BALENCIAGA FALL 2015 RTW

AAMITO LAGUM (VIVA)

BALENCIAGA FALL 2015

"The society women, the aristocrats, the regal women." Alexander Wang said he started working on his new Balenciaga collection by thinking about Cristóbal's original clientele.

Not only them, but also the customers today, and how they want their opulence served up with a little subversion.

ANNA EWERS (WOMEN)

To set the tone, the show began with a performance by Lady Gaga, who stalked down the runway, hands on waist and hips a-swinging, a pair of photographers catching the whole thing on tape.

LEXI BOLING (FORD)

Wang's shapes were straight out of the archives: a cocoon coat, rounded jackets with stand-up collars, bubble skirts—all of it decorated to the hilt with paste jewelry, like the ladies would've done back in the day, only with the real stuff.

In most cases, the fabrics remained quite couture, like nubby tweeds, windowpane checks. It was the details that gave the clothes the edge Wang was talking about: Metal staples lined the diagonal seams of skirts, black leather belts stood in for proper collars, and tiny razor blades were sutured together to create the fitted shirt of the finale dress.

MOLLY BAIR (ELITE)

ISSA LISH (PREMIUM)

For every fur collar there was another one made from wire rings linked together. Many of the looks, cocktail dresses included, were paired with flat boots.

Nicolas Ghesquière did his own archival collection at Balenciaga almost a decade ago. It's not fair to endlessly compare Wang to Ghesquière, but coming second in this revival story, it's not a fate he'll soon escape. 

LIV PEARSON

Anyway, choosing to go in this direction for Fall indicates it's a fate he's accepted. But tonight Wang's version of the story fell short. The risk of choosing stuffy old icons as a jumping-off point is that you may not manage to knock all the stuffing out. 

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The hobble skirts proved pretty tricky for a few of the models, and a sense of heaviness pervaded. Mary Blume, a Balenciaga biographer, remarked that Balenciaga's silhouettes were "made for a living, moving, avid body." The one here that fit that bill best was a strapless peplum bustier, its neckline trimmed in mink, accompanied by cigarette pants with staples up the sides. 

EDIE CAMPBELL (VIVA)

MICA ARGANARAZ (VIVA)

KATLIN ASS (IMG)

HANNE GABY ODIELE (IMG)

GRACE BOL (OUI)

VANESSA MOODY (WOMEN)

ANNIKA KRIJT (ELITE)

PHOTOS COURTESY STYLE.COM

BALENCIAGA S/S 2010.

BALENCIAGA S/S 10

MODELS:

ISELIN STEIRO, MIRTE MAAS AND PATRICIA VAN DER VLIET.

BY STEVEN MEISEL.

Balenciaga Spring 2010 RTW.

Chanel Iman (VIVA)

Nicolas Ghesquière has decided the world has quite enough cocktail wear to be getting along with. "I wanted to do something urban. No more history for the moment!" he said backstage at the Hôtel de Crillon, before sending out a collection that reclaimed the beat of street athleticism: the hoodie (done here as a highly structured paneled leather vest); skinny, vertically patchworked jeans; complex tanks; and sporty kilts.

Alex Sandor (METROPOLITAN)

Take it as read that we're not looking at generics. Every silhouette, each garment, every extraordinary tubular-ankled, open-toed boot is an uncopyable meld of futuristic technique and art craftsmanship. The quality defines Ghesquière's Balenciaga as unique.

Liu Wen (MARILYN)

Take the "jeans." What looks, at a distance, as if it might be gray-blue denim is actually vegetable-dyed leather.

Kori Richardson (IMG)

The "hoodie" is engineered from molded leather, woven jersey, and nylon foam. The ankle sections of the boots are either hand-loomed fabric or a meltdown of blue, white, and green strips of leather, laser-compressed into a striated amalgam that looks, as Ghesquière joked, "like Play-Doh." (He likes a toy reference in a shoe.)

Diana Farkhullina (IMG)

In the collage of elements, there were recycled fabrics and natural-looking hemp weaves, and a sidelong tribalism in the urban-warrior eye makeup and footwear.

Kasia Struss (WOMEN)

The street element had some of the flavor of the hit "student" collection of Fall 2007, and it will certainly give license to young women—and the vendors of fast fashion—to look at sweats and gym skirts in a whole new, highly commercial light.

Elsa Sylvan (VIVA)

It's a sign of a designer's influence when his work is knocked off as fast as the mass market can run. But Ghesquière's métier is one that can't be simplistically rendered down.

Magdalena Frackowiak (ELITE)

His collection also involves infinite subtlety. It segued into chic coat-dresses—patched with streaks of lemon and green—against textured beige spiraled leather togas contrasted with painted suede.

Freja Beha Erichsen (IMG)

The show ended with minute but mind-bending latticework skirts that shivered like porcupine quills, flashing shots of green and maroon in movement. That kind of work can't be replicated anywhere else but in this house, and if there's still an argument for high fashion versus low, this is one of the strongest defenses that exists.

Alla Kostromicheva (WOMEN)

Katie Fogarty (NEXT)

Edita Vilkeviciute (VIVA)

Miranda Kerr (NEXT)

Siri Tollerød (MARILYN)

Ginta Lapina (WOMEN)

Iselin Steiro (WOMEN)

Hanne Gaby Odiele (WOMEN)

Jenny Sinkaberg (IMG)

Sasha Pivovarova (IMG)

Rasa Zukauskaite

Bregje Heinen (WOMEN)

Sheila Marquez (WOMEN)

Marlena Szoka (NATHALIE)

Jacquelyn Jablonski (ELITE)

Karmen Pedaru (NEXT)

Egle Tvirbutaite (NEXT)

Iris Strubegger (WOMEN)

Anya Kazakova (MARILYN)

Johanna Kneppers (WM)

Lisanne De Jong (NATHALIE)

Constance Jablonski (ELITE)

Gwen Loos (MARILYN)

Mirte Maas (WOMEN)

Patricia van der Vliet (ELITE)