Demna, the mononymic designer of Balenciaga, that former harbinger of all things haute and cool that experienced a highly public fall from grace last winter, simply cannot resist a visual metaphor.
So what does it say that his resort collection, released digitally on May 30, features a video of models emerging from the vaulted wooden doors of the Balenciaga headquarters on Avenue George V, walking back into the world in their shoulder pads, hoodies and beaded gowns, only to be doused by a sudden downpour?
Coming three days after the end of a Cannes Film Festival in which more Balenciaga appeared on the red carpet than it had since last November, the message is pretty clear: Balenciaga is in the midst of its comeback, baby.
Welcome to the next stage of The Return.
Or, as Mosha Lundström Halbert called it on TikTok, the “Balenciagassance.” If the Balenciaga powers that be can pull it off, they will have added a new chapter to the story of early 21st-century cancel culture, becoming not just a case study on mismanagement in a crisis, but one on how to strategize a recovery without the public defenestration of the decision makers involved.
Persons:
Balenciaga, George V, Halbert
Organizations:
New York Stock Exchange, Cannes
Locations:
Russia, Ukraine