First visual of the Balenciaga Spring Summer 2011 campaign to leak. You might recall how averse I felt to the condescingly gimmicky casting the brand tried to shove down our throats in the show, and I wasn't expecting something more demure from the ad campaign when Gisele got confirmed to star in it, to say the least. In the end it seems like Mr. Meisel and all the behind-the-scenes so-and-sos agreed to break my parti pris apart and make me learn my lesson - none should jump to conclusions without anything concrete to base their thoughts upon.
When piled next to each other, these shots get you to scratch your head at why on earth they ended up tied together and if you, as the beholder, are not leaving something out that could possibly help you grasp the meaning of such a correlation. I happen to think it actually begins to make sense once you move past the bewilderment caused by such a sight onto a different approach to the pictures as a whole. Of course it's tough to get a true sense of what point was trying to be made when only two images out of 8? 9? 10? have been released. I personally get a feeling of resistance and timelessness from the clothes within both pictures and reckon the ad is aiming at enhancing those particular properties of theirs throughout different sceneries.
On the first shot you can see - almost feel - clean pieces of clothing aswell as their well thought-out cut and pattern interacting with an immaculate surrounding ; then you lay eye on the second one, cluttered, hard to decipher, close to grotesque, and yet the clothes still get to pierce through as neat as ever, as if Balenciaga could assert itself as an unalterable high-end brand regardless what may happen around. Of course it's more of a personal interpretation than the actual concept (sorry if you were expecting me to solve the mystery and hand the explanation to you on a plate!), but there's no denying that the quality of the craftmanship that went into the creation of the clothes is brought out as a strong sales argument here.
As for Gisele, she is made barely recognizable with a random wig on, something I couldn't wrap my head around in the first place (I mean, why hiring Gisele-legendary-Bündchen and attempt to transform her into someone else with various ornaments?) but which I could figure out after a deeper look into these first pictures and the overall feel emanating from them. It's like getting Gisele's charisma and presence in front of the lens without Gisele stealing the focus from the fashion the campaign intends to bring out prior to having any artistic value whatsoever. All in all, the cunning minds behind the Gisele-not-looking-like-herself trick definitely outwitted most of other advertising-makers, who tend to get trapped into laying far too much emphasis on the celebrities/supermodels at hand and forget the goal they should actually strive toward and carry out - doing the clothing a favour, that is.
Finally - the Balenciaga origami. You actually owe this entire analysis to it, because it is what stirred up my curiosity and caused me to read a little deeper into the first pictures released. It is such a whimsical touch to the ad, let alone a spot-on one. It seems to me that it echoes back to what partly makes Balenciaga this cutting-edge of a label - namely the intricate, sharp and futuristic cuts - and sums up what the brand is all about in the most evocative way possible.
I am well-aware that it's time for me to put an end to my garrulity, but I'll just add that this is when feeling rushes of Balenciaga-related inspiration such as this one (and it's not the first one I've experienced) that I realize that I cannot not love this brand, despite leaping at the chance to rant about it whenever I can. However elitist and pretentious the shows may be, regardless the disappointment the collections have bred for a couple seasons (minus the last one), it remains too inspirational not to keep me under its spell.
source : wwd.com via Flashbang @ tFS
