To Understand What Makes Balenciaga A True Fashion Innovator, Look At Its Parkas

Balenciaga has a knack for grabbing attention like few other luxury brands today. That’s largely down to artistic director Demna Gvasalia’s habit of mixing the unusual and the expensive. Outlets such as CNN covered the brand’s $2,145 replica of an Ikea tote. There was a similar flurry around its $1,290 t-shirt attached to a button-up; and the $9,000 coat with as many layers as an onion, which drew comparisons to the episode of Friends where Joey puts on all Chandler’s clothes. Forget those things. Gvasalia’s real talent lies elsewhere. Season after the season, the designer has proved adept at turning the familiar into something new, not through gimmicks—though not every idea has been great—but through the way he constructs clothes, using inventive techniques to reinvent the most pedestrian items. That ability stands out mostly clearly in the ski parkas, puffers, and other technical outerwear that the designer has reimagined in his three years with Balenciaga. Read more at Quartz.