Balenciaga Resets for Winter 2023

March 05, 2023

For the Balenciaga Winter 23 show, a pattern from a regular fit blazer arrived in the mail. The invitation included a pre-see inside the first 11 looks of the collection, which was a hint into what Creative Director Demna had been working on, essentially a house reset. Demna presented the latest collection enveloped into a classic toile runway traced with four rows of black chairs that outlined the neutral canvas. Tailoring is remembered under the sharp lines of the set with pants at the core of de- and reconstruction just as Balenciaga rebuilds again.

“In the last couple of months, I needed to seek shelter for my love affair with fashion and I instinctively found it in the process of making clothes,” Demna wrote. “This is why fashion to me can no longer be seen as an entertainment, but rather as the art of making clothes.”

Text by India Espy-Jones
Images courtesy of Balenciaga

The 54-look collection opened with a selection of double-breasted blazers and overcoats. Models appeared with no makeup; hair parted, drawn back. Pants doubled leg-over-leg allow full movement, a construction applied to classic separates as well. As the show progressed, padded devices installed into the linings of a zip-up hoodie, biker jacket, tracksuit, and puffer inflated body dimensions to reference extreme athletics. Accentuated shoulders–known to the House–propose rounded volumes derived from Balenciaga Couture. At the show’s close, floor-length gowns designed with precise textures i.g. sequins, silicon, velvet, tie in the collection with a satin bow.

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For years, she stood still, watching life rush past her, a quiet observer behind the glass. Now, the glass is broken, and she steps out into the unknown. She walks through the city, caught between two worlds—part of it, yet apart from it.

Her journey is quiet but bold, searching for something she’s never understood, something just out of reach. On church steps and under glowing city lights, she questions everything: the rules, the past, and where she truly belongs. Each step feels both freeing and uncertain.

A curious soul in a borrowed life, she keeps moving forward, leaving behind only whispers of her escape, like a fleeting shadow in the night.