Balenciaga's Retro FW18 Collection Was All About Pushing Forward

Balenciaga Fall/Winter 2018 was the first time men and women had walked together in a unified show – a big leap for both the label and designer Demna Gvasalia's concept. “After two years at Balenciaga, I wanted to take all the codes of the house and filter them so they can be one aesthetic and one ethic,” he said.

Another leap came in the collection's high-tech approach. The models' bodies were 3D scanned and moulds were printed out, from which the selection of precisely fitting body-con mini dresses and tops, sharp tailoring and multi-layered looks were cut. The jackets, for example only had two seams and were made from a singular piece of fabric.

The collection had a bold past-meets-future aesthetic which is so fitting to Gvasalia's helming of the 99-year-old heritage brand. '80s influences were strong, either in the layered vintage style Gvasalia was also loving for Spring/Summer 2018, garish print and texture clashes, or a power dressing Blade Runner-esque retro futurism. But a nod to Cristóbal was still in there somewhere, with a big tuquoise parka that, with its voluminous silhouette and furs, seemed to emulate Balenciaga's '50s bubble gowns.

The show was backdropped by a rad graffiti-covered mountain, which Gvasalia described as “kind of a snowboarder paradise from the beginning of the '90s. We tagged it with all the things we were talking about in the studio at the time.”

Next up, adidas and Stella McCartney feelin' their collab at multi-sensory yoga class.

Images courtesy of vogue.com