5 of Balenciaga’s Most Iconic Runway Shows of All Time
Collections that built upon Cristóbal Balenciaga’s legacy, shocked audiences and transformed fashion.
One of the oldest fashion houses operating today, Cristóbal Balenciaga founded his eponymous label in 1917. For two decades, he worked out of a small atelier in a coastal Spanish town before moving to France in 1937, where he presented couture collections to rave reviews before closing up shop in 1968. Since the house’s relaunch in the late 1980s, Balenciaga has been a mainstay of the luxury fashion world, defined by Cristóbal’s unparalleled mastery of form and silhouette.
Following the brand’s ’80s return, every designer to helm the label has endeavored to preserve and continue Cristóbal’s legacy, from Josephus Thimister’s revival period to Nicholas Ghesquière’s legendary run to Alexander Wang’s brief tenure during the early 2010s. Fast forward to 2015, when Vetements founder and designer Demna Gvasalia joined the brand as creative director, revitalizing the French fashion house in a way that captured new audiences while remaining true to the label’s founding principles.
And though Gvasalia mastered the art of sparking conversation during the social media era, he was far from the first to do it. Cristóbal himself was known for stirring up controversy with form-defying collections—a trend that Gvasalia continues across designs, campaigns and so much more.
Below, we revisit five of Balenciaga’s most iconic runway shows throughout the decades, reflecting on how they both built upon and diverted from Cristóbal’s legacy.
Season: Spring/Summer 1998
Designer: Nicolas Ghesquière
It’s hard to imagine now, but Balenciaga’s time in the spotlight has been anything but perennial. In 1968, amidst the cultural upheaval of the May ’68 revolutions, Cristóbal Balenciaga shuttered his business, allegedly claiming true couture design was no longer possible in the rapidly shifting cultural climate. He died just four years later, and the fashion house remained in limbo for nearly two decades.
In 1986, French holding company Jacques Bogart S.A. acquired the rights to the house and relaunched with a new ready-to-wear collection. Within six years, Josephus Thimister had revived the label, a remarkable feat given the brand’s nearly 20-year hiatus, before leaving to launch his own label in 1996 and handing Balenciaga over to his replacement. Enter Nicolas Ghesquière.
Prior to taking up the role of creative director, Ghesquière had been a self-taught license designer, producing wedding and funeral attire for Balenciaga’s Japanese clientele. For his debut as the house’s creative lead during the Spring/Summer 1998 season, he expanded on what he did best with a collection composed almost entirely of black garments. And not without good reason.
Cristóbal Balenciaga established himself as a master of silhouette, using couture to elevate, transform and reinterpret the female form through his deft command of tailoring. By reducing his color palette to pitch black and denying himself such crutches as patterns and palettes, Ghesquière challenged himself to demonstrate a mastery of cut and form worthy of carrying the Balenciaga name—which he did and continued to do for 15 years in what is now one of the most heralded fashion careers of all time.
Season: Spring/Summer 2007
Designer: Nicolas Ghesquière
Futurism and science fiction loomed large over the ’00s. Apple’s technological revolution had commenced with the introduction of the iPod, influential singers were experimenting with dance-inflected electro-pop, and Hollywood films such as The Matrix, Minority Report and I, Robot were indicative of a popular fixation on all things to come. No surprise, then, that similar trends were unfolding in the world of fashion.
For Spring/Summer 2007, Nicolas Ghesquière drew inspiration from iconic science-fiction films, including Tron and The Terminator, creating a Balenciaga collection rooted in androgyny, machinism and the impending apocalypse. Glossy metals and geometric panels reminiscent of metal plating dominated the collection, as did accessories inspired by factory machine parts, ammo belts and tank track treads.
To this day, however, Balenciaga SS07 is best remembered for a pair of “robot leggings.” Equal parts provocative and evocative, the futuristic bottoms were made-to-order from non-precious metals, appearing on the runway in shades of black, white and gold. And as if they weren’t instantly iconic in their own right, Beyoncé wore them during her performance at the 2007 BET Awards, enshrining their place in fashion and music forever.
Season: Spring/Summer 2016
Designer: Alexander Wang
In the late ’00s and early ’10s, Alexander Wang was considered America’s fashion darling, transforming contemporary style through his elevation of athleisure and street silhouettes. His tenure at Balenciaga, however, was so short-lived that it hardly registers in the house’s timeline of creative directors, overshadowed on either side by Ghesquière before him and Gvasalia immediately after.
Wang joined Balenciaga at the end of 2012, presenting his first collection for the label at Paris Fashion Week Fall/Winter 2013. Subsequent collections, though competently designed, received middling reviews, with critics struggling to see the lines connecting Wang’s output with Balenciaga’s established style, and wondering if the enfant terrible was, ironically, revealing a youthful lack of direction.
In July 2015, less than three years after joining the house, it was announced that Wang would be departing Balenciaga. For his final offering, set to take place during the Spring/Summer 2016 season, Wang presented a collection composed entirely of softened pieces in a muted, natural white (perhaps a nod to the all-black collection his predecessor debuted in 1998). The collection was suggestive of baptismal or bridalwear, particularly in the draped silhouettes and lace pieces with floral ornamentations. At the same time, an unavoidable funereal element hung over every piece.
In retrospect, the collection reads like a designer coming to terms with the end of a challenging period; a swan song laden with notions of closure and finality, but also rebirth and new beginnings—a fitting transition to one of the most exciting, unpredictable and disruptive reigns in modern fashion.
Season: Fall/Winter 2016
Designer: Demna Gvasalia
Georgian designer Demna Gvasalia was announced as the artistic director of Cristóbal’s storied house on October 7, 2015. A master of creating conversation in the digital space, Gvasalia’s collections feel almost algorithmically designed to generate discourse. So, among a smattering of iconic seasonal collections to choose from, his debut Balenciaga collection is a natural starting point.
At first glimpse, the collection seemed deliberately designed to provoke outrage. Boxy suits and dresses made models look like something between a cartoon character and a quarterback; misshapen jackets, worn half-closed, were slung over shoulders in such a way that suggested they’d fit even worse if they were closed properly. Virtually every other piece appeared over or undersized, with shirt hems hanging half-tucked over skirt waists, while patchwork floral dresses provided a shocking contrast against a largely restrained color palette.
And yet, amidst the irony and provocation, Gvasalia inserted references and citations that let critics know he had done his homework. The librarian-esque look worn by Eliza Douglas that opened the presentation, for example, paid direct homage to an original design from 1954, while the bulbous waist effect seen in numerous pieces drew from one of Cristóbal’s earliest signatures.
If Alexander Wang had struggled implementing the Balenciaga blueprint in his collections, Gvasalia’s debut suggested a different approach. He was going to play by the rules—just not in the way people wanted or expected.
Season: Fall/Winter 2017
Designer: Demna Gvasalia
In 1917, a 22-year-old Cristóbal Balenciaga had his name entered into the industrial register in San Sebastián, Spain, marking the beginning of one of the most illustrious careers in fashion history. In 2017, Balenciaga celebrated its 100th anniversary, leaving Demna Gvasalia in charge of the commemorations.
For the label’s Fall/Winter 2017 presentation, Gvasalia placed the Balenciaga name front and center, stamping the house’s logo all the way down the runway. The main collection itself, meanwhile, was both classic Balenciaga and contemporary Gvasalia, with numerous form-altering motifs, from draped fabrics to accentuated left shoulders. But the real tribute arrived at the very end of the presentation, in the form of nine Balenciaga couture dresses, modeled directly off of Cristóbal’s most iconic designs. Not wishing to interfere with perfection, Gvasalia made as few alterations to the original designs as possible. Instead, he left his mark another way: pairing each outfit with an oversized bazaar bag in the same fabric. Typical Gvasalia.