By 
Balenciaga FW 21 Collection
Once again Balenciaga stamps the card of one among the most agile companies capable of innovating and renewing themselves. Therefore, the setting chosen by the creative director Demna Gvasalia for the presentation of the Fall 2021 collection is not surprising.
The brand has completely revolutionised its presentation codes, breaking any predictable context to make room for a 3.0 communication aimed in particular at GenZ and Alfa, both grown with digital and with pastimes such as PlayStation and video games.
To show the 50 models designed for the collection, the Balenciaga team opted for an interactive path in the format of a video game entitled: “Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow”. This is not a real video game because there are no obstacles or monsters to defeat, but rather the viewer needs to follow a path and observe the surrounding and the models transfigured into digital characters that you come across into along the way.
It all begins in a Balenciaga store, where you can admire the new proposals of clothes and accessories with a modern and futuristic cut. The scenario outside the store is a mix between decadence and modernity, we are in the near future 2031, in a mysterious and nocturnal landscape where buses take off and are swallowed up by new space-time scenarios.
From the almost nostalgic context of the ghost town, you can walk along a wood to reach a party with psychedelic lights and climb a cliff. Once you reach the top, you can see a model in a medieval armour who juggles to extract a sword from a stone, which, once done, opens to a bright passage and allows the viewer to reach the finish line which is a sun on the horizon.
This setting blends perfectly with the clothes from the collection: components of medieval armours are combined with technical materials such as nylon and astronaut suits marked by NASA patches or PlayStation 5 logos, in addition to the high-visibility color palette of yellows and electric blue. A blend of streetwear and technicality that revives a certain nostalgia for the past, such as the rumpled floral dress and the same worn effects on oversized suits and tuxedos.
Allegorically speaking, the collection can be translated into the need to take care and embrace one’s past in order to project oneself into the future, as an innovative and unexpected mix.
