High-end fashion brand Balenciaga recently left internet users baffled after it decided to stage its Paris Fashion Week show in a muddy pit. Balenciaga is known for eccentric concepts, but on Sunday several viewers of the Paris Fashion Week were left perplexed as the luxury brand made its models walk on a mud-caked runway to displace its spring/summer 2023 collection.
Several videos and images from the fashion show surfaced on social media which showed models, including Kanye West and Bella Hadid, squelch their way through the heavy mud. Balenciaga too shared a video on Instagram, which showed Kanye West sporting an oversized flak jacket, leather trousers, and a baseball cap with a hoodie.
Watch the clip below:
Social media users were baffled by the showcase, with some even saying it was like a "social experiment gone wrong". "Imagine being a part of the Balenciaga ss23 and realising you have to walk in mud," wrote one user. "Balenciaga having a mud fashion show, I know it smells crazy in there," joked another.
A third said, "Balenciaga was actually the worst thing I have ever witnessed. They all looked like they were about to go rabid and like eat the mud they were walking in like what happens to classy fashion. I feel like the only one who hated it." A fourth commented, "I'm convinced high fashion, particularly Balenciaga is a social experiment aimed at how far they can push an in-joke into the public consciousness without being found out."
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However, several internet users also thought the use of mud was actually an "interesting" concept. "You can always count on them for having interesting sets," wrote one Twitter user.
Meanwhile, according to Indy100, Denma, Balenciaga's creative director, explained that the show was a "metaphor for digging for the truth and being down to earth". In a statement, he said, "Individualism in fashion is downgraded to pseudo trends dictated by a post in stories of some celebrity of the moment... fashion in its best case scenario should not need a story to be sold to someone... let us let everyone be anyone."
"I've decided to no longer explain my collections and verbalise my designs, but to express a state of mind," Demna added. "Fashion is a visual art and all we need is for it to be seen through someone's eyes. You either like it or not," he stated.
