Brains Behind Balenciaga
Demna Gvaslia
Demna Gvasalia is a Georgian fashion designer, who is currently the creative director of Balenciaga and co-founder of Vetements (French for "clothes"). His unique, freelance and unusual contribution to the Spanish luxury powerhouse has gained him major media attention. Dressing fan favorites such as Kim Kardashian, Alexia Demie, Lil Wayne, Bella Hadid, and more, his coveted garments are creating major buzz not only on the runway but in the social media spotlight as well.
The Origins of Demna
Gvasalia, born into Soviet Georgia, grew up in a unified society where everyone dressed the same. With the fall of the iron curtain in 1989, the strict Soviet aesthetic of his childhood came to an end, with the reintroduction to society, there was suddenly music, artistic liberty, Vogue magazines, CocaCola, a clashing of visuals. This had a strong influence on the practicality and commercialism seen in many of his runway garments for VETEMENTS, such as shirts with DHL logos.
"Vetements is about the street, and on the street I don't think elegance is what people are aiming for." Demna stated in an interview with The Guardian. Developing a strong sense of connection when it comes to self expression and identity through garments, he creates unique stories with every design he constructs. Graduating from Antwerp's Royal Academy of Fine Arts with a master's in fashion design, and following suit commencing his career at Maison Martin Margiela designing garments. This is where he acredits his learned knowledge on the unusual skill of designing in two dimensions. As he progressed through the fashion industry, his next position was on the womenswear design team at Louis Vuitton, where he worked directly under the supervision of Marc Jacobs at the time. Not short after this, Demna decided to pursue his own creative path and business endevours. Launching his own brand VETEMENTS in 2014, with the features of deconstructed denim, asymmetrical cutouts and unironic streetsyle aesthetic, he quickly rose to fame in the fashion world. The name: VETEMENTS, chosen for the fashion collective, was said to reflect Demna's unique philosophy of having no sub identity, which makes sense leaning into the facts that Vetements literally means clothes in French.
In an interview with Vogue he stated "Fashion to me is a mirror, a reflexion of what's going on around us." On October 7, 2015 Demna was appointed to be the artistic director of Balenciaga by its owner group Kering. In March 2016 he presented his first Balenciaga womens fashion show for the Fall/Winter 2016 collection. In his ventures of taking a controversial approach to fashion, he has attracted an influx of different opinions as to his vision for Balenciaga previously known to be a more romantic and baroque. He is notoriously known for his futuristic looks, exaggerated silhouette dimensions, and play on color palettes. In his time at Balenciaga, Demna has received backlash from mainstream traditional fashion fanatics but nonetheless this has not affected his craftsmanship.
Demna and his Craft
With the most recent Balenciaga fashion show taking place in LA, Demna brought the heat to compete with the California sun. Announcing the show details on a metal protein bar in collaboration with the iconic LA based luxury supermarket, Erewhon. The show was no short of a Hollywood spectacle. The star studded event was his second US show and paid homage to his first US show taking place in the New York Stock Exchange, alluding to idea of the American dream and how fetishizing money has turned civilians into slaves, while leading to mass consumeristic power. This show's underlying message was how fame and followers support influence thus far equating power. The runway lineup consisted of athleisure wear as its main aesthetic, sporting skin tight leggings, a new size of the famous XL sneaker, the 10XL, velour tracksuits notoriously sported in early 2000's paparazzi photos and the finishing gen z touch, airpod's plugged in. Face prosthetics were also used to accentuate the features of the models faces to resemble the iconic plastic surgery look of LA. Logo branded cofee cups and Erwhon grocery bags as accessories also saw their time of day down the runway.
While the clothes faced backlash for their lack of innovation, Demna's creative display wasn't an attempt to display something new nor innovative, it was to show how the whimsical world of LA inspired him in his craft, how the advertisments, Hollywood movies, and music all played a role in his making of clothing and drawing creative inspiration. The show's music soundtrack was made by Demna's husband, BFRND, which played a continuous loop of radio advertisement adhering to wellness talk, yoga, and finding your inner peace, all very LA coded topics.
In the media
One of Demna's most disputed looks up to date is Kim Kardashians all dark ensemble. When asked about the significance of the strange all black head to toe outfit in which he dressed Kim Kardashian for the 2021 Met Gala he replied "You couldn't see her face, but you knew instantly who she was, because this is how celebrity works today," He explained to Kim "Your body is your brand, and you don't need to have any decoration. It would have been boring for me to put some kind of chandelier on her head."
Celebrity influence and pop culture are a huge inspiration for Demnas craft, he loves to strategically create a story through his clothing and brand aesthetic while subtly making a powerful statement. In his contributions to normalize practicality while pushing the concepts and boundaries that define fashion, Demna Gsvalia has created a vision of a new brand aesthetic that has completely transformed the couture powerhouse into the iconic uniform of gen z.
The Smell of Balenciaga
In efforts to transorm the Balenciaga runway shows into a full emmersive experience, Demna has brought in the works of Sissel Tolaas , a Norwegian artist and fragrance specialist, into the art of his shows. Stating that noses are the portals to our minds, she helped bring to life Demnas idea of "power dressing, no matter what one does as a job" in his Spring/Summer 2020 show through the tunnel of aroma. Replicating the scent of power through antiseptic, blood, money, and petrol, notes of this smell was emitted throughout the show walls and ceilings. Using geochemistry to essentially copy and paste odors, Sissel states that smell is an emotional artifact that is embedded to the clothes. Demna pushes the the wearer as well as the visual observer to associate an emotion or feeling when in presence of Balenciaga. As a memoir to Cristobal Balenciaga, the brands founder, Demna commissioned Tolaas to create a signature scent for the labels couture house in Paris. Tolaas' scent formulations were based on real molecule recordings of Cristobal Balenciaga's archive and personal items, the project took two years to develop and produce, and is now the official smell of the brand.
The Invitation of Balenciaga
Another key element of the fashion label is its unique and creative invitations to their shows. Demna has a long history of original ideas and is a master of memorable show invitations. His invitation for Balenciaga's Spring/Summer Paris show, was a "lost wallet" Ids and cards replicas contained the address and time to the show. Spring 2023 invite was a faux stack of cash which was perfectly intertwined with the theme as well as the shows location, the New York Stock Exchange. As an extra touch, the dollars are said to have been imbedded with the distinct smell courtesy of Sissel Tolaas. Balenciaga's Spring 23 collection was presented in New York City on May 22, 22 (2222). Smashed Apple iPhones were used in Autumn/Winter 2022 to invite guests to its show at Paris Fashion Week. It is no surprise that Demna knows how to create an aroma of mystery, practicality, and memorablity in all aspects of his work. He's revolutionizing the way key sensory details can play an overall part in the interaction that the observers and wearers have when in presence of his garments. They even collabed with the iconic show "The Simpsons" for their SS 22 show and created a whole storyline in which the characters wore some crazy signature pieces of the label.
His ongoing vision
As Demna's time in Balenciaga progresses so does his vision for expansion and innovation. His love and passion for all things crazy and out of the ordinary place the brand in its own demographic leavings no competition remotely as niche as theirs in the way.
Sources:
https://www.highsnobiety.com/tag/vetements/
https://www.kering.com/en/houses/couture-and-leather-goods/balenciaga/demna/
https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/demna-gvasalia-balenciaga-couture-interview-2021
https://www.wmagazine.com/fashion/demna-gvasalia-balenciaga-couture-interview-2021
https://www.highsnobiety.com/p/balenciaga-ss23-show-invite/
https://www.gq.com/story/balenciaga-pre-fall-2024-review-los-angeles