Paris Fashion Week: Model Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman and Dua Lipa at Balenciaga Fashion Show

Balenciaga once again won the haute couture draw this season with an electrifying show featuring models like Kim Kardashian, Nicole Kidman, Dua Lipa and watching sunset With Christine Quinn.

Wednesday’s presentation should cement Demna’s reputation as a master of high cultural curation and one of the most exciting thinkers and fashion professionals working today. The show’s intensity was reinforced by a knife-to-throat symphonic soundtrack and a darkened face. robocop– Face shields developed in collaboration with Mercedes-Benz racing engineers.

However, underneath, there was also an emotional lump in her throat. Was that love poem recited in French at the beginning of the show? The soulful music amplified by the bag-shaped boombox that some models carry? Or just Demna’s voluptuous tailoring and killer visceral beauty?

The VIP arrivals were a spectacle in themselves: Kris Jenner posing behind alien glasses with her granddaughter North West; drag star Alexis Stone channels Jocelyn Wildenstein and cleans her makeup before taking a selfie with Roisin Murphy; Offset poses for pictures with Alton Mason in his fluttering clown shoes, and Balenciaga CEO Cédric Charbit half-jokingly tells Trace Ellis Ross to ditch the grand finale dresses if they walk through the narrow door next to her seat. .

The revealing look (bodies encased in rubber-like neoprene, faces obscured by glass) was creepy and also strangely elegant, with beautifully draped shoulders in dresses with a train that looked so much like an oil slick you almost expected it to paint. white rug

Long-sleeved dresses had a plethora of shiny or black textures, as did jeans that sparkled with thousands upon thousands of dangling beads. The finish was astonishing, with press releases stating that the leopard-print coat consisted of 150 kilometers of hand-knotted yarn.

The show moved on to Demna’s obsession, which she channeled in shocking ways: putting a turn-down collar on her denim jacket; Adding foil to oversized t-shirts to crinkle into windy shapes and tighten up menswear with a corset waist.

At the post-show scrum, the designer said that she decided to be more accepting of herself in her second year and to follow her instincts more. This led him to an “otherworldly futurism” that eventually succumbed to the legacy and wealth of founder Cristóbal Balenciaga. “Beauty in its classical context, let’s say,” she suggested.

Historians will certainly point to this show as part of the high-fashion Insta generation. After the show, guests were invited to explore Balenciaga Couture’s sister stores, where straight-to-the-runway looks and other limited-edition merchandise can be purchased. At the men’s store, Pierpaolo Piccioli of Valentino took off a wrinkled sweatshirt and looked at himself in the mirror. In the women’s store, Charbit pointed to the most expensive item hanging behind the frosted glass: a €100,000 trompe l’oeil tweed jacket made with ribbons, beads and sequins. A scented candle in a chrome cylinder will cost the buyer 350 euros; Boombox, part of a collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, €8,500.

“After the first couture, a lot of people started asking me, ‘How do I buy couture? Who do we call? People don’t know, especially future couture consumers of the younger generation, with whom we want to establish a dialogue,” explained Demna. “There are many [garments] with volumes that don’t actually need to be measured. It’s more about technique, material, montage.”

The designer also brought Balenciaga’s haute couture into the eco-age, making about a quarter of the collection through recycling: gabardine belts turned into oversized trench coats; Leather belts, a pleated sheath dress and vintage wristwatches are unusual pieces of jewelry that are constantly folding.

In an interview with a French newspaper the FigaroDemna compared himself to Modi’s osteopath, working on his locks. He is also a mage.

This story originally ran on WWD.