Moda
Balenciaga nomena Pierpaolo Piccioli
The Balenciaga Appointment of Pierpaolo Piccioli Is a Moment to Watch
Per Teneshia Carr, Editor-in-Chief
n an industry that cycles through creative directors like seasonal trends, Aturar la moda a les seves pistes requereix una cosa rara i ressonant. Pierpaolo Piccioli's appointment as the new artistic director of Balenciaga does just that.
This is not just about legacy or aesthetics. It's about the opportunity for Balenciaga and potser for fashion itself to recalibrate.
Piccioli is, first and foremost, a humanist. His tenure at Valentino redefined modern romanticism, grounding it not in fragility but in strength, in identity, in humanity. When he sent Black models down the runway in full couture afros, when he cast real people in ad campaigns that felt like art installations, and when he dared to celebrate softness as power, he wasn't pandering. He was building a new language. And fashion, for once, listened.
Ara, entra a una casa que fa temps que ha prosperat amb la provocació. El Balenciaga de Demna va ser enfrontat, conscient de si mateix, i desestabilitzant intencionadament. En els seus moments més contundents, actuava com un mirall, obligant la indústria a mirar-la propi excessos, les seves obsessions per la ironia i la distorsió digital. Però aquell mirall finalment es va convertir en un laberint. Arran de la polèmica i la confusió, Balenciaga es va trobar en necessitat no només un nou veu, però un nou vocabulari.
Entra Piccioli. No és un reaccionari, sinó un reintèrpret. Un dissenyador que creu que la moda té ànima.
La pregunta en la ment de tothom és: Un dissenyador conegut per la poesia de vellut i l'elegància radical pot prosperar dins d'una marca basada en la distopia i la vora? Crec el millor pregunta és: què passa quan l'empatia radical es troba amb l'arquitectura radical?
Balenciaga sempre ha estat d'estructura, Cristóbal's volumes, Nicolas Ghesquière's futurism, Demna's conceptual tension. Piccioli has structure too, but his comes with breath. With emotion. With a point of view that doesn't demand the audience be shocked, but seen.
I believe this is what fashion needs now: not another performance but a reckoning with beauty, not another digital stunt but a return to craft, i potser, most critically, a return to meaning.
For years, fashion has been obsessed with "going viral." Piccioli makes clothes that go deep.
As someone who has spent the past decade telling the stories fashion often skips Black designers, queer creatives, movements that begin in the margins, I'm interested in what this moment could signal. If Piccioli brings his inclusive eye, poetic discipline, and collaborative spirit to Balenciaga, we may see a shift in what power looks like on the runway. A softening of spectacle. A reframing of status. A broadening of who luxury speaks to.
Because what Pierpaolo represents isn't nostalgia, it's possibility.
Balenciaga doesn't need reinvention. It needs reconnection.
If Piccioli can create work that reconnects us to grace, precision, and beauty with purpose, then this next era of Balenciaga may not be the loudest, but it might be the most important.
And if fashion is, as I believe, a reflection of who we are and who we hope to become, then now is exactly the right time for Pierpaolo Piccioli to step forward.
We don't just need new clothes. We need new context. We need new courage. We need fashion that feels again.
