“Si me dejas, no vale. Si me dejas no vale!”, Julio Iglesias used to sing this way and I don’t know why but this is the tune buzzing around my head since monday, when I learned, with some dismay, the news of the break between the enfant prodige Nicolas Ghesquière and Balenciaga.
How did it happen? What happened? Whose the choice? So many questions fill my, our brain… For the time being, the reasons, the real ones, we are not given to know…
There is only one certainty… After fifteen years of professional romance, the French stylist and the historic Spanish Maison have decided to separate! To give the news François-Henri Pinault, head of Pinault-Printemps-Redoute, who run the brand. No regrets, no controversy, no remorse… A divorce, you might say, “civil” but not less painful…
Born in 1971, native of Comines, in the north of France, Nicolas Ghesquière came to the Balenciaga’s creative direction in 1997. Original, creative, unconventional… In a short time, the young designer was able to revolutionize the Iberian Brand’s little dusty-style by reinterpreting the unconventional vision of the unforgettable founder Cristobal. Men’s fashion immediately becomes a strength… The minimalist style, never granted. The attention to geometries. The wise use of colors. The structured forms. The search for materials. The love for the suits… He’s always one step ahead, our Couturière… He’s always the most discussed, admired, imitated…
BALENCIAGA Spring/Summer 2013
One example is the latest 2013 S/S collection. Rigorous black suits tell us of an underground, ambitious and self-confident young man… The classical pants’ are now high-waisted while it’s the length which becomes shorter turning them in an indispensable chic leisure’s suit… The trench coat is roomy and structured. Grays, beiges, whites alternate with hotter nuances: contrasting mustard, red and purple… As shoes, brushed calfskin-boots while simple foulards around the neck… The timeless Balenciaga’s flower-pattern is back in the silk shirts: a breaking element in a deliberately provocative and
incredibly rock austerity!
Only now it comes to my head that last fashion show in Paris, at N°15 rue Cassette, when the benches creaked under the weight of those who had come to witness that incredible, unique, unexpectedly last parade!
May that be the moment when that relationship, apparently very strong, started failing ? Who knows… We know one thing… From the next November, 30 Ghesquière will be free to make choices, to undertake new adventures, to amaze again and Cristobal will have a new successor… Who?
