Paris (AFP)
Event in fashion: Balenciaga wants to reconnect with the world of haute couture, announces Demna Gvasalia, Georgian artistic director of the French house in Le Figaro Monday: "We come from there, and we come back after more than fifty years".
"I have been thinking about it since my arrival in 2015 at Balenciaga, explains Demna Gvasalia. It was, for me, one of my missions as designer of this house. But (...) other things were priorities in the general strategy, consolidating ready-to-wear, accessories (...) building a commercially credible vision ".
The artistic director "finds it touching that this label, which closed because of the birth of ready-to-wear, can see its haute couture reborn thanks to the success of our ready-to-wear, which was unthinkable, there is still five years". "The house, its founder deserves it," he insists.
Demna Gvasalia "will return to the origins of the house with, from next July, a first haute couture collection", and will reopen "the legendary salons of 10, avenue George-V", adds Le Figaro.
Technically, the haute couture appellation is issued by the federation dedicated to this activity after examination by a specialized commission. The haute couture collections are presented during parades twice a year, in January and July.
Cristobal Balenciaga, at 73, had closed the doors of his studio in May 1968, to everyone's surprise, against the backdrop of social movements in France and a boom in ready-to-wear that he did not taste. The famous sleepy fashion house will wake up with ready-to-wear and the appointment of artistic director Nicolas Ghesquière in 1997. Will succeed Alexander Wang in 2012, then Demna Gvasalia, who had made a name for himself with provocative collections with strong political and societal messages.
Balenciaga, founded in 1917 by Cristobal Balenciaga, has belonged to the Kering group since 2011.
The group's CEO, François-Henri Pinault, sees Balenciaga's return to haute couture "a historic moment for the house" which "is just as important for Kering". "Relaunching this activity in 2020, in a house constantly at the forefront (...) it is a way of continuing to push our own limits and to imagine today a new luxury for tomorrow", he exhibited at Le Figaro.
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