“A couturier must be an architect for design, a sculptor for shape, a painter for color, a musician for harmony, and a philosopher for temperance,” said Cristóbal Balenciaga while his cocoon coats, balloon jackets, and sack dresses gave space to the 1950s cinched waists. The silhouette came first, the body negotiated afterwards. It’s an idea Pierpaolo Piccioli appears to have dug out of the archive for Spring 2027. Yet for all the references to the founder, this is still fashion in the age of compressed files and cloud storage. Balenciaga’s new chapter didn’t walk a runway. It arrived in an inbox.
The attachment might’ve been compressed, the 80-look collection, very poetically titled Unsized, A Lightness Of Being, clearly wasn’t. Shot by Robin Galiegue at one of the brand’s most sacred addresses, 10 avenue George V, meaning, of course, Cristóbal Balenciaga’s very own atelier, the lookbook comes with “a philosophical approach rooted in the integrity of the human body as the foundation for creation,” as the collection’s notes insist. During his time at Valentino, Piccioli already tested the idea that couture doesn’t have to revolve around a single ideal body. At Balenciaga, that becomes “unsized,” a term that manages to sound both inclusive and slightly like it doesn’t want to commit to measurements at all.
And it doesn’t. Garments here adjust on the wearer, their movement, and their intent. Drawstrings and ribbons cinch proportions, sometimes even inflating them, and snaps play with the silhouette at the hems, all while mostly keeping them under a kilogram. But you can blame featherlight techno taffeta and paper-light napa leather for that. Even the bags, Le City and Rodeo included, receive that same softening treatment. Jewelry behaves as structure rather than embellishment. A shirt can read as a gown. A gown can read as a t-shirt. And everything can read as a hybrid. A black leather set behaves like sportswear but doesn’t look like it should. A jacket borrows from outerwear and tailoring without committing to either. Shoes hover between everyday utility and suede precision. “Rather than couture going into the street, I wanted the vibe of the street going into the couture salon, to get this feeling of freedom,” the designer told Vogue. Good thing his couture debut is less than a month away.
