A Kind of Magic

Demna's breathtaking couture collection takes centre stage at Balenciaga's newly renovated couture salons in Paris

- By Dal Chodha. Photography by Melanie + Ramon

The rows of guests filming Balenciaga’s 52nd couture collection show in Paris turned the glittering spectacle into a cloud of digital confetti. We were left with what German artist and filmmaker Hito Steyerl refers to as ‘a ghost of an image, squeezed through slow digital connections, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, as well as copied and pasted into other channels of distribution.’ We end up getting only some of the story. A glimpse at the magic.

‘I notice it from backstage,’ says Demna, the mononymous artistic director of Balenciaga. ‘People are seeing the clothes in person, but looking through their phones. They truly have become a physical extension of our bodies.’ Most of us have no idea how long it took to cover the bustier dress worn by Eva Herzigová in 9,000 hand-mounted crystals and 36,000 bugle beads. Or that a pair of jeans were, in fact, not jeans at all, but canvas trousers hand-painted by an artist over a period of two months to make them look like jeans. ‘Fashion, including couture, has become show business. You see things through the phone held in front of what you are looking at,’ continues Demna.

The seductive realm of couture ought to haul our focus away from the noise of the seasonal, the short term and the quickfire towards something that is more profound. For Demna, couture is the chance to pay homage to the métier of making clothes beautifully. This is the thing that he cares about most. Through couture, the designer has ushered in a modern type of elegance to our visual culture and the images broadcast into the palms of our hands.