In collaboration with artists Will Benedict, Laurence Chaperon, Dirk Koy, and
Patricia Schwoerer, Balenciaga’s artistic director Demna Gvasalia interprets this
season’s ready-to-wear, footwear, and accessories with a combination of stylized
photography, motion graphics, and augmented footage.
Summer 2020’s themes reference diverse workplaces with corporate iconography
and symbols of social hierarchies. In these campaigns, statement pieces are put
into sharp focus or manipulated in the style of a deepfake, layered with sloganlike and news ticker text.
A series of portraits by Laurence Chaperon, a photographer who specializes in
political posters, places people who walked the Summer 20 runway show behind
messages of optimism and environmental harmony.
In a video by multimedia artist and director Will Benedict, the models become
newsroom anchors with manipulated mouths, reporting on eerie events while a
list of extraneous information passes underneath them on-screen.
Key bags that include a collaboration with Sanrio’s Hello Kitty, the new Ghost
bag, and the updated Hourglass bag are animated by motion graphics designer
Dirk Koy in clips that collapse, contort, and reform their proportions.
The unexpectedly sleek Tyrex shoe – a departure from previous Balenciaga
sneakers with its distinct, stripped-down silhouette – is built up and polished in
an animation by digital artist Max de Waard.
Still life photographer Patricia Schwoerer displays shoes and bags in ultra-high
resolution images that recall advertising imagery of a recent past. The Tyrex’s
tag-line: “Think outside of the shoebox.” The new Zen’s: “Take it Easy.”
