BALENCIAGA AGA

Balenciaga took its summer ’21 collection out for a stroll in rain-slicked Paris streets. In a cleverly produced video that felt more MTV than Fashion TV, models stomped toward the camera wearing dramatically oversized coats, shorts layered over tracksuit bottoms, leather jackets and trousers treated to resemble denim jackets and jeans. There were distressed sweatshirts printed with melting smileys or faded words reading “Paris Fashion Week”. There were fluffy utility sandals and high-heeled hotel slippers, and a new trainer, the X-pander. Almost everything was oversized, possibly because most pieces were unisex, a new direction that the house said would “diminish the environmental impact of a gendered production mode”. In a statement, the house emphasised sustainability, citing that “93.5 per cent of the plain materials in this collection are either certified sustainable or upcycled.” Emily Cronin