The Balenciaga Fashion Show and Demna's Childhood Memories
Demna presents the women's and men's spring summer 2025 show at Paris Fashion Week. Special guests at the show, Nicole Kidman, Lindsay Lohan and Katy Perry.
A handwritten message reads: "My earliest memories of fashion start with me drawing looks on cardboard, then cutting them up to stage fashion shows on my grandmother's kitchen table. Thirty-five years later, this show reconnects me with the beginning of my passion. It's a tribute to fashion that has a point of view." This is the emotional premise of Demna , creative director of Maison Balenciaga who presented the co-ed spring summer 2025 show at Paris Fashion Week . Over the years, the Georgian designer has shown that he knows how to respect the heritage of the brand founded by Cristòbal Balenciaga, that he is brave, that he tries to break down the system and tell his personal messages, and this time, even to return to being a child and materialize past dreams.
A tribute to the origins so to speak. And today, 35 years later, it has managed to capture everyone's attention. Starting with the celebrities loyal to the Maison, present at the fashion shows and sitting in the front row: from the cover star of L'OFFICIEL Nicole Kidman , but also Katy Perry with the QR code of her latest album printed on the palm of her hand and Lindsay Lohan in great shape. And a slew of top models such as Laetitia Casta, Esther Canadas, Vittoria Ceretti, Ashley Grahm and Naomi Campbell.
The wooden catwalk alludes to the table on which Demna created his shows as a child. The spring summer 2025 show opens with a series of looks with trompe-l'œil lingerie details, embroidered and knitted in jacquard. A sexyness that is pushed, sensual but not vulgar. Backless silk dresses with corset closures follow, Demna's wardrobe archetypes, a work tailoring with medical collars built from five-pocket jeans. Balenciaga's proposal also includes double-breasted spencer jackets, evening dresses, low-waisted bumsters and hourglass and tight silhouettes taken from the Cristóbal Balenciaga archive. All enhanced with noteworthy styling and accessories that hark back to the red-light universe, from bandage glasses to transparent headpieces pulled down on the face.
It is not easy to know how to reinterpret heritage without falling into banality, he does it with a personal, almost intimate touch. A tribute to his artistic origins that moves and the only certainty is that the personal narrative, in Demna's case, always triumphs.
