Balenciaga – Rockin’ the Hotel Crillon
Nicolas Ghesquiere continues to raise the bar for Paris fashion week with his collection for Balenciaga. He showed, again, at the Hotel Crillon. This time around, he tiled the entire floor of the salle in white. This graphic background was perfect for a collection of prints and controlled draping. He’s the one of the few who can give you elegant, luxurious clothes but not make it looked forced or old. Silk prints and draping??? Ghesquiere has such a steady and controlled hand at executing this that the end result is hyper-chic and ultra-today. A bit of leather trim, great structure, mesh and bold colors give it just enough edge to continue to keep the collection on the most wanted list.
BALENCIAGA – f.w 2010 – other worldly
Nicolas Ghesquiere continues his push into the future with a close regard to the heritage of Balenciaga. He intelligently launched into new territory with his tailoring. Remembering the shapes of the past and morphing them into shapes relevant to a modern woman’s closet. Some shapes bordered on boxlike but engineered to be more than flattering. Fur trim present and accounted for as the season has mandated. Mr. Ghesquiere’s use of color splicing and his choice of using pale grey, pink, pale green, apricot, aqua, white – a color palette more common to a Spring collection brought a unexpected but soothing appeal. His use of colorful embroidered knits were also a new element. The pant silhouette is still as narrow as can be and the skirt still mini short. Text was used as the new print. The one odd element that didn’t work as well for me was his white padded outerwear tops with black yokes. Nicolas Ghesquiere has once again pressed far further than any of his peers with this precise and beautiful collection.
all photos DChen 
