So, This Happened

Balenciaga debuted the brand’s first-ever men’s runway show this week, designed by much-hyped new creative director Demna Gvasalia. The results were great, assuming there’s a large swath of male luxury consumers interested in looking like two young children stacked on top of each other inside a trench coat.

Here, some more insane proportions:

Help:

Gvasalia is the founder of Vetements, an insanely expensive and purposefully difficult-to-acquire line of what is, essentially, overpriced loungewear, and includes a $330 t-shirt featuring the logo of a German mail services company. In a recent interview with the London Telegraph, Vetements was described thusly:

Inspired by streetwear, by heavy metal, by hip-hop, by skateboarders and random pop cultural tit-bits found on the internet, the Vetements look is oversized, kind of ugly and a bit hard to get your head around. Mis-shapen hooded tops bearing rude or consciously vacant slogans, oddly-cropped trackie bottoms, long vintage-style floral dresses with exaggerated sleeves, re-made jeans and most infamously of all, a yellow t-shirt bearing the DHL logo, (yes, that DHL), which has become a sell-out cult item.

Reviewers appear to have been both shocked and somewhat roused by the Balenciaga collection; as Women’s Wear Daily put it, the silhouettes were “severe” and “challenging” (one way to put it), but “his Balenciaga clothes had such conviction behind them— and a peerless execution—that they commanded attention, and are bound to be influential.” Guy Trebay with the New York Times wrote, “That nothing looked comfortable was surely the designer’s intention,” adding that the models “looked like nervous boy soldiers” in suits so tight they were “unable to fill their lungs.”

Aside from the clothes, Fashionista notes, Gvasalia cast three models of color for this show, which is apparently quite a leap for him—none were cast in either of his runway shows last season; he told the Telegraph that he was more interested in “diversity of character.” So! There’s that.