DEMNA GVASALIA NAMED ARTISTIC DIRECTOR OF BALENCIAGA

By Crash redaction

THE FOUNDER OF VETEMENTS IS BALENCIAGA’S NEW ARTISTIC DIRECTOR

The news was announced today. Demna Gvasalia, founder of VETEMENTS, has been appointed artistic director of Balenciaga after Alexander Wang’s decision to leave the House. 34-year-old Gvasalia is a German designer with Georgian roots. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Antwerp, the designer worked as womenswear head designer at Maison Martin Margiela as well as Senior Designer for Louis Vuitton’s women’s ready-to-wear lines. In 2014, he launched VETEMENTS, a label characterized by its spirit of showcasing clothes before anything else and leaving trends behind. In two seasons, the label has quickly grown into one of Paris’s most coveted and respected collections for their radical aesthetic and their avant-garde take on fashion. It makes him the perfect fit for Balenciaga, which has always been at the forefront of fashion and creation. Both Isabelle Guichot, president and CEO of Balenciaga, and François-Henri Pinault, president and CEO of Kering, are thrilled with the decision. « Demna embodies a unique approach to the profession marked by a sociological observation of the wardrobe’s essentials and the way he remains humble and rigorous in his creative work », commented Pinault, on which Isabelle Guichot added: « Demna Gvasalia adopts a unique vision of the designer’s role today and thus recalls Cristobal Balenciaga’s own vision ». Demna Gvasalia will present his first collection for Balenciaga at the occasion of the women’s ready-to-wear fall-winter 2016/2017 show in Paris, and will keep his responsibilities in his own brand, VETEMENTS. www.balenciaga.com

Portrait of Demna Gvasalia by Willy Vanderperre

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