In pictures: Demna’s greatest Balenciaga moments25 Images
Today, Demna finally said goodbye to Balenciaga after 10 years. Convening guests at the maison’s original Avenue George V salon, the Georgian designer presented one final Haute Couture collection, both greatest hits and a fitting conclusion to a boundary-breaking run at the house. Though the man himself is not going to be away for too long (hopping over to Kering stablemate Gucci this September), today marks the end of a fashion era, and to celebrate, we’re looking back at his most unforgettable moments at the house. From gimps stomping through the New York Stock Exchange to Homer Simpson taking Paris Fashion WEek, these are Demna’s greatest Balenci hits – scroll down to read them all.
In choosing only ten, we’ve already set ourselves up for failure. Over his decade at Balenciaga, Demna created so many memeable, viral and unforgettable moments we’d be remiss for only mentioning ten. Honourable mentions include (but are not limited to): the designer casting his mum in the SS24 campaign; Cardi B walking the LA show in a blue fur coat; the introduction of the 10XL sneaker at that same show; when AW21 was presented via videogame during the COVID pandemic; when Demna changed the GAP logo to ‘GAY’; the infamous Mud Show of SS23; the couture butterflies from AW24; the Brexit-inspired SS20 EU parliament show; and loads more we’ve probably forgotten (sound off in the Instagram comments, I guess!)
This one is less a single moment than a series of head-scratching fashion propositions. Demna was constantly toying with the symbolic meaning of luxury, questioning value systems via often controversial experiments. His many provocations included crisp packet bags, a $2000 Ikea bag, a $900 towel, shoebox clutches, Balenciaga passports, shopping bags, swing tags and a trompe-l’oeil Erewhon paper bag made from leather.
Arguably Demna’s most unforgettable red carpet moment, in 2021 the designer and bestie Kim Kardashian rocked up to the Met Gala in matching black outfits, both with their entire faces shrouded. “[The masks were] conceptually speaking, quite important,” Demna told American Vogue in 2022. “People would know instantly it was Kim because of her silhouette.” And considering the theme was ‘In America’, what’s more American (derogatory) than Kim Kardashian’s silhouette?
There’s been a lot of Balenciaga collabs over the years, but this one is arguably the most meaningful? For its AW18 show, Balenciaga began a collaboration with the charity World Food Programme, which is still running to this day. Proceeds from the series help to combat food insecurity worldwide. After the show, Demna told the Guardian, “I am tired of making prints for the sake of prints. At this stage, if I do a t-shirt or a jersey, it needs to have something more to it.
Pant boots, pantashoes, pantaleggings – whatever you want to call them, the heel-trouser hybrid will surely be Demna’s most defining womenswear silhouette. Introduced as the bottom half of SS17’s opening look (pictured above), the pant boot went on to grace every red carpet from here to Mars, and is endlessly imitated by other brands. Despite its mass appeal, there’s something quite perverted and uncanny about its shape and feel, a design only Demna could have dreamed up.
Demna shocked the fashion industry in 2020 by reintroducing Balenciaga Haute Couture for the first time in 50 years – but the surprises didn’t stop there. For AW22, Demna enlisted Dua Lipa, Kim Kardashian and Nicole Kidman to walk in the show, and in doing so opened couture to an even wider audience than before.
Demna’s AW15 Vetements show was famously held in a Parisian sex club, but his most overt expression of kink at Balenciaga was the Spring 23 show, where a gaggle of gimps ran through the New York Stock Exchange floor. Many debated whether the figures infiltrating that space were a powerful riposte against consumerism, or just another example of fashion’s willing participation in capitalism.
For SS22, Demna had a few tricks up his sleeve. The red carpet going into that season’s show turned out to be the actual catwalk, with “celebrity arrivals” like Isabelle Huppert and Offset actually modelling the clothes. Once inside, Demna debuted The Simpsons | Balenciaga an animated mini movie where Homer made it all the way to the Paris catwalk and even got a thumbs up from Anna Wintour.
Whether you love them or loathe them, you cannot deny the huge impact of the Triple S trainer. Introduced as the main footwear for Demna’s first menswear show, the shoes were created in collaboration with footwear designer David Tourniaire-Beauciel, and had an absolute chokehold on the late 2010s. Though they may be divisive, their influence on current day sneaker silhouettes cannot be overstated.
In the wake of Donald Trump’s (first) election to president, Demna brought out an AW17 men’s collection with the logo of a left-wing Democrat plastered all over it. The logo was a runway success, and showed early on that Demna wasn’t afraid of entering the political conversation – plus the collection even got a co-sign from Bernie Sanders himself.
Taking place in a 360 degree snowglobe-like structure, Balenciaga’s AW22 offering, now dubbed ‘The Snow Show’, was conceived as a comment on the climate crisis, but took on a deeper meaning following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. “The war in Ukraine has triggered the pain of a past trauma I have carried in me since 1993, when the same thing happened in my country and I became a forever refugee,” Demna commented at the time. Drawing on his experience as a displaced person – having fled Georgia during the Abkhazia conflict of the early 90s – Demna’s AW22 show, with its biting snow and blistering winds, is the defining image of his time at Balenciaga.
