There’s no faking it when a label turns women on—all you had to do was visit the Balenciaga store on the Faubourg Saint-Honoré this week to witness the instant conversion of fashion editors to Demna Gvasalia’s first collection. The place was practically a convention of industry insiders, each fixated on homing in on a floral printed dress, an oversize trenchcoat, a striped Market bag, or a pair of bejeweled pumps. In his second show, it may have been no coincidence that Gvasalia was turned to think about the motivations behind that fashion fetishism, the drive to possess a particular object and the thrill of stalking out in it. When you’re playing at this level, the stakes are high—the premiere league of designers belongs to those who can show women something they’ve never quite seen before, but leaves them panting for it.
Well, Gvasalia joined that league today, by risking the use of spandex, the synthetic stretch fabric that was invented by DuPont in 1958. Spandex takes intense color and print brilliantly, shrink-wraps the body, and, as he proved, can drape in a kinkily slinky, glamorous way. For many a year, stretch has been shunned in high fashion, except in the case of the dreaded athleisure trend. Safe to say, Balenciaga’s use of spandex had nothing to do with sport.
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