into the blue

I'm a fan of Nicolas Ghesquiere for Balenciaga, always, but I especially like his latest collection. It made me think of one of my favourite old sci-fi movies, the one that got me wanting to learn how to dive - "The Abyss".



I don't look at shows like Balenciaga and think about how to recreate these looks or scour for suitable substitutes for the real thing - these are things I think of as pieces that have value in itself, that have a strong design element that mass-market shops can seek to imitate - some ideas cannot be imitated.

I was reading Cathy Horyn's review of the show in NYT, and found myself agreeing on one level and disagreeing on another. She wrote -

"...the outfits themselves cannot really be broken up without losing the effect. There is very little freedom in this collection for a personalized expression."

That's true - the full impact is best felt when the outfits are presented in their entirety. (I'd like to add that I wish I could write about fashion as succinctly and aptly as Ms Horyn does.) But I think each item is also well-made and special enough to stand on their own. Moreover, I don't really want to break it up - I want to be one of his automatons and look like something from another planet. I like classic and versatile, but I wouldn't look to a Balenciaga show for it.

Picture of The Abyss movie poster from Google images; images of Balenciaga collection from style.com