Paris – Kim Kardashian West arrived at the 2021 Met Gala in a black Balenciaga bodysuit and gown that covered every inch of her figure, including her famous face. 's audience was quick to suggest that designer Demna Gvasalia and the social media superstar had ignored the soiree. The theme is “America: Fashion Dictionary.”
But upon closer inspection, some would argue that Kardashian's outfit literally followed the dress code. She wore a T-shirt over a bodysuit (“What could be more American than that?” asked New York-based creative director Paul Cupo). And Ms. Gvasalia's decision to hide Ms. Kardashian's face and cover it in black reduced her to a silhouette, a name, a signifier waiting to be activated, and her role as one of the most powerful marketing tools in modern American fashion. emphasized the role of
This move was a coup. By covering her up, Gvasalia brought her even more attention to one of the world's most famous women and, by extension, to Balenciaga. It was typical of Gvasalia that observers perceived the look as both something and its opposite. His view of fashion is both luxury and street. It is at the same time one of his most simple and multi-layered proposals in fashion.
Since Vetements founder Gvasalia took the creative helm at Balenciaga in 2015, followers of his vision have created a collection of structures and silhouettes, including shows that elevate and subvert contemporary dress codes while appealing to sociopolitical critiques. We have witnessed bold and persistent experiments on
“Balenciaga is truly back,” says critic Cathy Horin, with voluminous down jackets slung over the shoulders like opera coats, updated skirt suits, and Margiela's reworking of found objects. I wrote this after looking at his debut lineup that introduced such an approach. Things like bags from the market and hippie dresses from thrift stores. Then there's the enchanting palette of carnation pink, princess purple and cadmium red, which remain the brand's signature colors alongside highlighter yellow.
In Gvasalia's hands, Balenciaga (whose founder Cristóbal is said to have invented modern couture) continued the house's long tradition of experimenting with volume in pieces such as hoodies, jeans, and oversized sneakers. We applied this and developed items for everyday use to match the runway. -Ready proportions. By planting Balenciaga's flag on the burgeoning categories of luxury streetwear and sneakers, and treating them as worthy of design attention (and consumer money) as stilettos and evening dresses, Gvasalia “It changed the long-term trajectory of this brand,” Chief said. Executive Director Cedric Charvit told BoF. “Redefining Balenciaga is helping to redefine luxury.”
However, as the business grew, Gvasalia became well-known to many consumers as a brand of goods and sneakers, and many consumers mainly sold logo T-shirts, hoodies, caps, and hit products that drove sales. I discovered this label through the “Triple S” and “Speed” shoes. .
Despite runway shows evolving into haute couture with giant bell-shaped crinoline dresses and medieval armor leggings, Balenciaga products remained ubiquitous both on the streets and tagged by social media hypebeasts. This meant that there was a risk of canceling out the brand's fashion message. Aggressive marketing of sneakers by multi-brand online retailers has certainly boosted sales, but it has also increased the risk of diluting the brand's DNA.
“In luxury, the brand has to be bigger than any product,” said art director Fabien Baron. “It's a pyramid. To make the base wider, we need to polish the top.”
The recent communications push has rebalanced the Balenciaga brand, ushering in what Sharvit and Gvasalia call a “new era.” The hit couture collection delves deep into the brand's 104-year past, making iconic silhouettes feel relevant while also taking current signature shapes such as jeans, T-shirts and hoodies to couture levels. I raised it to Balenciaga then returned to the red carpet for the first time in five years, dressing stars (in addition to Kardashian, Rihanna, Tracee Ellis Ross and Michaela Coel) at the Cannes Film Festival and the Met Gala.
The move helps restore the dominance of Balenciaga's luxury heritage and radical creative message over hit products. At the same time, star-studded campaigns featuring Isabelle Huppert and Justin Bieber ensure that commercial items such as Runners sneakers and Hourglass handbags are always visible.
“We want to make it clearer that Balenciaga is as much about haute couture as it is about streetwear,” said Charvit, whose company shares a campus with owner Kering in a restored 17th-century hospital complex. He spoke from his office in Paris. “Few brands have a haute couture position with an archive and rich history like ours. It's important to celebrate that.”
Streetwear, haute couture, and high profits: Under Gvasalia and Charvit, sales exploded. The group (which also owns brands such as Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent) cannot match Balenciaga's sales, but in 2019 chairman and CEO François Henri – Mr. Pinault congratulated the brand on achieving annual sales of more than 1 billion euros. According to market sources, the company's revenue has since exceeded 1.5 billion euros, meaning Balenciaga has overtaken Bottega Veneta to become the group's third-largest brand.
The pandemic has done little to slow down Balenciaga. An incandescent brand image, e-commerce savvy and accelerating casualization across the fashion market led to Balenciaga's sales growth despite a 23% decline in revenue across the luxury sector in 2020, according to consultancy Bain. It is said that this has promoted both the increase in profit margins and the increase in profit margins. All year round.
Sharvit said sales are currently split roughly one-third between handbags, shoes and apparel, but the split between women's and men's clothing is about 50-50. Even this breakdown may suggest that the women's clothing and bag business is weaker than many of the big luxury brands, but Sharvit describes the balance as “a healthy and consistent business for a modern luxury brand.” “It's something that exists,” he defends it.
“We've seen demand for this brand explode across categories,” said Sam Lobban, Nordstrom's senior vice president of designers and new concepts. Track and Triple S styles have established themselves in the business alongside sock-like Speed sneakers, while a “huge increase” in Hourglass bags has led to the “city” and “neo city” motorcycle bags (the world's leading (descendant of the lariat style) has received less attention. It has been in business for over 10 years since it was introduced in 2001 by former creative director Nicolas Ghesquière.
As Balenciaga enters a “new era,” it not only invests in couture and red carpet marketing, but also targets larger and more prominent store locations, such as openings on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles and IAPM in Shanghai, and expands its retail footprint. We are also investing in expansion. , Miami's Design District and London's Sloane Street. A three-storey London megastore is currently under construction on a prime location on New Bond Street.
The brand is also focusing on internet marketing, adding to the brand's longtime hallmark of clever campaigns such as parodies of celebrities hiding from paparazzi and dystopian news shows.
When the physical runway show was postponed due to the pandemic, a viral web video covered the broadcast, followed by the release of the entire collection through a video game last December. This fall, the brand delved even deeper into the metaverse, partnering with Epic Games' Fortnite to offer players a collection of virtual his looks available for purchase within the hit game. “The way they built all these touchpoints is really, really impressive,” Lobban said.
While the Met Gala saw an increase in searches for Balenciaga, Google Trends shows an even more dramatic increase with the launch of Fortnite.
Even before the pandemic canceled traditional in-person runway shows for several seasons and sent Kering's peers like Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent experimenting with new rhythms and formats, Balenciaga was determined when and how to present its collections. I was racking my brain about what to do. The brand often presented men's and women's clothing together, combining pre-collection with main season or reversing the timing of collection releases.
The brand will now distribute its communications investments more evenly across the four key ready-to-wear periods of the year, reaffirming the industry's longstanding belief that commercial collections in May and December should be smaller and less creative than planned. The plan is to avoid default. Delivery is scheduled for February and July.
“There was a huge gap between a pre-collection (just shooting against a cycloma backdrop and sending the lookbook to the Vogue runway) and a serious multi-million dollar runway collection. Isn't that cool? No,” Charvit said.
With fashion editors, buyers and celebrity guests gathering here in Paris for the first in-person ready-to-wear week since March 2020, Balenciaga's show is the season's most-watched event as the brand aims to follow up on its hits. Will be one of the haute couture shows and red carpet winners at the Met Gala. The hospital has remained largely silent on details of the event scheduled for Saturday night at the Théâtre du Châtelet. “Expect the unexpected,” Charvit said.
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