PFW: BALENCIAGA Winter 2022 Collection

The term “winter” takes on a new meaning, although imbued with nostalgia for a time of predictable seasons. Discover BALENCIAGA Winter 2022 collection, presented with a snow globe runway at Paris Le Bourget Parc d’Expositions, on March 6th, during the recently finished Paris Fashion Week. Set in a glass rotunda filled with a manufactured snowstorm, the show was supposed to be a commentary on climate change.

FALL WINTER 2022.23 COLLECTIONS

The war in Ukraine has triggered the feeling of a past trauma in Balenciaga’s creative director Demna, who went through a similar scenario in 1993 in his home country of Georgia, and “became a forever refugee”. At one point Demna was seriously thinking of canceling the show, but instead, he decided to turn it into a political statement. He said that working on the show was incredibly hard for him, because in a time like this, fashion loses its relevance and its actual right to exist. Fashion week feels like some kind of an absurdity. – he said in a statement given to the audience instead of a press release.

This show needs no explanation. It is a dedication to fearlessness, to resistance, and to the victory of love and peace.
– Demna.

Classic looks are pared down and redrawn, letting bold silhouettes stand out. Hybrid stretch dresses and bodysuits fit and fall in new ways by combining gloves, shoes, pants, trains, or leggings. Staples, like turtlenecks, pants, and jersey hoodies are partially destroyed, shrunken, or oversized. – from Balenciaga.

Committed to sustainable approach to fashion, the brand has developed the first of its kind, a cutting-edge, mycelium-based material EPHEA™. Engineered to diminish an ecological footprint without compromising quality or technical performance, it is made from the vegetative body of mushrooms. Specifically, it is woven from an abundant, quickly growing organism that uses minimal resources and emits trace amounts of CO2 as it feeds on low-value agro-industrial residue. Bio-fabricated using a proprietary process, EPHEA™, used in this collection for a floor-length coat, is an organic, viable alternative to leather that is finished with a sustainable treatment. – says the press release.