Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week show reflects designer Demna Gvasalia’s troubled past
The enfant terrible of Paris fashion is haunted by memories of fleeing the ethnic cleansing of Georgians by Abkhaz separatists during the 1990s, and says of the spring/summer 2019 show, ‘My work is the mirror of my soul’
For wunderkind designer Demna Gvasalia the search for glamour leads through his worst nightmares, with the Georgia-born creator projecting the trauma of his past onto Balenciaga’s Paris Fashion Week show.
Models – in square-shouldered jackets and tight mini dresses – walked through a curved mirrored tunnel of floor-to-ceiling LED screens in a film studio outside the French capital on Sunday that swept fashionistas into a disturbing twilight zone.
John Rafman, the Canadian artist and filmmaker known for his work on the impact of technology on the human psyche, directed the video, which began with the sudden appearance of the “blue screen of death”.
The terminal error message created a feeling of panic.
“I’m using this show to reveal everything that has troubled me in my past,” Gvasalia said. “Look what is happening around us. My work is the mirror of my soul.”
The enfant terrible of Paris fashion achieved notoriety with his US$2,000 “Ikea” bag – a luxury leather version of the 99 cent original – and has created a poverty chic aesthetic that has been widely copied.
The 37-year old designer, who divides his time between Paris and Zurich, was born in Sukhumi, in the Abkhazia region of the then-Soviet Republic of Georgia.
