Memeable fashion has gotten over its sporadic viral popularity once every few seasons to become somewhat of a staple for Demna. What started with VTMNTS shows staged in McDonalds developed into models carrying their own heads down the runway for Balenciaga, and that’s before we even talk about the pieces themselves.
We’ve seen an almost perfect replica of Ikea’s infamous blue shopping tote slapped with a $2000 price tag, a shirt stapled to a T-Shirt (aptly dubbed, the T-shirt shirt), along with the chunky shoes that have almost come to define the brand: from Triple S’ to monster Crocs. All of these have gone viral online for being controversial, expensive or just downright weird – a sentiment that Balenciaga have reclaimed and now use to inform shows, collections and their online presence – just think of their red carpet meta-show last year.
However, over the last week, we seem to have been hit with a triple whammy of calculated Balenci-madness. It started with the ‘trash bags’, which debuted back in February, that have now hit the store at the humble price of $1790. Whilst in the show the overwhelming sentiment was that they were shown in context to symbolise the plight of refugees, who are often forced to flee their home countries with minimal possessions, when given to the consumer world at a luxury price point they seem to lose some of the power and original concept, to say the least.
Borrowing from the aesthetics of the mundane for accessory design is not a new thing for the brand, who’s previous ventures have included a Tesco-adjacent Balenciaga shopping bag, hybrid Crocs tote bag and ‘luxury’ plaid Barbes bag that you can all but guarantee to find in any market stall for 1% of Balenciaga’s price. The trash bag seems to take things one step further, and aligns with their ‘empty crisp packet’ clutch bag that was also seen floating about earlier this year. One man’s trash…
However, their next accessory offering dropping this week are tied up in entirely different references (pun intended). Yes, it’s the shoelace earrings – setting you back $261 and (from what we can spot) no different to any regular shoelace, tied in a bow and hot-glued to an earring. Trusting the vision, with this one.
Rounding off this week’s wild Balenciaga drops is their jeans top, from the same show as the aforementioned rubbish-bag bag. This one’s a little more justifiable, as it’s both a distinctive and wearable piece that taps into the customisable denim trend that’s been circulating over the last year. Basically hiking jeans up into a top, and creating side-slashes for your arms, you can wear its asymmetric design and stone washed fade is actually pretty cool. So there you have it – the triple drop of weird and wacky Balenciaga. Will you be copping?
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