Balenciaga for Basics
This fashion week, Balenciaga staged a red-carpet-cum-film-screening in lieu of a traditional fashion show. The intention was two-fold: to cheekily highlight the SS22 collection with a conceptual take on the catwalk, and to premiere Balenciaga’s latest attempt at mass-marketing: a short Simpsons episode commissioned by the brand.
Attendees were invited to walk the red carpet amongst the official Balenciaga models. And since Gvasalia doesn’t drastically switch up his offerings each season, it was unclear who was wearing the new collection, and who simply threw on some old Balenciaga garments for the show. I wasn’t there, but according to one of my colleagues who was, the combination of a tongue-in-cheek cartoon and an alternative runway show worked to satirize Balenciaga itself — making it seem as if everyone finally realized that they’re all just nerds playing dress-up in expensive clothes.
Of course, it was probably Gvasalia’s intention to surface the self-awareness of attendees. If there's anything Balenciaga is good at, it's revealing the hypocrisy of luxury fashion — and there’s no better way to do so than to ask fans to question their loyalty to the brand. For people like me, who are interested in both the business and history of fashion behemouths, watching Balenciaga straddle the line between hype and alienation is extremely appealing. In fact, Balenciaga’s memetic trolling makes those who follow the brand feel as if they are in the know; as if it takes someone special to comprehend Gvasalia’s Soviet references and spiteful slogans.
But the truth is that it doesn’t — and that’s the genius behind the brand. While celebrities and wealthy fashion girls strut down conceptual runways we sit on the sofa and meme the latest looks on our feeds. We lament the outrageous prices of luxury handbags and hoodies, and write think pieces about whether or not it’s okay for brands to capitalize off our post-apocalyptic anxieties. But what we're really doing is providing free marketing for corporations, so that those who can afford it, buy it.
I’m not pressed by the fact that Balenciaga has tricked me into contributing to the pseudo-intellectualization of fashion. I actually think it’s cool that Gvasalia can troll the mass market while raking in millions of dollars from sneakers and branded baseball hats. The only thing that makes me bitter is how Balenciaga is so relatable to so many people, and yet the majority can’t afford it. Still, I can still find solace in the fact that the virtual consumption of fashion media can fulfill the same yen that shopping does. That’s why Balenciaga is banking on Fortnight collaborations and cartoon shows. In a postmodern consumer landscape, it it doesn’t actually matter whether we can click buy now or not. At the end of the day, we’re all just here for the memes.