Demna should silence naysayers who complain he has no new strings in his bow with his spring 2025 collection for Balenciaga, which opened with a slew of innerwear looks done his way: trompe-l’œil bras, garters and hosiery embroidered, encrusted or jacquard knitted onto flesh-toned bodysuits.
These put him bang on with the lingerie trend that’s been sweeping the European shows, though done with his unique hardcore handwriting.
“I really wanted something more, not boudoir because boudoir sounds very old, but something very sensual and almost erotic,” he said after the show, wearing a hoodie coming apart at the seams “I’ve never really shown it, but it’s always been part of who I am as a designer.”
The innerwear segued into jeans blown out just under the pockets, the pant legs anchored on tall boots – no garters required – and then silky secretary dresses that were demure upfront but open in the back to exalt loose corset lacing top to bottom.
The show had a frisky feel, laced with sly humor and Demna’s formidable handle on subverting clothing archetypes. Who else would think of plopping a pair of starched blue jeans on the back of the neck, the pant legs falling like a scarf over the chest and the seat framing the face like a vampire collar?
If you can’t afford the Balenciaga Couture face shield, which was created with Mercedes-Benz racing engineers and retails for 5,500 euros, just shove your black baseball cap so far down your face all your features are covered – and perforate the visor like Demna did so you can see. A second option is the cool blindfold-like sunglasses worn by most models.
Demna used to initiate collections with a simple list of garments, but he has let autobiography creep into his recent shows. Here, he recreated his grandma’s kitchen table – where he used to stage “fashion shows” with little paper dolls he drew – and stretched it out to a 150-foot long runway where the likes of Nicole Kidman, Lindsay Lohan and Katy Perry gazed up at the models striding in their slant-heeled pumps and ginormous high-top sneakers.
He eased up on oversized silhouettes, save for some intimidating square-shouldered gowns and coats, and a series of cropped bomber jackets, puffed up and worn with the elbows jutting out, which created a flattened diamond shape. Demna considered these his way of updating Cristóbal Balenciaga’s famous cocoon shapes. These were worn over low-rise jeans to exalt the male models’ whale tales.
The tightest, barest looks – worn by alarmingly thin models – consisted of leggings and Spandex bustiers that strap onto the ribcage like a cuff bracelet.
“We worked on it for over a year to figure out a different way of wearing clothes and not necessarily having to put it on,” he explained backstage.
To be sure, Demna has come a long way from cardboard cutouts, the first signs of his “obsession” with fashion, and a feeling of being “married to this activity,” which is why he sent out a gold ring in a velvet box as the show invitation.
“It’s probably one of the longest relationships I’ve been through, I love it so much,” he said.
Next year, Demna will mark this 10-year anniversary at Balenciaga, and he’s still going strong. A spokeswoman for the Kering-owned brand confirmed to WWD that the Georgian designer recently renewed his employment contract for an unspecified term.
