Star Struck Style

Balenciaga presented its Pre-Fall 2024 collection in Los Angeles yesterday. Aside from some eveningwear, the show was mostly the sort of streetwear that has become the signature of Demna, the creative director for the legendary brand.

Of course, I didn’t like it. I see Marc Jacobs for Perry Ellis in this collection, which doesn’t surprise me because both Demna and Marc Jacobs share an Aries sun sign. Plenty of the garments shown could be replaced with something that costs a mere fraction of the price. Just because the designer put a few high-end items that look as if they could be high-end items on the runway (like the coat in the photo above), that doesn’t mean that the rest of line isn’t cheapening the brand.

I’ve seen this all before. There is something very juvenile about this approach to modern luxury that might resonate with consumers for a moment, but that moment passes very quickly. Marc Jacobs bankrupted Perry Ellis doing the same thing thirty years ago. Balenciaga has a lot of money behind it, but I can’t see the label sustaining a few more years of this adolescent shtick. Someone else with a pioneering, punky spirit that epitomizes the qualities of Aries is going to come along and steal the show. In fact, there are plenty of newly-filled positions and recent vacancies at major houses that are going to make 2024 a year to make a major first impression. What’s more, Saturn is poised to move into Aries in 2025. Whatever we think of punk and the styles we associate with teenage rebellion are about to become far more authentic than they have been since the last time Saturn transited the sign in the mid-nineties. It’s unlikely that anyone will be leading the charge from the creative director’s chair of a heritage luxury brand.

So, if Demna’s still around, he’s going to have be doing something else in order to get the attention he earns in the current climate. Earlier this week, another Aries designer stole the show in Hong Kong. Pharrell Williams put on a real luxury presentation for Louis Vuitton full of fresh takes and clothes that can’t be knocked off in a hot minute by fast-fashion copycats. And he did it without sticking out his tongue at the business that pays his bills, like the adult he is. Maybe Demna will get there in a couple of years, too. Only time will tell . . .