Demna Gvasalia is a name that has been making
fashion headlines time and time again over the past few years - and despite that fact
he is still shrouded in a sense of mystery. Who is he? How did he rise to the top of a major luxury
fashion house at such a young age - and what is the real reason that he’s so closely
tied with Kanye West? In this episode of Threaducation I’m going
to be answering all of these questions and much much more, so without further ado let’s
get into. This is the Demna Story.
In 1981, Demna Gvasalia was born in Georgia. Not the American state Georgia, but instead
the European country located just south of Russia. While its a rather small country, it’s one
that’s seen a fair amount of political turmoil throughout its history, and as a matter of
fact, it was technically part of the Soviet Union when Demna was born. The reason I say ‘technically’ is because
by the time Demna was born, there was a growing sentiment within the country that they wanted
to succeed from the Soviet Union - and although they officially did so in April of 1991 - the
decision was met with a level of resistance that amounted to violence and bloodshed. Fearing for their own safety, Demna’s family
fled to Dusseldorf, Germany - but this would actually not be the end of his time in Georgia. You se, the Soviet Union collapsed in December
of 1991, and Georgia went on to craft a new constitution in 1995 - so while there may
have been lingering tensions, things in the country - were - all things considered - much
more peaceful than they’d when Demna’s family first left. So in 1997, when it came time for him to enroll
in a university program, he settled on attending Tbilisi University in Georgia. Now, here is where things get interesting. At this point in his life, Demna was beginning
to discover his passion for design. He may not have had strong convictions about
becoming a designer, but there was no denying that he had a tendency to gravitate towards
the arts. Had it been presented to him as a viable option
he may have chosen to study the arts, but instead, he faced a hurdle that many before
him, and many after him have faced: parents who wanted him to pursue a more traditional
career path. It’s not as if he put up a fight, because
again, he had no other plans in place, but this did push him down a path that he may
not have gone down otherwise - and that path was four years of studying economics at Tbilisi
University. That might sound like a lot time to spend
studying something that you’re not passionate about - but the reality is that many people
find themselves in situations just like this. The only difference here, is that Demna didn’t
look at these four years as a waste of time - he looked at them as the length of time
it took to figure out what he actually wanted to do - or at the very least, what he didn’t
want to do. After graduating in 2001 he moved back to
Germany and briefly humored his parents wishes by looking for a job in finance, but this
search of his wasn’t much more than a back up plan, because in reality he was preparing
to apply to design school. That’s exactly what he did, and to his delight
he was accepted in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. The Royal Academy of Fine Arts is one of the
most storied design schools in the world, and among its alumni it counts some of the
greatest designers who have ever lived, including Martin Margiela, Haider Ackermann, and of
course the Antwerp Six who I’ll be making on a video on in the very near future. So, the fair question to ask here might be:
how did Demna get into the Royal Academy of Fine Arts? I don’t ask that to discredit him in any
way, it’s just that the academy is notoriously selective about who it accepts, and at this
point in time he had zero design experience to speak of. Not to mention that at the age of 21, he was
the youngest student accepted into the academy that year. The other 40 or so students in his class had
been off doing apprenticeships and studying under big name fashion designers, while Demna
had been off studying supply and demand curves at Tbilisi University. Suffice to say he was a bit behind, but what
we lacked in experience, he made up for with intuition. What I mean by this is that he was a naturally
gifted designer from the very start - not because he possessed technical skills or any
formal training - but because he simply had a unique way of thinking about design. Maybe it had something to do with his unconventional
background, or maybe he was just born with it - but whatever the case may be, all we
know for certain is that Demna stood out among thousands of other applicants - and so began
his tenure at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. His path to getting into the academy had certainly
been unique, and his path to graduating proved to be no different, because his intuitive
approach to design became evident on day one. According to some of his classmates, Demna
would often choose to sew things by hand while others used sewing machines, and while they
were sketching out countless drafts of their designs, he would skip to the actual production
process and figure it out as he went. This didn’t sit too well with many of his
teachers at first, but it didn’t take long for them to realize that he didn’t need
to follow the same process as everyone else to get great results. In fact, one teacher in particular took a
very strong liking to his work, and that teacher was none other than Walter Van Beirendonck
- one of the aforementioned Antwerp Six who had been making waves in the fashion industry
with his eccentric eponymous label. Well, Walter was so impressed with Demna’s
work that after he graduated from the academy in 2006, he decided to offer him an internship. It was just a temporary position helping with
some of Walter’s menswear collections, but I don’t want to understate how big of a
deal this was. Much like how the academy is notoriously selective
about who it accepts, Walter is notoriously selective about who he works with, because
like many great designers, he is extremely protective of his own creative process. To put this into context, other designers
that have interned for Walter include Raf Simons and Craig Green - so it goes without
saying that he has a sharp eye for emerging talent, and Demna was no different. Also, lets not forget that prior to this,
Demna had no hands-on experience working in the industry, because he’d gone straight
from studying economics to enrolling at the academy of fine arts - so Walter was really
helping him take the next step forward in his career by asking him to work on collections
for his well-established, highly regarded label. So this experience was obviously a very valuable
one for Demna, but even back then he knew that he wanted to branch off and do something
of his own - so while working the internship, he was also working on his own womenswear
collection. Even though he was fresh out of design school
and didn’t have a huge body of work that he could point to, the fact that he’d graduated
from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts and worked alongside Walter Van Beirendonck gave him
the credibility that he needed to land a spot at Tokyo Fashion Week in 2007. There Demna presented his womenswear collection,
and while I don’t believe there are any photos of the collection on the internet,
I think we can safely assume that it didn’t have the impact he’d been hoping for. I’m not sure if this was supposed to be
his attempt at launching a solo career, but none of the buyers at the show were interested. That’s not to say that it was a bad collection,
but you have to remember that he was still finding his footing as a designer, and didn’t
have the resources of a larger label. Speaking of which, the only real option left
for Demna was to go work for a larger label, and to that end - it was in 2009 that he accepted
an offer to join Maison Martin Margiela as a womenswear designer. Now in my opinion, this was a very interesting
time for him to join the label, because 2009 is the same year that its founder Martin Margiela
decided to retire from fashion. What this meant for Demna is that he was joining
a highly respected label with a very rich history, but that he was doing so at a time
of major change. In fact, Demna never once got to meet or work
with Martin. At first you might think that this made things
more difficult for him, but in a twist of fate, it actually worked in his favor. You see, after Martin retired, the label wanted
to continue building upon his legacy and wasn’t looking to make any drastic changes to their
approach. Now of course Martin himself wouldn’t be
there to give them guidance, so when Demna joined Margiela, he had no choice but to do
a deep dive into the brands archives, and he sort of reverse engineered Martin’s design
language. I don’t mean to say that he was copying
his design language, but instead what I mean is that he studied Margiela’s most fundamental
principles, and then applied those principles in new, exciting ways. That was the only way for him to achieve some
level of continuity between the old collections and the new ones that he was working on. In the end it paid off as Demna was able to
help craft some masterful collections, and at the same time, his skill set as a designer
advanced to a whole nother level. In a later interview with ID Magazine, he
acknowledges that fact saying that his time at Margiela was sort of like a Masters Programme
after graduating from Antwerp. It wasn’t just a name to add to his resume
- it really did change the way that he thought about fashion, and now that he was armed with
this new perspective, he began preparing for the next stage in his career. Vetements
Although I wouldn’t classify Demna’s time at Margiela as a rise to stardom, he did turn
quite a few heads - and that’s why he was approached by Louis Vuitton in 2012 with an
offer to join them as a Senior Designer of Women’s Ready-to-Wear collections. At face value this promised to be a fantastic
opportunity, and to be fair, it was, but things went south almost immediately. According to some sources, Demna had trouble
fitting in with the other members of Louis Vuitton’s design team. Perhaps there was a bit of culture shock going
from a smaller label like Margiela to a major luxury fashion where he had less decision
making authority - but whatever the case may be, we know that he was less than pleased
with his new role. To make matters worse, by the time that he
actually joined Louis Vuitton in 2013, then creative director Marc Jacobs was already
planning his exit. Perhaps this gave the team an air of impermanence
that didn’t sit too well with Demna - so by the time that Nicholas Ghesquire replaced
Marc Jacobs as creative director, Demna was already planning his exit - or at least trying
to create some sort of back up plan. You see, the one thing that he’d been lacking
this entire time was complete creative control. Other than the one-off solo collection that
he presented at Tokyo fashion week, he’d pretty much gone straight from design school
to working for other designers. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and
in hindsight it did put him on the path to success - but the fact of the matter is that
he’d just gotten to the point where he wanted to do his own thing. So while still working at Louis Vuitton, he
quietly banded together a group of forward thinking creatives, including his brother
Guram, and a handful of other designers he’d met over the years. Aligned by the goal of challenging the status
quo - they formed a collective, and they decided to call that collective Vetements. Vetements is quite literally the French word
for clothing, and you can sort of interpret that as Demna’s first jab at the fashion
industry. For a long time, Parisian designers had been
hailed as the golden standard and given much of the spotlight, so for Demna who was born
in Georgia and attended school in Belgium, this was a way of saying - “hey fine, if
you guys like French fashion so much I’ll just make a French brand” - and Vetements
by itself is a very tongue in cheek name because it comes off as unoriginal and uninspired
to those who actually speak French, but it sounds cool and catchy and to those who don’t. So from the outset it was pretty clear that
the brand would thrive off of being provocative, but that would mean nothing if Demna couldn’t
channel that into the clothing, and in 2014, just one year after the collective was founded,
the moment of revelation came upon us at Paris Fashion Week. Much like he had done back in 2007, Demna
was able to elbow his way onto the fashion week schedule as a highly lauded up-and-comer. The collection itself did not disappoint,
as it showcased many of the design elements that would become characteristic of his work
in the years to come. I’m talking unique, outsized proportions,
a primarily dark color palette, and a heavy focus on material. All things considered, I think that this collection
provided a solid foundation for the brand, but truth to be told there was nothing about
it that really challenged the status-quo, at least not enough to make any headlines. Realizing this, Demna joined forces with his
collective once again - and decided that for their Spring 2015 collection, they wanted
to take it a step further. Generally speaking this collection was a bit
more radical - marked by its inclusion of bright colors, sweatpants, and even the use
of graphics. A turtleneck collar embroidered with the word
“collar” was, much like the brand’s name a tongue in cheek statement - because
objectively speaking there is no reason for the graphic to be there, but its mere presence
on the garment makes it the focal point. This collection was ultimately a step in the
right direction for Vetements, and that was reflected in the reviews it received from
the fashion press. Taking note of the positive feedback they’d
received, Demna and his team decided to step things up a notch once again for their Fall
2015 collection, and in many ways, this is the collection that put them on the map. Rather than hosting the presentation of the
collection in a more traditional venue, Demna decided to host it in a club. This alone gave the event an added degree
of energy and excitement, but what really created a buzz was the familiar face sitting
in audience that day - and that familiar face belonged to none other than Kanye West. Back then Demna and Kanye couldn’t have
possibly imagined the ways in which their paths would some day cross, and don’t worry
we will be talking about that later, but in the meantime - Kanye’s mind was simply set
on discovering the next big thing in fashion, and that search had led him to the front row
of the third ever Vetement fashion show. Needless to say, the pressure was on - and
it’s safe to say that Demna delivered. Once again, this collection relied on many
of the principle design elements established by the first collection, but this time around
he pushed them to the absolute limit. While I dont like to throw this term around
every time I see an experimental collection, I think that it’s fair to categorize this
as anti-fashion. Anti-fashion is a design approach that intentionally
contradicts current day style norms, and when it’s done well - it holds some level of
appeal aside from the fact that it’s contrarian. In this case, Demna and his team did it very
well. The cut of the garments are almost entirely
asymmetrical, for example this suit jacket where the two sides aren’t even the same
length. They used several logos, but they’re almost
all in the quote unquote “wrong” place, like this hoodie where the logo is positioned
on the shoulders instead of the chest - and then several of the garments are sewn in the
quote unquote “wrong” place, like this t-shirt that’s stitched together in the
middle. Even the color palette was meant to be contrarian. When they weren’t using the color black,
they were using colors that clashed - like green and red. Yet despite all of this, the collection felt
cohesive, and it included several pieces that are now considered classics - including the
metal logo hoodie. This would become even more apparent in later
collections, but Demna’s use of casual wear garments such as hoodies and sweats, plus
the bold graphics including the literal Thrasher logo - was an early glimpse into his affinity
for streetwear design. He was by no means the only designer attempting
to blur the lines between high fashion and streetwear, but he was doing it in a highly
impactful way that resonated with the audience. Between the cool looking pieces, Demna’s
reputation as a name to watch for and of course Kanye’s appearance at the show, this collection
really helped Vetements begin build some hype. I wanted to call it a cult following, but
the reality is that people everywhere were beginning to take notice of the brand, and
that included some people in very high places. You see, it wasn’t long after the presentation
of this Fall 2015 collection that Vetements was selected as one of the finalists for the
2015 LVMH Prize. I’ve talked about this in a few other videos
but in case you aren’t familiar, the LVMH Prize is an annual prize handed out by LVMH
to new designers, and whoever is named the winner receives about $400,000 to put towards
their brand, and 12 months of guidance from LVMH to help with things like production,
marketing, and distribution. So as you can imagine, winning this is a pretty
big deal - but for that reason, the competition is fierce. To give you an idea, some of the other finalists
in 2015 were Virgil Abloh, Jacquemues, and Craig Green - just to name a few. As if that weren’t never wracking enough,
some of the judges for the prize included Raf Simons, Karl Lagerfeld, Riccardo Tisci,
Jonathan Anderson, Nicholas Ghesquiere, Marc Jacobs, and Phoebe Philo. In the end the prize was awarded to Marques’Almeida,
not to Vetements - keep in mind that every I just listed was now fully aware of Demna
and had taken the time to look deeply into his work. So even though he didn’t win, this contest
provided him with a ton of exposure. Adding fuel to the fire, Kanye made an appearance
in the aforementioned metal logo hoodie, and you have to remember that back in 2015, the
Kanye effect was a very real thing - meaning that if he wore it, it instantly became cool
in the public eye. So after just three collections, Vetements
was a veritable overnight sensation. With the brand now taking off he officially
left his position at Louis Vuitton - and the idea was that he’d be able to spend more
time focusing on his own work. That sounded like a great plan, and it was,
but little did Demna know that he was about to receive an offer that he couldn’t refuse. Balenciaga
In 2015, after releasing just six collections at the storied fashion house, Alexander Wang
abruptly stepped down as the creative director of Balenciaga. Even today it’s not exactly clear why he
stepped down, but one of the leading rumors is that he was struggling to balance his work
at Balenciaga with the work he was doing for his own eponymous label. Whether or not that’s the case we don’t
really know - but what we do know is that Balenciaga was left in dire need of a new
creative director, and ideally one who could help them navigate the complexities of 21st
Century luxury fashion. What I mean by this is that the merging of
luxury fashion and streetwear had already been underway for some time, but it was around
2015 that major luxury fashion houses like Balenciaga began realizing that the adoption
of streetwear would be essential if they wanted to remain relevant - particularly among a
younger audience. So with that in mind, they set out in search
of a replacement for Alexander Wang that would be able to help them usher in this new era
of luxury streetwear - and with his work at Vetements, Demna Gvasalia had established
himself as the perfect candidate. One of the other great things about Demna
is that with his work at Margiela, he’d demonstrated his ability to embrace and build
upon a brand’s history as opposed to tearing it all down and starting from scratch. This was particularly important for Balenciaga
because even though they were looking to move in a new direction, the fashion house places
a lot of value in its roots, dating all the way back to its days as a couture house founded
by the legendary Cristobal Balenciaga. In Demna, they’d found a designer that promised
to merge past and present to create something that resonated with fans of luxury fashion
and streetwear alike. That said, they offered him the position of
creative director in 2015, and although he had just left Louis Vuitton to focus exclusively
on Vetements, he knew that this opportunity was too good to pass up - but, it was going
to be a challenge. Balenciaga was in desperate need of a turnaround,
and Vetements on the other hand was exploding in popularity faster. To put this into context, Vetement presented
its Spring Summer 2016 collection in October of 2015, the same year that Demna announced
he’d be joining Balenciaga, and this show propelled the brand even further into the
spotlight. Once again Kanye was in attendance, this time
joined by Travis Scott, and the collection featured the now iconic DHL shirt. As you may know DHL is literally just a delivery
company, but Demna decided to put the logo on a shirt and send it down the runway. Again, much like he did with the name of the
brand, he took something simple, dare I say bland, and then reframed it as luxurious. These shirts came with a luxury price tag,
and nowadays if you want an original, they’re reselling for thousands of dollars. This was a masterclass in marketing by Demna,
and one of the funny things here is that DHL didn’t make a dollar off of it. He asked them for permission to use the logo,
and all they asked for in return was 20 of the shirts for their employees - but anyways
the point here is that items like these had a tendency to go viral, and so the hype continued
to grow. Now going back to Balenciaga - Demna made
his long awaited debut with the presentation of his Fall 2016 ready-to-wear collection. This was a highly anticipated debut so the
stakes were certainly high, and a fair amount of critics even feared that bringing in such
a radical designer would spell disaster for the fashion house - but as soon as the models
stepped onto the runway, those fears all but dissipated. In every sense, this collection was exactly
what Balenciaga had been hoping for. Much like he had done at Margiela, Demna spent
his first few months as creative director diving into the Balenciaga archives, and studying
the work of Cristobal Balenciaga himself. That said it's no surprise that the collection
intentionally referenced some of Cristobal’s earlier couture designs - but what really
made it special was that Demna effortlessly blended these designs with his own unique
style. A great example of this would be the coats
with exposed shoulders, which is something he borrowed directly from previous Vetements
collections. There were also abrasive colors, patterns,
and asymmetric cuts - so if you ask me, this could also be looked at as Balenciaga’s
first foray into the world of anti-fashion, which is something that would become ingrained
in the brands DNA over the coming years. Suffice to say, Demna’s first impression
as the creative director of Balenciaga was a strong one, and this was just the beginning. Later that same year he debuted a shoe called
the Speed Trainers, and I’m sure that many of you are already familiar with these because
they are largely credited for kicking off what would become known as the sock shoe trend. The shoe itself is quite simple, but there
was something undeniably appealing about their slim fitting form and subtle display of the
Balenciaga logo. Going for a retail price of nearly $700, there’s
no denying that these were expensive - but before long nearly every celebrity could be
seen wearing them, and this drove demand through the roof. In light of the Speed Trainer’s success,
nearly every luxury fashion house came out with their own version of the sock shoe - and
so did Vetements. Demna actually ended up collaborating with
Reebok to release a Vetements sock shoe, and this too became extremely popular. Long story short, these sock shoes were just
about everywhere in 2017, but being the forward thinker that he is Demna knew that the market
for them would soon be oversaturated - and in response to that, he decided to change
his course entirely. So in 2017, the year of the sock shoe, he
officially unveiled the Balenciaga Triple S sneaker. At first critics and fans alike were skeptical
of the design because it completely defied expectations. Demna, the same designer that had created
the sleek, minimalist Speed Trainer not even a year earlier, was now promoting what appeared
to be a clunky dad-shoe - and to be fair, that’s exactly what it was. The name Triple S stands for triple sole,
because the base of the shoe is literally three different soles stacked on top of each
other. That’s about as clunky as it gets - and
for that reason many people weren’t into they way they’d been into the Speed Trainers
- but therein lies the point. Like I said the market had become way oversaturated
with sock shoes, so Demna basically said “ok, I’m just gonna go as far in the opposite
direction of this as I can” and take advantage of an undersaturated market. In hindsight this was a brilliant move and
business tactic - and it’s one that helped the brands’ sales jump by as much as 60%
in the second half of 2017. Balenciaga’s unexpected emergence as a powerhouse
in the sneaker game helped earn the admiration of the younger generations, which - as we
discussed - was exactly what they’d been trying to do, but Demna didn’t stop there. In his Fall 2017 ready-to-wear collection,
he made headlines by taking the Bernie Sanders campaign logo and reimagining it into a Balenciaga
logo. Just to be clear this was debuted after the
2016 Presidential election and this was not meant to be seen as an endorsement, but instead
- Demna confirmed that his intention here was similar to his intention with the DHL
shirts. All he wanted to do was take a logo that people
were used to seeing elsewhere, and then put it on the runway to make it seem fashionable. In other words, it was a statement piece,
but it was not a political statement. I’m sure he had some idea of the reaction
that this would get because political tensions in the US were still running high - but the
point is that, it got people talking. Over the course of subsequent collections,
Demna continued pushing boundaries - and one thing that’s abundantly clear is that he
became more comfortable taking risks as time went on. In other words, he had fully settled into
his role as the creative director of Balenciaga, and that’s why - in 2019, he made the decision
to give the brand his full attention by stepping away from Vetements. This would not be the end of Vetements, as
he handed the reigns over to his brother Guram, but this signaled to everyone in the industry
that Demna was prepared to take Balenciaga to the next level. So as I was saying, he now felt more empowered
to take risks. I’m not just referring to provocative statement
pieces, though there would be plenty of those - but I’m also referring to the fact that
one of his major decisions after stepping away from Vetements was to bring couture back
to Balenciaga. Just to give some background here, couture
is basically the design and creation of made-to-measure, one-of-one garments - which by nature, are
typically more detailed and highly intricate. Many of the major fashion houses that we know
and love today are deeply rooted in couture, but over the years we’ve seen a major shift
towards ready-to-wear clothing which can be mass produced and is therefore much more profitable. Now, where I’m going with this, is that
Cristobal Balenciaga was one of the most highly regarded couturiers of all time, and if you’ve
watched my video on the history of Balenciaga you’ll know that after his retirement in
1968, the fashion house shut down all together. So that’s right, there was a period in time
where Balenciaga was completely out of operation, and Cristobal’s intention was for it to
remain that way, but upon his death in 1972, the rights to the brand were passed on to
his next of kin. He didn’t have a wife or any children, so
it’s believed that the rights were passed onto his nephew, and that nephew then sold
the rights to a German chemical manufacturer who wanted to use the Balenciaga name to sell
perfume. The rights were sold once again in 1986, this
time to the perfume company Jacques Bogart, but unlike the previous perfume company, Jacques
Bogart recognized the weight that the name Balenciaga held in the fashion industry. So with that in mind, they hired the French
fashion designer Michel Goma to come in and start producing ready-to-wear collections,
which is something that Balenciaga had never done before. The flip side of this coin is that they had
zero interest in producing couture collections, because as we discussed earlier, ready-to-wear
was more consumer friendly, and the honest truth is that they were looking to turn a
profit. The appointment of Michel Goma set off a cascade
of collections in which the fashion house would struggle to find its footing, and you
could argue that these woes lasted all the way up until 1997 when a 25 year old Nicolas
Ghesquiere stepped in to take charge. Nowadays, Ghesquiere is largely credited with
reviving Balenciaga and making it what it is today - but as we discussed earlier, he
was replaced by Alexander Wang upon his departure for Louis Vuitton back in 2012, and this resulted
in a loss of momentum. Don’t get me wrong, Balenciaga was still
relevant, but Wang’s work simply didn’t resonate with fans in the same way. When Demna replaced him in 2015, there was
an undeniable shift in energy because people knew that he’d be willing to take risks
with his collections - but this also opened the door for some criticism. You see, he was more than capable of captivating
the masses, but his style is so unconventional that it led many to conclude that Balenciaga
had strayed too far from its roots. Now, I get that argument, and to some extent
it’s true - but my counterpoint would be that Demna is not the one that led the brand
down this path. Instead, the decision to go down this path
was back in 1986 when they brought in Michel Goma to convert Balenciaga to a ready-to-wear
brand, at which time Demna was just 5 years old. So I don’t really think that the criticism
he received was justified, and I honestly think that he himself was mischaracterized. Despite what many were led to believe, Demna
has always had a deep appreciation for the histories of the fashion houses that he’s
worked for. We saw this during his time at Margiela, and
we saw it again in several of his early Balenciaga collections - but I don’t think that anyone
realized just how deep this appreciation was until 2021 when he announced that Balenciaga
would be bringing back couture collections. It had been 53 years since the fashion house
had released a couture collection, and while many were excited by the news, others were
skeptical about Demna’s ability to pull it off. Nevertheless, all we could do was wait and
see, and in July of 2021 we finally got our answer as Balenciaga debuted its Fall 2021
couture collection. So let me start by saying that this collection
would pay homage to Cristobal Balenciaga in many different ways, but the first and most
noticeable was that it took place in a recreated version of the same showroom that Cristobal
used to present his collections in. Then, as far as the clothing itself, Demna
made direct reference to several of Cristobal’s most iconic silhouettes, and in traditional
fashion, he photographed them holding the number that had been assigned to their look. This actually used to serve a functional purpose
because if you were in the showroom and wanted to purchase one of the dresses, it was much
easier to say “hey I’d like to purchase the dress from look 33” as opposed to describing
it from memory. Now another thing that you’ll notice with
this collection is that there are a few colors sprinkled in, but other than that it relies
on an almost entirely black color palette - and this too is a reference to Cristobal’s
work. Black is often called the sum of all colors,
and this is something that he explored deeply in his collections. In fact, in 2023 there will be an exhibit
opening in the Netherlands called ‘Balenciaga in Black’, and the entire focus is to showcase
Cristobal’s proclivity towards the color. So clearly the brand’s origins were a massive
inspiration for Demna when designing this couture collection, but he did of course add
a few twists of his own. Most notably, there were elements that one
wouldn’t typically expect in a high end, European couture collection such as denim
and hoodies - and then there were a few far out elements such as the saucers that many
of the models wore on their heads. I believe they were meant to be reminiscent
of the wide brimmed hats that some women would wear way back in the day, but there’s something
very futuristic about them. Either way there were undoubtedly some interesting
looks in this collection - and perhaps no more so than the final look, which featured
a white dress and an eerie white veil to match. Unlike the hoodie and jeans look, it's hard
to imagine a scenario where one might wear this, but I believe that this actually served
as the framework for the outfit Kim Kardashian would wear to the 2021 Met Gala - which leads
me to what I’d like to talk about next - the relationship between Demna and Kanye West. Controversy As I was saying, Kim’s outfit at the 2021
Met Gala was noticeably similar to the final look from the Demna’s 2021 couture collection,
and that’s probably because her outfit was in fact designed by Demna. To take things a step further though, she
appeared at the Gala alongside a man in a black mask and hoodie. Most assumed that this was Kanye, because
to be fair, this is the exact type of thing that he would wear - but it turns out that
this was actually Demna. It’s fairly common for designers to attend
the Met Gala alongside the celebrities that they’ve dressed, but in this case, no one
really knew that it was him. Now we don’t have to dive too deep to figure
out how the connection between Kim and Demna was formed - because we can reasonably assume
that Kanye is the one who introduced them. As a matter of fact, Kanye was at Balenciaga’s
Fall 2021 couture show - but his connection with Demna doesn’t start, or end there. As we discussed earlier, Kanye had been a
longtime supporter of the designer, dating all the way back to his appearance at one
of the first Vetements shows in 2015. Ever since then Kanye had remained one of
his biggest supporters, and was regularly seen wearing his pieces. The admiration between the two was mutual,
and fast forward to 2021 - Kanye asked Demna to assist with the creative direction of his
highly anticipated studio album titled Donda. Specifically, this included helping plan the
album’s listening event at Soldier Field in Chicago. There ended up being several of these listening
events, and in all of them - the apparel worn by Kanye and the other performers was designed
by Demna. Among the most jaw dropping moments was when
Kim walked out wearing the same white dress from Demna’s couture collection and renewed
her vows with Kanye in front of thousands of fans. From that point forward, Kanye was seen wearing
Balenciaga just about everywhere he went - and when I say that he was wearing Balenciaga,
I mean that he was only wearing Balenciaga. Despite having partnerships with both Adidas
and the Gap, he opted to wear black Balenciaga pieces head to toe. From what I saw, he even stopped wearing Yeezys. The only real overlap was when he recruited
Demna to help design a collection for the Gap, which would be called Yeezy Gap Engineered
by Balenciaga - but other than that, it was pretty much just Balenciaga across the board. As far as what sparked this change in Kanye’s
wardrobe, it’s hard to say - but we can reasonably assume that his relationship with
Demna was a significant factor. I mean, the two of them were obviously on
the same page about a lot of things. For instance, Kanye announced in October of
2021 that he would be changing his name to Ye, and in December of 2021, Demna followed
suit by dropping his last name. I’ll note that Kanye took things a step
further by filing the paperwork to change his name legally - which Demna did not do
- but the point is that they shared a similar mindset, and in many ways, they became creative
muses for one another. We can even quantify Kanye’s passion for
Demna’s work, because in July of 2022 he revealed that over the course of the prior
12 months, he’d spent a total of $4 million dollars at Balenciaga. That is a staggering amount, but I guess that’s
just what happens when a fashion-minded billionaire decides that he, and even the people around
him, are only going to wear one brand. To take things a step further, Kanye even
appeared as a model in Balenicaga’s Spring 2023 ready-to-wear show, so between this and
the Yeezy Gap collaborations, it was becoming clear that Kanye wasn’t just a fan of Balenciaga,
he was more like a brand ambassador. For a while this seemed promising, as two
of the biggest forces in fashion were now working together in a formal capacity - but
then, things took a turn. If you’ve been following the news at all
recently you’ll know that Kanye has been stirring up a significant amount of controversy
on account of his inflammatory comments about race and religion. Obviously he received a ton of public backlash,
and as expected, many of the major companies that he was working with began to cut ties
with him - including Adidas, Gap, and Balenciaga. More specifically, it was Kering, Balenciaga’s
parent company that issued a statement saying “Balenciaga has no longer any relationship
nor any plans for future projects related to this artist”. So, that’s about as clear cut as it gets
- Balenciaga parted ways with Kanye, and to my knowledge Demna has not publicly addressed
that decision. This was the end of their business relationship,
but was it the end of their personal relationship? I really don’t know - but what I do know
is that this was not the only controversy that Demna has found himself tangled up in
over the past few months. As you may have heard, the big headline right
now is that Balenciaga shot an inappropriate holiday campaign featuring children. Let me say right now that I have no idea what
they were thinking or how this was allowed to happen - but unfortunately it did happen,
and in response, many people are now boycotting the brand altogether. Balenciaga initially came out and said that
they were filing a lawsuit against North Six, the marketing agency that they’d hired to
work on the campaign, but since then they’ve posted a statement on Instagram saying that
they’ve decided to not pursue litigation, and they also outlined a plan to enforce stricter
controls for their content validation process. Nevertheless, the damage has already been
done - and as the creative director of Balenciaga, Demna has obviously been thrown into the hot
seat. For that reason, he posted a statement of
his own on Instagram saying “I want to personally apologize for the wrong artistic choice of
concept for the gifting campaign with the kids and I take my responsibility. It was inappropriate to have kids promote
objects that had nothing to do with them”. He then goes on to say, “I apologize to
anyone offended by the visuals and Balenciaga has guaranteed that adequate measures will
be taken not only to avoid similar mistakes in the future but also to take accountability
in protecting child welfare in every way we can”. So, there you have his take on the situation
- he’s holding himself accountable for this - but is it too little too late? Perhaps it would’ve already happened by
now, but this is definitely the type of thing that someone could lose their job over. I acknowledge that Balenciaga is a huge company
that in any given year can generate nearly a billion dollars in revenue, so maybe it
is possible that someone as high up as Demna doesn’t personally direct or approve every
single campaign that gets published, but that’s not an excuse, it’s a problem - and that’s
why they’re making the changes that they are. I mean at the end of the day he is the creative
director of the fashion house, which quite literally means that he directs it’s creative
vision - so if this is the type of stuff that’s being published, maybe it’s time to move
in a new direction. He can still be the one to lead Balenciaga
in that new direction, but there clearly needs to be a change in tone. One of the difficult things about that is
that Balenciaga has differentiated itself as one of the most experimental brands in
fashion. This is by no means the first provocative
collection or campaign that they’ve ever done - but there’s a difference between
the type of controversy you create by selling $1700 trash bags, and the type of controversy
you create by portraying children in an inappropriate manner. So their only options here are to focus on
the prior while making sure that line is not crossed, or they can reign in their approach
altogether. What I mean by this is that I expect the next
few seasons of Balenciaga to be relatively tame. No gimmicks, no social commentary - just thought
provoking clothes. Demna’s certainly capable of that - he’s
done it time and time again at both Balenciaga and Vetements, but for now, I guess we’ll
just have to wait and see - and the really interesting question here is whether or not
other brands owned by Kering will follow suit. In fact I think it’d be smart for them to
ensure that other brands under their ownership such as Gucci, Saint Laurent, and Bottega
- all of have controls in place to prevent similar things from happening - but aside
from all of that, the big takeaway here is that this isn’t about money for Balenciaga
- it’s really about reputation. I’ve heard many people say that they’ll
no longer be wearing the brand because of this whole scandal, and that’s totally justified
- so moving forward, rebuilding that reputation is going to be Demna’s greatest challenge. As far as how he’ll do it, I’m not sure
- but either way it’s safe to say that this will go down as a major turning point in his
career. The Future
After everything that we’ve discussed in this video, hopefully you can see why I find
Demna to be one of the most enigmatic figures in the fashion industry today. At a young age he was forced to flee his home
country of Georgia due to political unrest, and in pursuit of a more stable life - he
eventually earned a degree in economics and planned to be a banker. Yet deep down inside, he knew that this wasn’t
true to who he was. He knew that there was something else out
there waiting for him, and all he had to do was go and get. So despite having no design background, he
applied to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and was miraculously accepted. From there he worked his way up the ladder
and was able to break into the fashion industry by working for labels such as Walter Van Beirendonck,
Margiela, and Louis Vuitton - but even then, he knew his journey was far from finished. Desperate for the opportunity to create the
things that he wanted to create, he helped found the collective Vetements - which in
the coming years would become one of the most talked about things in fashion. By way of the collective’s rise to stardom
- Demna himself became a star, and that’s why Balenciaga decided to take a chance by
inviting him to be the brand’s new creative director. That was back in 2015, and since then, he’s
reinvented the fashion house in ways that no one could’ve ever imagined he would. In doing so he’s often paid homage to the
house’s roots, but at the same time, he’s really made it his own. Whether or not that’s for the best - you’re
entitled to your opinion - but at just 41 years old, Demna is still building his legacy. So far he’s put together a stellar one,
but as we discussed, there is still a lot of work to be done in light of recent controversies. That’s why, in my opinion, he will be one
of the most fascinating designers to follow in the coming years. Will he stay at Balenciaga? Will he rejoin Vetements? Or will he launch a new label of his own? If we’ve learned anything from his story
it’s that his next move is almost impossible to predict - and at the end of the day, that’s
what makes Demna Demna.
