Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa: Demna ponders upon the making of a muse for Balenciaga Couture AW22.
How does couture transcend in an instantly digital society of abundance? Demna’s second couture collection answered this question through a myriad of futuristic possibilities. Opening the doors to the historical couture salon on 10 Avenue George V in Paris, the designer analyses the multiple definitions of a muse and its technological transience within the zeitgeist.
The collection’s first act opened with an outlook onto a futuristic uniform - an army of nymphs dressed in scuba bodysuits in black Japanese neoprene, harking at the juxtaposition of uniform dressing within couture - an inspection and an outlook on our digitised lives and the newly formed sensationalism around emulating style. Will couture be the final frontier of individualism within style, or is the future as uniform as ready to wear? Another futuristic glimpse by Demna was the collaboration between Bang & Olufsen and Balenciaga on a bag that doubles as a speaker, voicing the soundtrack of the show as models perused across the couture salon, alongside donning a black face shield engineered by the Mercedes-AMG F1 team, covering the entire head and coated in polyurethane.
In the second act, the new couture vision of grandeur was realised with careful detailing such as paillettes creating optical illusions alongside trompe l’oeil tweed that infuses organza ribbons together with beads and sequins - an experimental layering from Demna, which fuses deep irony into couture. As seen with his first collection, the designer brought conventionally casual items from ready to wear such as jeans and t-shirts and reimagined them as the future couture frontier, and this season such were twisted and turned with aluminium, holding any shape as a standalone piece, whilst indigo denim is satin-lined and finished with silver buttons. The detailing in a garment play that questions silhouettes and manipulates them into different dimensions is something that Demna has carved as a signature, coining it as the future frontier of fashion, and widely encouraged amidst a collection that fuses upcycled bombers, parkas, car coats and jeans, something couture has shied away from - and now is ready to fully embrace with open hands.
As silhouettes became more and more grandeur in opulence, the final act of the show was unveiled, with the original Cristobal Balenciaga house muse, Danielle Slavik, cascading on the salon floor in a draped black silk-taffeta gown and futuristic space pumps. Following her footsteps, another muse in the face of Dua Lipa followed, joined by Bella Hadid, Kim Kardashian, Christine Quinn, Naomi Campbell and Nicole Kidman, all in metres of silk-taffeta, treated, beaded, stoned, putting them forward as the sculpted muse, front and centre.
In Demna’s world, the definition of a muse goes parallel to his couture ideology, which is all about honouring the roots and beginnings, whilst staying true to his pioneering outlook - What is the current definition of a muse? How are we constructing the legacy of a muse? Is the spectrum of anonymity the ultimate celebration? How is couture defined within the prospect in future?. These are all questions Demna is tackling, with the dissection of the moving parts of the making of a muse, as the artist present.
