Balenciaga's new collection features friends and family coming together in intimate creativity

Balenciaga's new spring-summer 2024 campaign reflects the universe of Demna Gvasalia, the creative director of the renowned French fashion house since 2015. This collection highlights intimate personalities linked to the director's life, such as his family and closest friends, who pose using exclusive pieces from the brand.

Under the discerning eye of Jitka Hanzlová, the characters were photographed in a large setting that resembles the grand halls of a palace, with ballrooms and luxurious staircases. Among the figures who starred in this scenario as models are Ella, Demna's mother, her husband Loïk Gomez, his former teacher Linda Loppa and the artist Eliza Douglas, as well as some regular Balenciaga models.

“The series reflects Demna’s universe and the identities that make up his community, including his family and friends.”communicates the French brand.

Challenging perception

This collection presents a narrative that mixes the traditional with the contemporary and plays with visual perception. The staticity of the background is employed using perspective tricks to create contrast and highlight the fusion between ready-to-wear and more personalized elements. Clothing ranges from fluid, flexible tailoring to tailored casual pieces, accompanied by trompe-l'oeil accessories that create an optical illusion.

_{Model Jay Pak poses using the Summer 2024 campaign (Photo: reproduction/Instagram/@balenciaga)}

The Parisian company stated that in the portraits in the collection, the line between the two-dimensional scenery and the three-dimensional people is blurred, challenging the concept of luxurious interior spaces. “The illusion is further destroyed with the corresponding series of videos, in which the curtain is removed in the background or the difference in perspective is shown with the movement of the model”.

Fashion connections

In the photography selection, there is a deep connection between Jitka Hanzlová and Demna, where they both share a past shaped by the urgency to leave their homelands. Jitka had to leave Czechoslovakia in 1982, while Demna fled Georgia during the separatist war in the province of Abkhazia, started by Russia, when she was just 12 years old.

_{Ella, mother of director Demna (Photo: reproduction/Instagram/@balenciaga)}

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The participation of close individuals, such as Demna's family and friends of the brand, such as Krish Ghai and critic Cathy Horyn, accentuates the value of the collection's personal connections, highlighting the importance of interpersonal relationships in fashion, humanizing the brand through identifying and promoting a sense of community and togetherness.

Featured Photo: Musician and Demna's husband, Loïk Gomez, also known as BFRND (Reproduction/Instagram/@balenciaga)

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