Fashion Week is pushing the bounders and giving us new looks to evolve our street and sartorial styles. But what Balenciaga is doing for their FW17 line is putting a fashion twist on this past campaign run.
Balenciaga’s FW17 collection pays tribute to Bernie Sanders from their high fashion hairstyles all the way to the footwear. Demna Gvasalia’s work, both for Vetements and Balenciaga, and his FW17 show for the Parisian couture house was no different. Gvasalia re-worked his look on the corporate suits and also messed around with the silhouettes, much like he did last season. Given that this is his first ever menswear show, he has redesigned the classics wardrobe and gave it some patriotic edge. This FW17 collection, Gvasalia payed homage to Bernie Sanders with logo-flipped bomber jackets and scarfs, and Kering, Balenciaga’s parent company.
With this menswear line, Demna has taken flak in the past for only using majority-white male casting models, but with this lineup for FW17 he enlisted middle-aged models to join the casting of his “mega-young boys.”
Demna also made a statement on the runway with the new additions to Balenciaga’s accessories. He introduced the orthopedic sneaker, culling inspiration from the nursing home with an ugly-cool vibe (a la Adidas X Raf) pushing it to make it attractive to the eye. From afar they may not look that cool or extremely dope, but once you see the pictures of these sneakers you will want to scrap up some change and get you a pair immediately. We believe that once they drop we will be seeing them on everyone’s feet in no time.
Balenciaga even went as far to show off the “Bazaar” bag, which was inspired by laundry bags. It appeared to be a leather version of a paper bag you would get from a high end retailer such as a Bloomingdales, or Sacks Fifth. Given that Jil Sander did something similar back in the day, with leather versions of paper grocery bags, it’s nothing, but definitely a dope idea regardless.
Question is, will you be sporting this Balenciaga FW17 look around?