Balenciaga Is Self-Conscious
Balenciaga is feeling quite bashful these days, as you can tell from "It's Different," the luxury label's latest ad campaign. The imagery juxtaposes spot-lit photos of Balenciaga's latest clothes against some lightly self-deprecating lingo, representing an intriguing new look for the luxury label.
Some of the campaign's photos claim to be "probably not what you're looking for" while others attest that the shoes and bags are "different."
Another claims that Balenciaga's bags and shoes are "no blabla." Once upon a time, I'd assume it's a send-up of the one-liners gave so many fashion biz ads their bite but now it feels like Balenciaga meekly affirming that its usual prankery is out the window.
The campaign is indeed a more introverted presentation than we're used to from Balenciaga, which not so long ago would launch goods with wordless bravado, confident in its ability to provoke through angular design alone.
In fact, this is perhaps the first time that Balenciaga hasn't had its products speak for themselves.
Remember that only a year ago, though, Balenciaga was about to enter a vortex of controversy created by a pair of unrelated ad campaigns — perhaps the move to model-free, visuals-only ads is a subconscious response to the child models that set the internet alight.
Earlier this year, Balenciaga emerged from post-controversy isolation a changed brand, more inward-looking and less brash. Its focus is on core silhouettes and surefire bestsellers, with some room for newness and the occasional cheeky reference but only here and there. Today's Balenciaga is mostly divorced from its provocateur past.
Balenciaga's first-ever ski collection, for instance, mostly retread familiar Demna touchstones, delivering branded ski gear and lots of familiar fare lightly retooled for winter.
As a result of Balenciaga's timidity, upstarts have overtaken Balenciaga as the fashion industry's resident anti-establishmentarians, though I'd argue that even without the fanfare it once received, Demna's work remains vital.
Balenciaga describes its new campaign as "tongue-in-cheek" but hard not to read at least some self-awareness in there, too.
There are still a lot of people post-controversy for whom Balenciaga is certainly not what they're looking for, and the house seems conscious of that. And Balenciaga's fans almost certainly gravitate to it because, yes, it certainly is different.
But maybe we could use just a little more blabla. At least some of the old blabla, even.
