On July 8, more than a year after taking the helm at Balenciaga, designer Pierpaolo Piccioli finally showed his first couture collection — the 55th in the house’s history — in the courtyard of the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris. For many, it felt like a return to form, both for the brand and for Piccioli himself: bold colors, grand, sweeping proportions, and the kind of detailed workmanship that sings loudest and brightest when viewed in person and from every conceivable angle.
“This collection is the result of a feeling,” said Piccioli in the show’s notes. “We [Paccioli and the members of the Balenciaga atelier] worked while getting to know each other, learning to understand one another. We built our own language, full of new words and timeless ones. We searched, we tried, we remembered. This collection is the result of the work of the people in the atelier, human beings who are couture — because couture is made by the people who live it. This note is to thank each and every one of them for their time, love, and commitment. This is our collection, this is our work, this is Balenciaga Couture, now.”
Check out the full collection below.
