Balenciaga couture AW2021

​'To truly understand the future, we must reflect on the past'

Fashion Director: Joseph Toronka

Demna Gvasalia, the creative tour de force of fashion and the master disruptor has done it once again. His debut couture collection for Maison Balenciaga was a true homage as only Demna can, to the greatest fashion architect of all time Cristobal Balenciaga.

The collection echoes the sentiment that to truly understand the future, we must reflect on the past. Gvasalia and the atelier presented a collection that cast back to the technical genius of Monsieur Balenciaga but with a sensitivity of modernity that reflects the level of what luxury means to today's client and what the future of couture could look like.

​The presentation was held in silence just as was normal back in the golden era of salon shows, with an enhanced focus on the collection. A concerted effort was made to focus on the technical ability of the atelier by sending out a diligent collection of black enormous feel tailoring which delivered the message of immaculate craftsmanship. This twisted sober looking suiting with a modern edge screams of Demna‘s handwriting, whilst fitted dresses with a jaunty hip sympathetically honours the master that was Monsieur Balenciaga. 

In contrast, we got what we were expecting, his couture treatment of denim, the vision of Gvasalia married with the skilled expertise of Maison Balenciaga. Japanese premium denim brought the expected luxury, jackets with exaggerated collars falling off the neck (a shape created by Monsieur Balenciaga to naturally elongate the neck) this house signature look was styled with tonal relaxed ‘Mom’ jeans perfectly capturing the spirit of the house’s past and its future. An array of gigantic shawls perfectly enveloped oversized utility jackets and overshirts, but it was the hybrid of parka gowns in bright taffeta or those ultra voluminous robe gowns that announced his arrival to the world of couture.

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