Balenciaga Fall 2020 - Runway Review

Global pandemic aside, Balenciaga shows, with their theatrics, drama and brooding models in otherworldly designs, have always had an air of fear and fright to them. When the lights came up in the theater at La Cite du Cinema, it revealed an illuminated backdrop that projected a stormy and threatening landscape. As violins eerily played in harmony, Demna Gvsalia riffed on the cults of sports and religion in his designs on jerseys, clerical robes and dresses that came complete with attached gloves, leggings and "pantaboots." Some models wore AirPod-style devices in their ears -- perhaps to tune out the impending apocalypse 

According to the show notes: “Silhouettes defy convention, accentuating a garment’s technical construction, the body of its wearer, and the space between the two.” What, pray tell, did the tall pagoda shoulders mean to convey? Can religious dress codes ever be applied to everyday wear? This was, after all, Gvsalia's "blackest" show to date. 

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