PFW SS26: Balenciaga explored the house’s original silhouettes

As recently reported by FashionUnited, a major highlight of this season’s Paris Fashion Week was Pierpaolo Piccioli’s debut as the new creative director of Balenciaga. After the previous designer, Demna’s, inclusion of streetwear, Piccioli took a different direction, explicitly referencing Cristóbal Balenciaga’s original forms, (sack dresses, balloon shapes, cocoon silhouettes,) as starting points, to eliminate constricted garments while retaining a sophisticated chic.

For example, look 34 was a magenta-colored off-the-shoulder dress in a silk/wool blend, with a voluminous, cocoon-like silhouette, creating a strong architectural shape around the torso. The neckline sat wide across the shoulders, and the hemline was cut short.

However, the back of the dress told quite a different story, based on the Balenciaga ‘peacock train’ first shown in 1958, it had a dramatic, trailing panel that created a fluid, cape-like effect as the model walked along the runway.

Two of the accessories paired with look 34 referenced a former Balenciaga design director, Nicolas Ghesquière. The high-crowned riding hat echoed one that Ghesquière showed in his 2008 collection for the House;

…while the handbag could be traced back to the original ‘City’ bag Ghesquière released in 2001.

Finally, velvet platform flip flops finished the look.

As we saw in Milan, at Prada SS26, Piccioli emphasized a sense of weightlessness with garments that allowed space. It was just as Cristóbal Balenciaga had imagined when he designed his sack dress in 1957 as a way of freeing women from the constricted silhouettes.