{"id":6238,"date":"2021-06-08T04:40:04","date_gmt":"2021-06-07T18:40:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/?post_type=articles&#038;p=194972"},"modified":"2021-06-08T15:30:51","modified_gmt":"2021-06-08T05:30:51","slug":"the-uncanny-valley-of-balenciagas-spring-summer-22-show","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/me\/articles\/the-uncanny-valley-of-balenciagas-spring-summer-22-show\/","title":{"rendered":"The Uncanny Valley Of Balenciaga&#8217;s Spring Summer 2022 Show"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Balenciaga Clones Spring 22 Collection\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/O2XVFT7ep6M?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Something wasn\u2019t quite right about Demna Gvasalia\u2019s spring 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/balenciaga-prefall-2021\/\">collection for Balenciaga<\/a>, though it took you a moment to figure out what. The signs were everywhere. \u201cWe see our world through a filter-perfect, polished, conformed, photoshopped, we no longer decipher,\u201d read an opening tile before the digitally-streamed runway show\u2014called \u2018Clones\u2019\u2014began. \u201cTechnology creates alternative realities and identities, a world of digital clones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then came the unsettling dystopian strum of synths, a single piano note, and an AI bot dispassionately singing the lyrics of Edith Piaf\u2019s great romantic ballad <em>La Vie En Rose<\/em>. The models\u2014or was that the same model over and over?\u2014stomped down the runway with a kind of clunky robotic swagger. The audience was a sea of young, thin, beautiful people, watching the show through the screens of their iPhones.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194997\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194997\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194997\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1308386.jpeg\" alt=\"Balenciaga Spring 2022\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194997\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Courtesy of Balenciaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was a familiar scene, but it wasn\u2019t. Why? Because none of it actually happened. Spring summer \u201922 represented a global first for the Paris Fashion Week schedule (though Demna has <a href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/articles\/balenciaga-neo-classic-used-bag-pop-up\/\">taken to showing off-schedule<\/a> for the last year): the first deep fake runway. Everything you saw was a CGI creation, the work of visual artist and filmmaker Quentin Deronzier. Deronzier 3D-modelled the collection onto AI models, including stitching the face of Eliza Douglas\u2014a long-time Gvasalis muse who has opened every one of his runway shows to date\u2014onto every &#8216;model\u2019s&#8217; body.<\/p>\n<p>The clothes themselves were, of course, real. Gvasalia\u2019s signature voluminous floral dresses, oversized suiting, quilted cacoon coats, and boxy \u201880s-style blazers were on display, with subtle updates for the new season. Dresses were printed with primitive, child-like drawings, a tracksuit reworked into a floor-skimming tunic, and <em>Simpsons <\/em>paraphernalia was tucked into Noughties-style cargo trousers. The show closed with an homage to the iconic drag queen Divine, a voluminous crushed velvet red gown harkening back to her look in the 1972 John Waters cult film <em>Pink Flamingos<\/em> (this follows on from Loewe\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.crfashionbook.com\/fashion\/a32936688\/loewe-divine-drag-queen-capsule-jonathan-anderson\/\" target=\"_blank\">dedicated Divine capsule<\/a> collection last year, proving the late star\u2019s enduring cultural legacy).<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194998\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194998\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194998\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1308379.jpeg\" alt=\"Balenciaga Spring 2022\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194998\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Courtesy of Balenciaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Accessories-wise, we were treated to another helping of the much-hyped Gucci x Balenciaga crossover, which first debuted last month. Gucci\u2019s signature logo belts were remade with interlocking Bs, and classic bags, like the heritage \u2018Jackie\u2019 bag, were reworked in a Balenciaga-laden Guccissima\u00a0print.<\/p>\n<p>The entire presentation evoked a sensation often described as the uncanny valley, the unsettling feeling that comes with watching something that looks almost, but not quite human. For all its many wonders\u2014we certainly couldn\u2019t have gotten through the last year without it\u2014technology does tend to dim the magic from authentic, human experiences. It\u2019s a conundrum that has obviously been on Demna Gvasalia\u2019s mind, though until we can return to real-life, face-to-face interactions, it seems like one we are destined to keep butting heads against. Perhaps the greatest take away is this: if his clothes look that good digitally rendered onto a fake body, they must look breath-taking in real life.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_194999\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-194999\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-194999\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1308381.jpeg\" alt=\"Balenciaga Spring 2022\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-194999\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Courtesy of Balenciaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_195000\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-195000\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-195000\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1308382.jpeg\" alt=\"Balenciaga Spring 2022\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-195000\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Courtesy of Balenciaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_195001\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-195001\" style=\"width: 1024px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-195001\" src=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/1308383.jpeg\" alt=\"Balenciaga Spring 2022\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1536\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-195001\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image: Courtesy of Balenciaga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"author":26240,"featured_media":6240,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[65,35],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v18.5 (Yoast SEO v20.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Uncanny Valley Of Balenciaga&#039;s Spring Summer &#039;22 Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Balenciaga&#039;s spring-summer &#039;22 collection, presented in a digital livestream today, marked a world-first for high fashion. 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