t like it when it’s polished. I like it when it’s rough. That is my aesthetic, and I have to stay loyal to that.”

The first sign that seems to suggest Demna might be shrugging this “fear” off and flirting with fun again came in Balenciaga’s Spring 24 collection, Capital B, with the debut of the ‘Towel Skirt’.

Showcasing a time-lapsed hyper-stylised version of everyday pedestrians – the models – walking by a Balenciaga store in Paris, christened Le Mix by Cristóbal, the virtual show - though not really presenting much that we haven’t seen yet, is probably my favourite post-scandal show.

It’s a grandiose-feeling production, with an almost gothic cinematic quality to it that blends beautifully with the collection itself and is exceptionally shot.

Around the two-thirds mark of the video, in a blink-or-you’ll-miss-it moment, a couple of the models walk by in dark or muted outfits, wearing a towel around their waist fashioned as a skirt, and to be honest, it looks pretty cool and makes sense within the context of the “everydayness” of the collection’s production.

Though noted by media covering and commenting on the collection upon its debut in May, it was only until recently, when Balenciaga released its preview of some of the pieces in the collection, that the general public took notice.

The skirt, which retails for $925, became Balenciaga’s first non-scandal related viral moment that had people either foaming at the mouth that a luxury brand would sell something expensive, or debating the absurdity of having a nondescript towel being turned into a skirt.

When I first saw it in November, I was pretty unmoved by it and especially the general public’s pseudo-outcries because, to me, this felt like quintessential Demna-era Balenciaga.

Though truly nothing notable from a visual perspective, it felt like Demna’s first foray into the Duchampian nature of his design language, possibly hinting at the design head (re)exploring the inherent silliness and absurdity present in his vision, particularly his knack for turning everyday objects into a fashion moment.

This sign that Demna has been flirting fun returned in the Summer 24 collection with the grocery tote bags, and then even more so in pre-autumn 24’s giant sneakers, the return of the Balenciaga coffee cups, stiletto handbags, some more shopping bags, cooking aprons, and, perhaps most notably, a big emphasis on streetwear.

Granted, though it didn’t make a huge noise with the general public – perhaps, aside from the celebrity presence having some people angry at Balenciaga’s apparent ‘uncancellation’ – and some of the fashion girls online felt underwhelmed by the show, it became the strongest indicator that, a year later, Demna’s Balenciaga may be experiencing a renaissance of sorts.

“I have to be me. I can’t repress my creativity. I can’t castrate my vision,” Demna said in an October interview with Vogue. “I just can’t do those things. It’s not me. So, this collection [Summer 24] is a celebration of everything that I love about fashion.”

It’s too early to predict what his move will be next, but as public – and celebrity - opinion slowly begins to swing away from the scandal and back to the brand, it will be important for Demna to consider every move with pinpoint precision to avoid the chances of a re-cancellation.

If he wants Balenciaga to reclaim its relevance, growth, and reverence, Demna will need to combine the cautious intentionality of 2023’s collections, with the intuitiveness of his design eye pre-scandal.

If not, Balenciaga either risk completely losing its identifier as the “coolest” brand in luxury fashion - circa Wang or Demna risks losing himself in Balenciaga - circa Ghesquière.

Wherever it may go, it feels good to be excited about Balenciaga again.