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Rafman x Balenciaga

Art & FashionPost-internetEssay

01Abstract

A concise summary of:

The goal of this essay is to analyze the relationship between art and fashion, and to assess whether contemporary fashion houses are able to elevate the whole concept of a campaign by collaborating with relevant artists that can dig deeper into the universe of a collection or a piece without damaging or over saturating it. In doing so, this essay will review how fashion and art have evolved together for the last centuries and will focus on two particular agents - the house of Balenciaga under Demna’s creative direction and the Canadian visual artist Jon Rafman – and the collaboration the put in place for the Spring Summer 2019 campaign of the Spanish house.

Key words:

02Introduction: A Review of the Art & Fashion Path

It could be argued that fashion is nothing without art. This section suggests that fashion didn’t appear in isolation, but deeply connected to art. At the beginning of the so-called fashion industry, this lacked the narrative depth other disciplines clearly mastered: painting, music or literature were already able to build up a complex universe of symbols and ideas that could stand alone without falling apart, even if decontextualized or analyzed from different perspectives. In contrast, early fashion required of a big effort to connect context and references with pieces themselves. It is because of this that both disciplines - art and fashion - have for long been intertwined. However, with the pass of time, fashion got so specialized and rooted that it became a form of art in itself. Therefore, this section suggests that in what refers to the relationship between art and fashion, there are sort of two differentiated phases in history: a former one, the longest in time, in which fashion served to elevate art, but was not necessarily part of it, and a latter and more recent one in which it could be argued that both disciplines have merged into one.

Fashion as a beautifier for art

On a very premature starting point, where fashion did not exist as a movement, and luxurious and delicate garments were only designed for big monarchs across European powers, fashion already played a key role in creating beauty in art. Evidence of this can be seen in Velazquez’s Las Meninas, or in any of the several portraits Goya created for the bourbon royal family. In these paintings, garments, gowns and imperial attire are worn by the people being painted and represented by the artists in their drawing. This means, if we read it that way, that fashion was used to elevate and contribute to the overall value of the artistic final piece.

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Picture 1: Diego Velázquez (Spanish, 1559-1660). Las Meninas,1656. / Museo del Prado, Madrid.
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Picture 2: Francisco de Goya (Spanish, 1746- 1828). Fernando VII con Manto Real, 1814-1815. / Museo del Prado, Madrid.

Fashion didn’t evolve much in terms of its artistic side - of course, it did in the social one, for instance - in the following centuries. It was, without doubt, the 20th century that saw the biggest merge between art and fashion until that moment and that actually pushed the boundaries of both into one interconnected force. At the beginning of this century, new artistic disciplines started to appear and give birth to new connections with fashion. In this line, performative arts were particularly good area for fashion to deploy, since they involved the creation of strong characters that conveyed hard emotions. In this context, Jean Cocteau and Coco Chanel collaborated for the ballet piece Le Train Blue in 1927. In this musical piece, the internationally acclaimed designer envisioned an intricate wardrobe for the characters, blending sportswear with the chic elegance of French culture (L. Freeman, 2019). Other prestigious artists of the time, such as Pablo Picasso, collaborated in creating the imaginarium to go with the main characters in their trip from Calais to the French Riviera.

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Picture 3: Actors wearing Chanel for “Le Train Blue” ballet. 1927. Via Mujeres de Agua.

It seems quite incredible that a fashion magnate of the time, such as Gabrielle, could share space with masters of what were considered the “only arts” back then. This is a perfect example of how fashion was starting to be included in artistic environments, since it was undeniable how important it was to bring deepness into the representation of creative concepts. In fact, according to Cocteau (referring to Chanel): “she has, by a kind of miracle, worked in fashion according to rules that would seem to have value only for painters, musicians, poets.” This is, art and fashion share a common lens, a mirror through which to look at the world and a series of values that explore new paths, pushing culture further trough radical transgression. However, at this point, it was still used to bring some sort of beauty to an actual artistic work, in this case, a ballet piece.

Fashion as art in itself

With the arrival of avant-garde artistic movements, fashion saw the perfect opportunity to assist artists in creating imaginaries never thought of before. At this point, collaborations, opposed to just mere interaction as seen in the ones mentioned above, were born from the need of creatives to push boundaries even further. In this context, a major collaboration worth mentioning due to its symbolic value is that of Salvador Dalí with Elsa Schiaparelli in the creation of the Tears Dress.

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Picture 4: Elsa Schiaparelli (Italian 1890- 1973) and Salvador Dalí (Spanish 1904-1989). “The Tears Dress”. 1938 / Fashion History Timeline

One might contend that Elsa Schiaparelli was the first fashion designer to actually be considered an artist. It is not because of the quality of her designs, or the beauty of the garments she created – but because of the deep conceptual roots over which she built her imaginary. Friends with Dalí, they decided to collaborate on several pieces, however, the Tears Dress holds a very special value. While surrealism was deeply explored in painting and cinema at the time, Schiaparelli was the first to demonstrate that this vanguard could also be explored through fashion. And she did. As Sabina Stent reflects in one of her essays: “…Schiaparelli combines classical and avant-garde styles to produce fashionable pieces that are functional and feminine but that also play with and modify the key Surrealist trope of the fetishized female anatomy. The result is a set of singular variations on the age-old relationship between art and eroticism, and in which gender essentialism is both a theme to be explored and a driver of the construction and deconstruction of costume.” Fashion is not just meant to elevate art anymore – it is an integral part of it henceforth.

Given it is not the goal of this essay to study the timeline on how art and fashion have continued to evolve, the objective of this section was to just analyze the moment in which the relationship of art and fashion changed from a more inspirational one to a pure symbiosis. However, this relationship has fluctuated over time. If collaborations were customary in the first half of the 20th century, they led to tributes during the second half. It is important to note the difference between collaboration and tribute: while the former requires both artists to work together, therefore, to be contemporary to each other, the latter just represents a strong influence of one artist over another in creating a specific piece, while the artist that serves as inspiration can be no longer alive at the time in which the piece is created.

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Picture: Yves Saint Laurent (Algerian, 1936-2008). Cocktail Dress Worn by Muriel, Homage to Piet Mondrain. 1965 Haute Couture Collection. Photograph by Louis Dalmas. / Museé Yves Saint Laurent Paris.

IMAGENES TRIBUTO VS COLABORACIONES

It is remarkable how far this relationship has gone nowadays. Fashion designers have gained the skills and have been able to translate their values through varied and unique techniques. A good example of this is Dutch designer Iris van Herpen, which has deeply contributed to the progression and elevation of creativeness and fashion as art in itself. As Cloé Pitiot, an art curator at the Museé des Arts Decoratifs stated, “Iris has this confidence to go where nobody is going at the moment. … she’s crossing all disciplines, subjects, and cultures”. It is hard to know what art would be nowadays without the interdisciplinarity and avant-garde vision of fashion designers.

03Art Movement Chosen and Main Figures

It is hard to encapsulate Jon Rafman into just a specific artistic current - what it's clear is that his art and works have all to do with digital. This section aims to reflect on why Rafman’s trajectory could be better associated with the so-called post-internet art.

Post-internet art: the irony of human existence

Post-internet art is an artistic and creative movement which studies the impact of the internet on culture and how both are increasingly intertwined (I. Wallace, 2014). It analyzes the digital culture and creates universes that combine the organic, natural side of human life and its technological, computerized one. The term was coined by the artist and curator Maria Olson in the mid-2000s, in an attempt to explain the DNA of her work (Artsy, n.d). Opposed to its predecessor, internet art (or Net Art), post-internet art does not use digital as a means to create, but rather as a field in itself in which is deeply rooted into our daily lives and our perception of reality. Eva Folks claimed for AQNB that post-internet art is “understood to mean not a culture past, beyond, or after the internet … instead references one so deeply embedded in and propelled by the internet that the notion of a world or culture without or outside it becomes increasingly unimaginable, impossible”. Therefore, it could be said that post-internet art paves the way for a new reality of creativity in which we are one with the digital interface, in which culture and technology cannot be taken into account in isolation but only in a whole self. In fact, the whole movement is built upon the hyper reliance human society has on the technological world, and how we are becoming one with it, always holding a certain sense of irony, since one might assert that the more we evolve into the digital, the more we lose our very human essence.

This artistic current is characterized by a deep sense of irony, dystopia and eerie imaginary. It could be argued that we are so deep into technology and digital media that we have forgotten how beautiful the world we live in is. Artists identified within post-internet art create desolate and nightmarish visuals to demonstrate, somehow, that humans are so deprived of its essence that they can still consume and enjoy these visions. Nonetheless, it is undeniable that post-internet artists have been able to build up a solid and creative fictious reality which is deeply connected to the contemporary society.

Post-internet main representatives

Many artists have gained great prestige within this relatively new artistic current in recent years. Apart from Jon Rafman, which undoubtedly is one of its main representatives, many others stand out for their sharp eye in articulating a coherent narrative between the human and the digital. Petra Cortright, among them, is an American visual artist specialized in the creation of videos and digital content that deeply inspire a sense of iridescence native to the technological world. Herself is part of the internet and the internet is cored in her – it could be argued she is a little fairy trapped in the interface, constantly decoding the digital language for the rest of us. She gained fame by her Vvebcam project, launched in 2007, which showcases the artist in front of a webcam, just doing random things, nothing to special – but bringing that sense of voyeurism and stolen intimacy that exists with a screen and a viewer (MoMa, n.d). Some argue her work vvebcam is closer to performative arts than anything. However, as she told Vice Magazine in 2013: “It’s not exactly a performance, it’s maybe half-performance. Of course, I’m aware that other people are going to see it, but then there is a side that is very sincere and whatever is going on at the time comes through as well. I don’t really think about the audience because it doesn’t matter to me so much. I really don’t like watching people watch the result. That sets the element of voyeurism almost and I really don’t think that that’s there.”. The idea that Courtright is trying to bring to life with this quote is quite powerful, since she is reflecting over the connection and hyper visibility that the Internet and digital world bring and how we all are trying to seek privacy in the constant exposure at which we subject ourselves. These core concepts are explored in the rest of her works, among which Bridal Shower (2013) or Die Rose (2015) stand out from the rest.

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Ilustración 1: Petra Cortright (American, 1986-present). Snap from her project VVEBCAM, 2007/ Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Another major representative of the post-internet movement is the American visual and digital artist Cory Arcangel, best known for playing around with the available digital tools, mainly existing video games and the main software used by creatives, like Photoshop. He is transgressive and sacrifices sophistication for coherence and present relevance. In fact, he is very much concerned about the contemporary life and the issues that technology roots in our society – topic overed, as already mentioned, in the whole post- internet movement. Since times constantly evolve – some would argue exponentially due to the rapid improves in technology – the artist should be ready to interpret this evolution and be able to create something that holds value in the present moment. Indeed, as he told Andrea K. Scott in an interview of the New Yorker in 2011, “isn’t it the whole job of art to let new things at the door”. With this, it could be argued that Arcangel wanted to emphasize the role of artists to decode the present moment and plot it into something – not always – beautiful, but that people that see it can relate to.

IMAGENES CORY ARCANGEL

Also, even if it’s really recent exhibition, another artist that could be mentioned in the post- internet universe is the so-called photographer and this artist Nadia Lee Cohen. Only two days ago she opened an installation in our gallery based in Los Angeles in which she created an avatar of herself and invited the audience to come and hang out with her instead of her being there, which is what any other performance artist would’ve done back in the day she decided to use the Internet not only as a means to create but also as a means to present the piece. This is what post Internet is all about demonstrating that our reality is so embedded with technology in digital it is not relevant anymore to have a skin and bone person in front of you but avatar will do the same function.

IMAGENES NADIA LEE COHEN

Even though it is not the goal of this essay, other really big artists have contributed to this creative movement by interpreting their own values in the evolving nature of humans and technology, the bigger the digital world becomes. Among these, Amalia Ulman, Olia Lialina or stand out of their bold vision and their philosophical approach to digital symbols. The relevance of this movement, at least for fashion, is that both of try – and achieve - to land logical campaigns and projects which clearly reflect the problems, ambitions and fears of the modern society. Our world has been facing ongoing challenges, like social and climate crises, for many decades, and it is defensible to claim that art, including fashion, has a certain degree of responsibility in, if not tackling these problems, being at least the footprint of what is unfolding in social and cultural terms in these frenzied times. Fashion and post-internet art are clear masters of that.

04Jon Rafman: Beauty in Decay

Background

John Rafman is a post-internet visual artist born in Montreal, Canada, in 1981, who has delved deep into the intersection between contemporary life and the role and importance technology has in shaping our visual perception of things (K. Hame, 2013). With a bachelor's in Philosophy and Literature, Rafman has experimented and gotten to master several artistic disciplines, including photography, installations and performance and video art.

Although his body of work is extensive and varied, there is a central topic that can be seen in pretty much each of his individual works: it is that of digital nostalgia. Our society is dominated by a globalized network of individuals that most often deal with feelings of melancholia, and, in his opinion, interactions between these individuals thrive in digital environments, building up the DNA of the modern society (C. Kostyál, n.d.). His abilities allow Rafman to read in between the lines of humanity, and to structure feelings and thoughts into appealing creative works. This way, he becomes relatable to most of us in any of his projects, and that is the beauty of his oeuvre. He digs into the individual consciousness to stir up emotions that, at the same time, connect every spectator into a big common sensibility. “I think the self and the universal unconscious are tied together. The deeper you tap into your intuition, the more you can communicate on a universal level”, said Rafman for Interview Magazine in 2022.

Nine Eyes of Google Street View is considered to be Rafman’s most notable work, although some argue that it is not necessarily the best in terms of creativity and execution. However, this project resonates well with both the post-internet and the artist’s own values. In this long-term artistic output, the Canadian visual artist aims at showing the reality of a cyber society through a well-known online resource, Google Street View. His goal was to showcase how dystopian and different realities can be across the world. Even if Street View is available to all of us on a daily basis, the fact that Rafman screenshots and archives specific frames and pictures grants this work a certain sense of voyeurism – shared among other post-internet artists like Cortright. If we allow ourselves to try and link Rafman’s Nine Eyes of Google Street View to other artists’ works outside post-internet, it could be argued it holds some resemblance to George Orwell’s 1984. The omnipresent eye, native to a dystopian but actual society, bestows the Canadian a similar approach to our society than the German writer’s story, in which repression and misinformation lead society to the edge of extreme nostalgia and melancholia.

Is Rafman playing, through this unique project, to be the God of the so-called post-internet society? The question remains open.

Another splendid approach of Rafman to the dystopian digital present is found in his film-like project, Dream Journal 2016-2019. As we immerse ourselves deeper into this computerized reality, our brains subconsciousnesses is greatly affected by it. Therefore, our dreams are altered, and we dream of liminal yet delusional visions that have very much to do with the harshness of the tech-enabled lives we inhabit. In fact, Rafman argues that no mind is safe from being perverted by the internet. As he said in conversation with Dasha Nekrasova for Interview Magazine in 2023, “… the internet has made so many people go off the deep end. Or it’s also made so many become these disillusioned doomers, irony-poisoned and stuck with a nihilistic outlook. It’s important to acknowledge the realities of the horror show we call life but also strive to move beyond that and not let the world beat you down or force you into submission”. Therefore, even though he is aware of how his psyche is being altered by the virtual universe, he embraces these alterations and is willing to draw his dreams following the liminal and delusional aesthetic. As mentioned before, Rafman has a great ability to create pieces that are relatable to all of us in such a natural way that it becomes appealing to all of us. That is the great success of his Dream Journal 2016-2019. It is a blur between reality, dream, tangible and virtual, that elevates his work to another level of perfection.

Cloudy Heart is one of the last projects initiated by Rafman, in which he created an AI-driven technology in the shape of a pop / DJ star, which represents one of the first music creators with this type of technology in history (T. Diehl, 2025)

Since one of the goals of this essay is to demonstrate, through a transversal analysis, that fashion and art do have a strong interconnection, it is worth mentioning the fact that Jon Rafman, coming from the world of literature, visual arts and photography – “hard” artistic disciplines - has been able to land big campaigns within the fashion world such as the Balenciaga one, discussed in the following pages, and another very remarkable one, The White Heritage, collection designed by Shayne Oliver in collaboration with Rafman’s all-digital technique.

05Brand’s Legacy and Other Collaborations

Cover:

The house of Balenciaga was founded by Cristobal Balenciaga - Spanish master of design - in 1917, in San Sebastian (Kering, n.d). Due to the unmatched skills of the designer, the house soon escalated into a worldwide renowned couture brand that was known for its unparalleled craftmanship and tailoring, unlike anything seen before in the industry of fashion. For Balenciaga, the upmost importance in the design process lay in the fabric. Arguably, this could be seen as a metaphysical skill the designer had, seeing beauty in just a piece of textile and imagining beautiful universes and garments from them. As he stated, “it is the fabric that decides”.

In 1937, C. Balenciaga opened its first store in Paris – more concretely, in the well-known Avenue George V – constituting a milestone for the house’s development.

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Picture 3: Main door of Balenciaga’s first store in Paris. Via GlamObserver

Cristobal Balenciaga continued to gather major success from both the critics and the public. For a long time, he was seen as the most outstanding cotourier in the world. Other major designers, which after climbing to the summit of fashion excellence, admired Balenciaga for his ability to create beautiful and seamless pieces with an unprecedent technique. In words of Christian Dior, “he is the master of us all”

After the death of his founder in 1972, the house of Balenciaga has been shaped by the many designers that have dared to take on the legacy of the late Spanish designer. Many argue that the brand has suffered one of the biggest transformations in fashion couture houses, since its very beginning until its last creative direction.

Apart from the already discussed Cristobal Balenciaga, the other two most talented and revolutionary creative directors of the house have been Nicolas Ghesquière and Demna Gvasalia.

Ghesquière, on the one hand, revolutionized the house of Balenciaga by catapulting the brand into the direction it would later follow with its last creative director. In this line, it could be argued that Ghesquière’s Balenciaga served as a bridge between time: it was trying to connect the legacy of the great Cristobal Balenciaga but by retrieving its DNA by looking at the future. Moreover, the French creative director was really successful because he was able to navigate the deepness of his creativity without losing the focus on the commercial component – fashion brands need to sell and not just create beautiful garments. In words of Kate Betts, from the Time Magazine, “His is that rarest combination of talents: untethered creativity plus commercial savvy”. That dual nature of the designer made him one of the greatest of contemporary fashion history and repositioned Balenciaga back where it belongs.

After Ghesquierè’s

One could say this image represents a perfect example of what Balenciaga meant at the beginning and what it evolves to be as a brand. Even though both images correspond to their own unique social and historical moments, the essence of the brand remains. A woman walking down an urban center wearing a black upper body part with high heels. Moreover both of them show a clearly care for the architectural silhouette in which, if we take into account the difference in time, both resembled to the same type of archetype. Innovation, they both seem to be outside of the trends. On the one hand, the image on the left is quite avant-garde for the period it was created, while on the other hand, the one on the right shows a clear omission of the vast trends that dominate the moment.

Given the goal of this essay is to discuss the interconnection of art and fashions, one could easily fall to ask itself which of the major three Balenciaga designers -or at least, the three discussed in the above paragraphs – is closer to an artistic discipline. While Ghesquiere continues it with the Balenciaga legacy of exceptional tailoring and elegant silhouettes, Demna takes

That is Balenciaga – a DNA so strong that is art in itself. Through changing times and evolving trends, the core values of the brand have been upheld by its creative directors to bring coherence to one of the most culturally relevant fashion houses in the world.

The House of Balenciaga has collaborated and been inspired by different artists since its foundation by Cristobal Balenciaga in the first half of the 20th century. However, it is important to mention that among all the different creative directors the maison has had until today, Demna’s direction stands out for actively collaborating with relevant contemporary artists that bring meaningful nuances to his campaigns and collections. Before Demna, it could be argued that Nicolas Ghesquiere always tried to innovate in terms of the photography style used to shoot the campaigns, partnering with different photographers that put their vision into the designed collection. In this regard, the French designer collaborated with the British photographer David Sims on several occasions, evoking robot-like aesthetics that worked very well with the whole imaginary of the brand.

However, the Georgian has proven to be a master when tracking down the right artists to give all of this projects a 360º artistic coherence. In connection to the collaboration with Rafman that will be detailed in the following section for Balenciaga’s SS19 collection, Demna collaborated with the Turkish digital artist Yilmaz Sen in a series of different campaign shots to give the collection and project a more widespread commercial impulse. These shots had a “weird” reception by the public, since it was argued the whole idea for the pictures had sort of a creepy component to it (A. Newbold, 2018). However, this was actually the point, as Yilmaz Sen told Vogue, “I wanted to create something unpleasant for the viewer”. Even so, the campaign was a success, and one could argue this is already the secret formula for Balenciaga to gain attention: create eerie visuals, clothes and design language that get people to talk, to discuss, and generate this way an ongoing conversation around the brand universe – which, not surprisingly, always ends up translating into good business.

FOTO CON EL TURCO ESTE

Balenciaga has also attempted to consolidate its universe through different actions that strictly fall outside fashion, but which, nonetheless, are important to construct a robust brand image that increases the overall coherence of the clothes. In this regard, the Spanish house created its own music site, Balenciaga Music, in which it collaborates with different artists to curate music playlists that represents the values and soul of the brand. Very smart move. Demna’s constant struggle to connect with the audience, for being a maison that serves its times, launching a music spinoff that allows people to further immerse themselves in the DNA of the brand is a genius move. In this Balenciaga Music context, in September 2024, Gvasalia exclusively collaborated with Italian musician Mina, launching a series of limited clothing, including oversized T-shirts and black tainted eyewear, along a curated playlist to praise the long-lasting admiration the designer has for the Italian singer, and to promote her latest album that was dropped in November last year (Balenciaga, 2024). Albeit being a music and fashion collaboration, Demna was able to convey it in a very Balenciaga way, by giving it a tech-twist that made the audience go crazy for it and wanting to get hold of a piece of this limited-edition series. In conversation with Massimiliano Pani, Mina’s son, for Vogue, Demna said: “The T-shirt label … will be equipped with an NFC … chip which, activated by a compatible device, unlocks L’amore vero. This innovative technology, allowing you to exclusively offer listening to one or more songs, paves the way for new, promising forms of interaction between fashion and music…”. This collaboration demonstrates the ever-evolving nature of the brand, which strives in bridging different artistis disciplines like no other fashion house at the moment, remaining culturally and socially relevant in a moment of over saturation in both the creative and technological industries.

FOTO DE LA COLLAB CON MINA

The T-shirt label, as you know, will be equipped with an NFC (Near Field Communications) chip which, activated by a compatible device, unlocks L’amore vero. This innovative technology, allowing you to exclusively offer listening to one or more songs, paves the way for new, promising forms of interaction between fashion and music, which we have experimented with in the past with BFRND, Archive and Jay-Jay Johanson.

06A Look into the Collaboration

Ready, set, future. It is fall 2018 at the Cité du Cinema in Paris. Attendees to the Balenciaga Spring 2019 show are sitting in their chairs, immersed in a matrix-like tunnel full of mysteries, like if they were taken out of context. The tunnel, showing graphics and images created by Rafman, starts with an error message, emulating the well-known windows style, as if there was sort of a problem with the LED installation itself. This made the audience confused. However, it all made sense when the collection started doing its way down the runway, which exemplifies the perfect symbiosis between Rafman and Demna, which were able to create a whole one, each of them contributing with their art to build up a beautiful collaboration. In the words of Lauren Eggertsen, for Who What Wear, referring to the installation by John Rafman: “It wasn't until the show begun that the audience really understood just how huge of a role this sensory overload of a backdrop would play in relation to the collection—a collection that was modern, elegant, yet still so Balenciaga”.

When the first model starts walking the runway, the error signal dissolves into an abstract combination of light and shades in a blue tone, which quickly becomes as red as fire. This transition from error to movement could be holding a secret message: does the cyber world only exist because there is someone – us, the humans – that inhabit it? Does it only come to life as long as there is something organic that participates of it? This sends a powerful statement, since it brings hope to the evolution of technology and makes it less scary than we might think it is. The digital world and technology are nothing without us.

The clothes presented in the collection, even though not planned to match the installation, do provide a sense of communion with it. At the beginning, lighter colors and more elegant pieces, with exaggerated shoulders – some of them 3D printed as Demna had been exploring in previous collection – elevate the show to another level of chicness, breaking with the dystopian environment in which they are presented. The show holds another secret message, or at least it is hard to rebate its existence: some of the high heels worn by some of the models resemble an electronic ankle monitor, the same that is worn by people on probation after they are released from prison. Perhaps, this is a symbol of how tied we are to technology, serving as slaves to it when, in reality, it is it that needs us, as discussed in the previous paragraph. Even if the clothes and the installation were designed sort of independently by the Canadian and Georgian, maybe Demna included this concept in the shoes knowing the recurrent topics covered by Rafman in his extensive oeuvre.

The collaboration between John Rafman and Demna is a marriage of two creative minds which, in their respective disciplines, explore very similar ideas. The visual artist is very much interested in the relation of technology in the digital world with the human, while the designer explores what is the role of fashion in the modern world. Therefore, the Balenciaga Spring 2019 show was sort of a live experiment on how intertwined all of these different ideas are in the present day.

PRESENCE IS THE KEY. NOW IS THE ANSWER. EGO IS NOT WHO YOU ARE.

The collaboration was launched with a video of around 2 minutes in which the aesthetic follows the success of Y2K like in films like Matrix. Annette a woman dressed in black escapes from a bunch of people that are going after her and trying to kill her. The universe in which these characters our living is very much apocalyptic digital and minimalistic we could say it's liminal in terms of t (R. Montero, 2019)

he video ends when a woman grabs A Balenciaga bag and opens it from it a column of Gray dust emanates towards the ceiling. In the video the clear Balenciaga aesthetic brought by denma, it is introduced into this digital interface in which chaos and violence create a strong metaphor on how individuals interact with Internet and modern technologies.

One very interesting fact about this collaboration lies in the difference between the short video with which both artists presented the collaboration, the one discussed above, and the actual show that took place in September 2018. While the short video looks back at the at a more 1990s aesthetic, the collaboration itself itself the show itself what's futuristic the least. An immersive experience in which the limits of space were blurred with digital images and videos of an undefined entity which aimed at representing there is strong correlation between the 21st century human being and the technology which it serves.

“it was a marriage of kindred spirits”

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Ilustración 2: Second Look from the SS 2019 Balenciaga show. (2018). Via Vogue Runway.

TALK ABOUT THEMUSIC –MEASURETHETEMPO .. FIND RELATIONSBETWEEN THE TEMPO AND THECOLLABORATION MAIN IDEAS

07Impact on the Market

Analyze:

It is hard to find a single campaign or brand action Balenciaga has taken in the recent times, specially under Demna’s reign, that hasn’t had a superlative reception by the general public. Jon Rafman x Balenciaga collaboration took place in September 2018, a moment in which traditional runway has dominant and in which digital was still not as widespread in the fashion world as it is nowadays. And it is easy to understand why – it happened right before the pandemic arrived and forced all of us, including major fashion houses, to take the game a step further and design new environments in which technologies had a major presence, creating new environments that were unprecedented back at the time. Some may argue that the cyber structure Rafman created to showcase the SS19 collection by Balenciaga wouldn’t be as captivating as it was back in 2018, but indeed, it was both for the live audience present at the show and the general public that welcomed the collaboration shorty after. Indeed, as Sarah Mower explained it its Vogue Runway show report, the collaboration presented at the show “… had the audience so stunned that people were transfixed in their seats for a good few seconds after it ended, trying to process what they’d just seen”. This comment gives us a first glimpse of what the collaboration achieved. Ahead of its time, when digital setups were not commonplace, the partnership made the audience feel absorbed in a weird, computer-like dimension that left them nothing but surprised. And, as we know from experience, fashion needs of this surprise component to make the public remember the effort put by the creative team in an environment filled with zillions of brands trying to achieve the same. In terms of first impressions, it could be argued the collaboration was a major success.

According to Kering’s press report published in February 2019, months after the collaboration showcased to the public, the economic performance of the luxury conglomerate was outstanding “in the fourth quarter of 2018, [where] revenue from the Other Houses climbed 26.0% as reported and 25.5% on a comparable basis, spurred by the continuing exceptional momentum of Balenciaga”. Not only this, but even if it could be argued the last quarter of 2018 was not enough to assess the positive impact of the economic performance of Balenciaga, this success was sustained during all 2019, the year after the debut of the collaboration, as Kering disclosed in that year’s press release: “revenue generated by Kering’s Other Houses totaled €2,537.5 million in 2019, up 20.3% as reported and 17.8% on a comparable basis. This excellent performance was led by Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, which both recorded sustained sales growth throughout the year”, states Kering in the 2019’s press release.

It cannot be debated that, economically, the collaboration had an immensely good impact on the brand, which, in turn, positively affected the conglomerate to which Balenciaga belongs. As we know, when campaigns are not well received by the critics and the general public, this does have a bad effect on the sales. We cannot lose track that, even if belonging to the creative world, they are companies that need to meet minimum revenue to be feasible economically, and also to meet the expectations of investors. Not only in terms of its visual acceptance the collaboration between Demna and Rafman was a success, as it was discussed in the paragraph above, but evidence suggest it also outperformed in financial terms.

“It had the audience so stunned that people were transfixed in their seats for a good few seconds after it ended, trying to process what they’d just seen.

08Conclusion

There is enough evidence to support the fact that art and fashion can really work out together. Through history, fashion has evolved as a mere beauty component that could elevate art and give artistic works another level of exquisiteness to art in itself, therefore, giving place to more logical collaborations between artists from varied disciplines. From royal court paintings

0911. Bibliography (not included in word count)