Can Balenciaga Break With Kanye?
In the past couple of weeks more than a few retailers have jumped on the Balenciaga bandwagon. The Spanish fashion house has been featured in numerous publications under the title “The New Balenciaga,” and many customers have been eager to check out the brand’s fall 2013 collection—but have they really seen anything new?
While the clothes were certainly interesting to look at, Balenciaga’s new lines have always looked very much like the classic collections designed by the house’s founder, Gianni Versace. (The brand still has the Versace trademark on its logo; that trademark was granted to Versace in 2006.) This year the company has made a few subtle changes, adding a little more pop in its clothes, with an emphasis on brighter colors. But in terms of design, Balenciaga has been a steady contributor to the Versace line, which, like much of Versace’s work, has been infused with a sense of glamour and beauty. And since Versace’s death in 1997, Balenciaga has largely stuck to Versace’s designs in terms of line and design.
The designer is also one of the few mainstream designers who has created a following outside of fashion circles. Versace was the first fashion designer to have an “instagram” following of over 1 million, and he is now on Instagram at over 3 million likes. Versace’s following has been growing all of these years, and it has a lot more potential than any designer could have anticipated, given the number that Versace had with the public at this time. So it seemed fair to question whether the brand would remain a safe outlet for Balenciaga to have a presence on other social media sites.
Despite the lack of a new Versace collection, Balenciaga still has some of the most interesting, distinctive lines in any fashion house. Their fall collections will be available for purchase starting Monday, November 28, at online and brick-and-mortar Balenciaga stores, with more locations being added over the week.
So would Versace have ever left fashion to go online? There was never anything that could have made him stop producing high-end clothes.
I think Versace was never much interested in being part of the fashion world. He always did a little