52 years after the
closure of the original Balenciaga couture ateliers, Balenciaga announces
the revival of haute couture. In other words: Demna Gvasalia will take
responsibility for the new couture line. For the occasion, Balenciaga has a
new couture workshop set up based on the old Balenciaga workshop on 10
Avenue Georges V in Paris.
History teaches us that couture in historic fashion houses – Chanel,
Dior, Givenchy – is often a combination of decades of fashion heritage and
the head designer’s contemporary vision. The Balenciaga house has a rich
history of image-defining silhouettes: from the typical suit with
sculptural lap to stately, voluminous evening dresses. But former Vêtements
designer Gvasalia also has an emphatic signature, albeit one with more
street-cred.
The combination is not new: Gvasalia has been designing ready-to-wear
for Balenciaga for several years. But haute couture holds a different
status and, not unimportantly, a different customer base. It requires
trend-setting ideas and outstanding craftsmanship. How will Gvasalia fulfil
this need? FashionUnited outlines the possibilities based on two
idiosyncratic oeuvres.
Model in Balenciaga-avondjurk, 1959. Foto: Intercontinentale /
AFP
The heritage: Balenciaga’s sculpted femininity
The Spanish couturier Cristóbal Balenciaga opened his Parisian couture
house in 1937. The city of lights is teeming with successful couturiers,
but Balenciaga distinguishes himself from his colleagues by the
architectural quality of his work. Balenciaga’s evening dresses are not
graceful and delicate like those of Madeleine Vionnet, or playful and
narrative like those of Elsa Schiaparelli. His are more abstract, stiffer,
sculpted around the woman’s body in heavy fabrics like taft silk and satin.
His designs also often contain references to his Spanish background, such
as large ruffles and black lace.
In the fifties and sixties Balenciaga brought unseen forms to the
fashion scene: balloon-shaped dresses, voluminous babydolls, or, on the
contrary, straight, pocket-like creations. Balenciaga balances the weight
of heavy skirts with an emphasis on shoulders and back, by means of large
coats and sleeves, dragging and bows, stand-up collars or deep, sexy cuts.
His designs surprise the viewer time and again with unexpected angles,
layers and openings.
His iconic suit also has pronounced shoulders, as well as a sculptural
lap and a characteristic double row of buttons.
Model in Balenciaga suit, 1947. Photo: © Lipnitzki /
Roger-Viollet / Roger-Viollet / AFP
Balenciaga closes his couture house in 1968 and dies four years later, at
the age of 72. He became a great inspiration for later couturiers, such as
his protégé Hubert de Givenchy, and Azzedine Alaïa. In fact, Balenciaga’s
work is not couture: the designer systematically refused to meet the
requirements of the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, such as
producing two collections a year, each of 75 pieces, and a minimum of 20
staff members – and was therefore never admitted to the order of
couturiers.
The designer: Demna Gvasalia’s “flea market chic”
At least Gvasalia and Balenciaga have something in common in that respect.
Also Gvasalia does not abide by the rules of the fashion world from the
beginning. After his training at the Royal Academy in Antwerp, he worked
for a few years for moderebel Walter van Beirendonck and then at the
conceptual Maison Margiela. Both brands play with the conventions of what
fashion is or could be.
Vêtements ready-to-wear, autumn 2018. Photo:
Catwalkpictures
In terms of philosophy, Gvasalia and Balenciaga may have similarities, but
aesthetically they seem to be miles apart. In 2014 the Georgian Gvasalia
and his brother Gurem will establish the brand Vêtements. That goes a step
further: it brings the clothing from the streets, specifically the streets
of Eastern Europe, to the Parisian catwalks. Vêtements overwhelms the
public with combinations of granny dresses, football scarves, bomber
jackets, hoodies and oversized coats (also a trademark of Margiela). The
result is grim and sympathetic at the same time. International fashion
media label it as “underground clubby” or “flea market-chic”.
In 2016, Vêtements makes a real furore with a single item: a yellow
T-shirt with the logo of mail order company DHL on it.
Gvasalia for Balenciaga: Spandex couture and play on silhouettes
In 2015 Gvasalia will be appointed artistic director at Balenciaga. It soon
becomes clear that there is also an overlap between the designers in the
field of design.
In his first collection for Balenciaga, designer Demna Gvasalia presents
a series of suits as Balenciaga could have made them himself:
characteristic in shape and above all perfectly cut. Balenciaga reveals the
craftsmanship that Gvasalia has mastered. This will possibly come even more
to the fore in the couture collections for Balenciaga.
Balenciaga ready-to-wear, autumn 2016. Photo:
Catwalkpictures
But Gvasalia also sheds new light on the Balencia heritage. In his
ready-to-wear collections (for both women and men), he emphasises its
modern, innovative elements: the large shoulders and pronounced volumes,
for example, now iconic for Gvasalia, in combination with his contrasting,
narrow sock boots with pointed noses and thin heels. This play of forms
could be an interesting starting point for a couture collection.
Balenciaga ready-to-wear, spring 2020 and spring 2017. Photos:
CatwalkpicturesGvasalia’s handling of material is also striking. Like Balenciaga,
Gvasalia lets his materials speak for themselves, although Gvasalia does
not opt for taft silk, but rather for the – considerably less saloon fähige
– Spandex. The creative freedom of couture can challenge Gvasalia to
experiment more with this kind of material.
In the Balenciaga autumn collection 2017, also the hundredth show of the
brand, Gvasalia offers the most concrete look at the couture collections of
the future: a reinterpretation of Balenciaga’s evening silhouette with
balloon shaped layers. This could be where Balenciaga’s princesses and
Gvasalia’s postmen will meet in the future: at the intersection of gala and
grunge, between sculpted forms and the bravura of the street.
Balenciaga ready-to-wear, autumn 2017. Photos:
Catwalkpictures
This article was originally published on FashionUnited.NL,
translated and edited by Kelly Press
small>Homepage image: Model in Balenciaga design, 1955 and Photos: AFP /
Catwalkpictures
